“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

Rebecca is one of those films like Casablanca that gets better with additional viewings. I recall feeling frustrated the first time I saw it. I found it difficult even to appreciate Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful direction until the twist came halfway through. Yes, I’ll get into spoilers later, and for those who haven’t seen this 80-year-old masterpiece, I’ll alert you when they’re coming.

Rebecca isn’t a person in the film. She is already deceased, although her presence is everywhere. No, that’s not a spoiler. The film is named after someone who is dead before the story begins. She may have title billing, but the leading lady is actually Joan Fontaine, and, by contrast, her character’s first name is never mentioned or revealed. Based on the classic novel, this Gothic tale is told from her point of view in first-person, therefore she is simply referred to as “I.” Her lack of identity in both the book and movie is intentional. She is a non-entity when we first see her in the opening scenes. A mousy young woman lurking in the shadows of her wealthy employer Mrs. Van Hopper (the marvelously imperious Florence Bates), who has hired her to be a traveling companion in Monte Carlo. Their relationship is akin to Cinderella and her wicked stepmother. When the dashing Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) is invited to join them for coffee in the hotel lobby, he is instantly smitten with the shy waif, and vice-versa. A whirlwind romance ensues on the sly while Mrs. Van Hopper is bedridden with a cold.

Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine.

We learn from the start that Maxim is a rich widower, and his first wife’s name was Rebecca. She was beautiful and sophisticated, and everyone adored her. What we come to find out about Maxim soon enough is that he is controlling, forward, abrupt, and prone to irrational outbursts of anger for reasons unknown, yet he is clearly enamored. The object of his affection is equally smitten, but “demure” doesn’t begin to summarize her. She is one step away from nonexistent. They both seem drawn to their polar opposites and a desire to escape from themselves. Before long, he proposes even though we know as little about them as they know of each other. She is an orphan who was living with her father until he died just a year ago. Maxim lives alone, minus a fleet of servants, on his family’s immense estate in Cornwall, called Manderley.

The frustration I felt when I first saw this movie stems from the main character’s willingness to go along with everything and everyone despite the warning signs and mistreatment. Upon meeting Manderley’s sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson in an iconic performance), it is clear this second Mrs. de Winter is in over her head. With subsequent viewings my frustration waned. These early scenes in question have taken on a nightmarish quality I now find brilliant, as if I were witnessing a sleepwalker as she advances right into a dark web of unhappiness and despair. The gnawing feeling of “why don’t you do something or say something?” ends up no more than a silent scream of the subconscious while longing for her to wake up.

Joan Fontaine has a difficult role and handles it beautifully. When this film went into production, she was a mid-level actress at RKO and the younger sister of film star Olivia de Havilland. Fontaine won this coveted part after Hitchcock considered several “bigger names,” including Vivien Leigh, Margaret Sullavan, Loretta Young, and Anne Baxter. Their screen tests are included in the Criterion release on both DVD and Blu-ray, and I must congratulate Hitch and producer David O. Selznick on getting it right. If our nondescript protagonist is too strong or too clever or too confident, she isn’t believable in this story. She also has to be likable enough that we will forgive her naive actions and awkward speech. We have to root for her to find her way.

Fortunately, the heroine does wake up after a big plot twist. Now come the spoilers:

Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson.

We are led to believe by everyone involved, especially Mrs. Danvers, that Rebecca was the perfect, ideal woman. The scene where Danvers takes the second Mrs. de Winter through Rebecca’s impeccably preserved bedroom and describes every last detail about who Rebecca was and how she lived is particularly creepy and riveting. There’s been much speculation about the motivation of Mrs. Danvers. Was she in love with her former employer? She certainly was obsessed with her. I do believe Danvers is in love with the power Rebecca had over others. The way she dominated a room and controlled Maxim and everyone around her. Danvers despises weakness and submission but worships influence and authority. Our new bride is overwhelmed by it, utterly eclipsed, and the evil housekeeper nearly convinces her to take her own life, because she could never hope to measure up. That’s when a distress signal is heard in the distance. A ship has gone down. We discover from the search party that another, smaller boat was found at the bottom of the sea. It was Rebecca’s, and her body is still in it. When Maxim reunites with his new wife at the boathouse, we learn the truth—that he despised Rebecca. She was a monstrous woman. After they were married, she told him their marriage was a sham. She would play the part of the faithful wife and hostess, but she had no intention of keeping her vows. The night Rebecca died, she told Maxim in the same boathouse that she was pregnant with another man’s child. She challenged him to kill her for the indiscretion. An argument led to a fall, and Rebecca hit her head against a metal anchor. The wound was fatal. Maxim panicked. He dragged her lifeless body into the boat and punctured its hull, so it would sink.

Certain that Rebecca has won even in death, Maxim tells his new wife that he’ll be charged with murder now. It’s the moment we see a shift in Fontaine’s performance. During the next few scenes, she sheds her naiveté and finds inner strength and purpose. She will fight to prove her husband’s innocence.

The other major player in this Gothic yarn is George Sanders as Jack Favell, Rebecca’s former lover and father to her unborn child. Sanders is deliciously slimy as he attempts to blackmail Maxim and shift the outcome to his own favor. He would go on to win an Oscar in another Best Picture ten years later, All About Eve.

Rebecca has grown on me over the years into a riveting mood-piece that crawls under my skin—a tale of obsession and helplessness and mistaken intentions and a struggle for identity. This was Hitchcock’s first Hollywood film after a successful career in England, and he hits it out of the park. It remains his only effort to take the top prize from the Academy, and in a year full of heavy competition, it’s a great choice.

Rebecca