REBECCA (FILM)

'''Rebecca''' is an Academy Award–winning 1940 psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock as his first American project. It is an adaptation by Joan Harrison and Robert E. Sherwood of British author Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel of the same name, and was produced by David O. Selznick.^[1] It stars Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter, Joan Fontaine as his second wife, and Judith Anderson as his late wife's servant, Mrs. Danvers.
The film is a gothic tale about the lingering memory of the title character, which still controls her husband, his new bride, and the housekeeper of their estate, Manderley, long after her death.

Contents

Plot

Adaptation

Themes

Cast

Awards

Footnotes

External links

Plot

The film tells of the second Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine), a young woman who works as a companion to the aristocratic Edythe Van Hopper (Florence Bates).
The companion (her name is never given) meets the wealthy widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) in Monte Carlo. They fall in love and within weeks, decide to get married.

Maxim takes his new bride to Manderley, his country house in Cornwall, England. However, the many servants are reluctant to accept the new Mrs. de Winter as the new lady of the house. They are loyal to Maxim's first wife, Rebecca, who died under mysterious circumstances.
Particularly unpleasant to her is the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson). She is still obsessed with Rebecca and attests to her beauty and virtues. She preserves her former bedroom as a shrine. It is implied that she was Rebecca's maid before Rebecca married. Rebecca's cousin seems to know her quite well, calling her by the name "Danny", which was Rebecca's pet name for her.
The new Mrs. de Winter is intimidated by Mrs. Danver's behaviour and by the responsibilities of being the new chatelaine of Manderley. As a result, she begins to doubt her relationship with her husband. The continuous presence of Rebecca in the house starts to haunt her.
Eventually, an investigation leads to the revelation about Rebecca's nature and her demise.

Adaptation

At Selznick's insistence, the plot of the novel ''Rebecca'' was largely unchanged in the film. However, one plot detail in the novel was altered to comply with the Hollywood Production Code, which said that the murder of a spouse had to be punished. In the novel, Maxim shoots Rebecca, while in the film, he only thinks of killing her after she taunts him, saying she is pregnant with someone else's child. She then suddenly falls back, hits her head on a piece of boat equipment, and dies from her head injuries. This is therefore much more innocent seeming than in the book version, as in the book, Maxim has purposely killed Rebecca, while in the film it is seen to be more of an accident.

Themes

Hitchcock was able to circumvent the Production Code concerning the lesbianism of Mrs. Danvers, who is still obsessed with Rebecca, even after her death. It was one of the earliest, but far from the only, example of Hitchcock slipping veiled references to homosexuality into his films: ''Rope'', ''North by Northwest'' and ''Strangers on a Train'' are some notable examples of Hitchcock films that imply homosexual subtext without overtly dealing with the issue. The documentary ''The Celluloid Closet'' (1996) discusses Hitchcock's use of veiled homosexuality in ''Rebecca'', ''Rope'', ''Strangers on a Train'', and ''North by Northwest''.

Cast

★ Laurence Olivier as 'Maxim' de Winter

★ Joan Fontaine as The Second Mrs. de Winter

★ George Sanders as Jack Favell

★ Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers

★ Nigel Bruce as Major Giles Lacy

★ Reginald Denny as Frank Crawley

★ C. Aubrey Smith as Colonel Julyan

★ Gladys Cooper as Beatrice Lacy

★ Florence Bates as Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper

★ Melville Cooper as Coroner

★ Leo G. Carroll as Dr. Baker

★ Leonard Carey as Ben

★ Lumsden Hare as Tabbs

★ Edward Fielding as Frith

★ Forrester Harvey as Chalcroft

★ Mary Williams - The Head Maid

★ Keira Tate - The Parlour Maid

★ Rose Trace- The Parlour Maid

★ Sandra Phillip- The Parlour Maid

★ Kelly Sanderton - The Parlour Maid

★ Herietta Bodvon - The Housemaid

Awards

'Academy Awards wins' (1941)

★ Best Picture - Selznick International Pictures - David O. Selznick.

★ Best Cinematography, Black and White - George Barnes.
'Academy Award nominations' (1941)

★ Best Actor in a Leading Role - Laurence Olivier.

★ Best Actress in a Leading Role - Joan Fontaine.

★ Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Judith Anderson.

★ Best Director - Alfred Hitchcock.

★ Art Direction, Black and White - Lyle R. Wheeler.

★ Special Effects - Jack Cosgrove, Arthur Johns.

★ Best Film Editing - Hal C. Kern.

★ Best Music, Original Score - Franz Waxman.

★ Best Writing, Screenplay - Robert E. Sherwood, Joan Harrison.

Footnotes

1. .

External links

★ .

★ Criterion Collection essay by Robin Wood.

★ Complete list of actors who were considered for roles