By Marc S. Sanders
“The suspense is killing me! I hope it’ll last!”
– Willy Wonka
Even if the outcome does not amount to much, the journey into mystery is often all that is needed for an effective film. Mood and eeriness, plus unsettling foreboding are reliable tools for engaging storytelling.
The one film in Alfred Hitchcock’s career to win Best Picture is 1940’s Rebecca, and if you’re a fan of the director, you’ll quickly fall in love with his deliberate shots of shadow and the panning explorations his camera gravitates towards. Close ups of his actors have an unsettling haunt, and large hand-crafted doors are intimidating to an aristocrat’s new wife who carefully enters one room after another. Other than a few pertinent differences, Hitchcock, with David O Selznick as producer, remain faithful to the eerie themes of Daphne de Maurier’s novel.
Joan Fontaine works as an attentive helper to a wealthy and brutish snob (Florence Bates) who is on holiday in Monte Carlo. There, she encounters a dashing aristocrat by the name of Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier). The helper is shy and reserved but somehow Maxim allows her into his world even though she first encounters him as he seems to be stepping off into the rocky ocean depths below, looking like he’s about to end his own life. Every day she sneaks away to be with Maxim and all too quickly, just as she is about to head off back to the States, he proposes allowing her to be relieved of her obligation to the haughty dowager she’s been serving.
Once married, Maxim brings the new Mrs. de Winter to his regal European estate famously known as Manderley. It is here that Fontaine’s character will learn details about the mansion and Maxim’s enigmatic and deceased first wife, Rebecca, who drowned during a sailing accident a year earlier.
Rebecca’s monogrammed R is embroidered in handkerchiefs and bed sheets throughout the house. Her address book in her drawing room remains at the desk where she ritually wrote her letters. The cornered off west wing of the house is supposedly preserved with Rebecca’s furnishings. Most disturbing is Manderley’s housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), who is far from comforting or welcome to the new Mrs. de Winter.
Rebecca is quickly engaging because of Hitchcock’s haunting exposition that persists until the final act of the film. Following the opening credits, he shoots his camera through a distant wooded drive that eventually arrives at the decrepit ruins of Manderley, with Fontaine’s voiceover guiding the viewers towards flashback. Then we see Olivier, performing rather cold and isolated, apart from his sudden interest in Fontaine’s shyness. After the nuptials, the bulk of the film turns Manderley into a off putting locale, not ready for Maxim to have a new wife living within its confines.
Most effective is Mrs. Danvers. Judith Anderson lends a spectral presence to a creepy individual dressed in black with a most evident paler complexion, even under the black and white photography. Reading about the making of the film, Hitchcock wanted to make sure Mrs. Danvers hardly ever entered a scene walking into a room. He’d cut away to a close up of Anderson simply being there, as if Mrs. di Winter or the viewer never knew she existed in the frame. It lends to that haunted house kind of tension.
Mrs. di Winter never feels like she belongs. That signature letter R is a constant reminder of Rebecca occupying this home’s past. Her wardrobe, personal bedroom and belongings remain behind too. Maxim travels out of town often leaving his new wife alone with no family or companionship of her own. A charming but odd cousin of Rebecca’s named Favel (George Sanders) appears outside the window of the reading room to remind the new Mrs. di Winter that Maxim is not especially fond of him. Hitchcock left me wondering why Mr. Favel didn’t arrive by the front door. It’s deliberately odd; certainly strange. There’s a miser who roams around a small cottage near a beach path that Maxim insists his new wife stay away from. These are elements to uphold Hitchcock’s penchant for unnerving his protagonist’s senses. Delirium works to the director’s advantage time and again.
In addition to full sets tall staircases and vast, castle size rooms, a miniature model of Manderley was constructed for the film. The background of this setting is so dense that every piece of artwork or window curtain or book seems to have a history for Mrs. di Winter to uncover in this cold and unwelcome house. The gigantic doors to new rooms against Fontaine’s petite figure are disconcerting. Maxim’s staff of servants may cater to his new wife’s needs, but it is Mrs. Danvers who appears to desaturate any joy or ease from this home’s new guest, and it is reasonable to consider that the housekeeper seeks to disrupt the wife’s adjustment at Manderley.
Joan Fontaine’s mousy, insecure performance works especially well next to the confident and cool tempered strength expected from Laurence Olivier. Fontaine is also an exact opposite to Judith Anderson’s eerie persona. How can she ask for anything of this housekeeper who maintains a fierce loyalty for Rebecca, the first Mrs. di Winter? George Sanders also has a sense of self confidence but with his wide smile and that distinct English dialect, how can anyone feel like they can trust him? I guess it doesn’t help that he’s a car salesman, no less.
I actually thought back to Ari Aster’s Midsommer. In that film, Florence Pugh’s character no longer has a family and the only companionship she is left with is a boyfriend and two friends who she travels with to a mysterious, but intriguing destination. Like Fontaine’s character, Pugh’s character is alone feeling helpless to turn to anyone for aid. How can someone in a scenario like this ever feel secure or eventually rescued? The loneliness for these women in these two broadly different films is what gives me shivers. It leaves me shaken and terrified. Is there anyone who would even notice they are missing or unaccounted for? Just give them someone to trust and talk to!!!! PLEASE?????? ANYBODY????
Answers behind the puzzles found in Rebecca eventually arrive, and while the explanations add up, I did not believe they were especially sensational. There are some twists. The story veers off in different directions and Olivier and Fontaine drive the script quite well to a conclusion. Though the ending is not the greatest strength of Rebecca, it is the journey that’s appealing, especially when you are seeing the film for the first time and have no knowledge of where the story is going. Hitchcock’s trajectory is the real thrill.
I pointed out to Thomas and Anthony, two of my Cinemaniac comrades, that in this whole expansive house we never once see a photograph of Rebecca, the first Mrs. di Winter, and then with their input I realize that’s the intended point. Each viewer has their own design of what the mysterious Rebecca must have looked like based on what’s left behind with her husband, her devoted housekeeper, her cousin, her wardrobes and belongings, and her enormous, hidden dwelling known as Manderley. Like Steven Spielberg committed to with concealing the driver of his terror truck in Duel or his great white shark in Jaws, Hitchcock applied to a phantom of a past, and her name was Rebecca.
With a film like Rebecca, Alfred Hitchcock didn’t really need a knife or a gun to rattle your senses. It’s his approach with mood that will keep you alert and unsettled. You want to know more and see more and uncover more and more and more.
Yet, that housekeeper suddenly appears, and those giant double doors are most unwelcoming.
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 