Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

One great thing about my grandmother is that every time we go to visit her, she tells me to help myself to anything... and when I laid eyes upon her collection of movies, I about drooled like a kid on Christmas Eve. One such movie I absolutely knew I had to take (or at least borrow) was Rebecca.

Filmed just off the coast of California, Rebecca is Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation of Daphne de Maurier's novel of the same name.

About a year prior to the story's beginning, Mr. 'Maxim' de Winter lost his wife Rebecca. Although we never see or hear Rebecca herself, she lends the story its potency through her constant presence in the memory of others.

Even more intriguing is that Mr. de Winter's new love, played by Joan Fontaine, is never given a first name. He meets her, and urges her to marry him so she won't have to go to NY with an overbearing Mrs. Van Hopper, hilariously played by Florence Bates. ("Wretched stuff! Give me a chocolate! Quick!") Little does this nameless girl know she'll be out of the frying pan and into the fire when she moves in with Mr. de Winter at his family's estate, Manderly. Interestingly, no actual location could be found that matched the greatness of what they perceived Manderly to be, so a miniature was used. I never would've guessed it!

So anyway. Fontaine becomes the ordinary girl who struggles to fit in amidst the "rich crowd", but she'll never be a fitting substitute for Rebecca, especially in the eyes of the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers. If I didn't know better, I'd say Mrs. Danvers were possessed with the bitter ghost of Rebecca herself, but that's all speculation.

The acting is so great, you almost don't care who's playing because all you can see is the characters, as if they were destined to live and breathe these parts. Laurence Olivier is distant and slightly unnerving as Mr. de Winter, while Joan Fontaine will no doubt elicit your sympathy. Even with the smallest mistake like breaking a desktop statue, you feel her fear as she shoves the broken pieces into the back of a desk drawer.

Judith Anderson practically steals the show, as the housekeeper who always seems to be wearing black. She hovers over Joan Fontaine like a drill instructor, never missing an opportunity to tear her down.

The film has a great atmosphere, and there always seems to be music playing in the background. Franz Waxman pulls out a superb score that, while intrusive at times, never fails to supplement the emotional resonance of the present scene.

The last half-hour gets pretty intense, with many a jaw-dropping moment. Just when you think you have it all figured out, a new confession or piece of information comes dropping out of the sky. It takes a little bit long to get to the point where we finally learn about what actually happened to Rebecca and why Mr. de Winter lives with so much remorse. Granted, there is a huge payoff, but I think it would have been just as effective with ten minutes less of a first half.

Still, for a movie that is now 64 years old, Rebecca still sports a lot of modern elements, long shots, and a script that's wittier than at least 95% of what we've seen in the last three years.

Rebecca won the Best Picture Oscar in 1940, and is the first film Hitchcock made in Hollywood. Hitch's trademark cameo can be seen near the end of the movie when we walks past a phone booth.

Unfortunately, I can't tell you much about the DVD, but here's someone who can.

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This review is brought to you by Tom's Lean N Mean III write-off.
Let's dance.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day