Rebecca (1940)

In Alfred Hitchcock's Best Picture-winning gothic romance-drama, his first American film that was based upon the 1938 Daphne du Maurier novel of the same name, it told about a humble, shy and meek new bride, recently married to a dashing, rich, but distant aristocratic nobleman who owned an ancestral manor named Manderley. She began to be tormented by the "haunting" presence and memory of the brooding man's first wife - his unseen, former deceased wife named Rebecca.

This black and white film received eleven Academy Award nominations - and won for the nominated director his first and only Best Picture Oscar, beating out strong competition in 1940 from The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Dictator, The Philadelphia Story, and Hitchcock's own Foreign Correspondent. With his Best Picture win, David O. Selznick became the first producer to win consecutive Best Picture Oscars. The film also won an Academy Award for Best B/W Cinematography (George Barnes), and was nominated in nine other categories, including Best Actor (Olivier), Best Actress (Fontaine), Best Supporting Actress (Judith Anderson with her sole career nomination), Best Director (Hitchcock's first nomination in this category), Best Screenplay, Best B/W Interior Decoration, Best Original Score (Franz Waxman), Best Film Editing, and Best Special Effects.

• the opening scene revealed the film's ending - the ruins of an estate known as Manderley; the unnamed second Mrs. De Winter (Joan Fontaine) in voice-over described her flashbacked dream: ("Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter for the way was barred to me. Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me. The drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had always done. But as I advanced, I was aware that a change had come upon it. Nature had come into her own again, and little by little had encroached upon the drive with long tenacious fingers, on and on while the poor thread that had once been our drive. And finally, there was Manderley - Manderley - secretive and silent. Time could not mar the perfect symmetry of those walls. Moonlight can play odd tricks upon the fancy, and suddenly it seemed to me that light came from the windows. And then a cloud came upon the moon and hovered an instant like a dark hand before a face. The illusion went with it. I looked upon a desolate shell, with no whisper of the past about its staring walls. We can never go back to Manderley again. That much is certain. But sometimes, in my dreams, I do go back to the strange days of my life which began for me in the south of France...")
• while vacationing in the off-season in the south of France at Monte Carlo, wealthy, grieving British widower Mr. George Fortescu Maximilian "Maxim" De Winter (Laurence Olivier) was viewed contemplating suicide by jumping to his death from a cliffside; he was apparently depressed by the recent drowning death in a boating accident of his wife Rebecca

A Disconsolate Man Contemplating Jumping to His Death in Monte Carlo

Young Blonde Woman at Cliffside

Mr. Maxim De Winter (Laurence Olivier)

• he was interrupted by the appearance of a young, unnamed blonde woman (Joan Fontaine), another guest at the Princesse Hotel, who was walking on a nearby trail and he was dissuaded from his thoughts of self-harm; she was the paid companion of matronly and wealthy socialite Edythe Van Hopper (Florence Bates); afterwards, he sought her out to provide company with him as he dined and went on drives in his car
• after a short period of courtship, as she was about to suddenly depart from France, Maxim unexpectedly and impulsively proposed marriage to her; in an untraditional way, he asked her to make a choice between leaving for America or returning with him to his estate at Manderley in Cornwall, England; she didn't understand his veiled marital proposal (delivered off-screen from the bathroom), thinking he wanted to hire her for some other purpose (Woman: "You mean you want a secretary or something?" Maxim De Winter: "I'm asking you to marry me, you little fool"); a hasty ceremony was performed in a French provincial marriage office
• once the newlywed couple arrived at his estate of Manderley and entered the great front hall in the midst of a sudden rainstorm, the stern, domineering and unsmiling housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) made her first appearance to the second Mrs. De Winter; they were greeted by an army of over fifteen servants standing as if posed for a picture; the young bride met the unsmiling, severe, ominous, dark-haired, and slightly hostile housekeeper Mrs. Danvers as she appeared from the left in front of the lineup: ("How do you do? I have everything in readiness for you"); they both stooped to pick up the young woman's dropped gloves

The Entrance of the Stern Housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) in the Front Lobby of Manderley to Greet the Newlywed Couple

• the new bride (the second Mrs. de Winter) was shown her previously-unused grand bedroom quarters in the East Wing of the mansion by the black-garbed, slightly hostile housekeeper Mrs. Danvers; on their way downstairs, Mrs. Danvers pointed out the closed-off bedroom of the deceased first wife Rebecca; she had maintained the room as a shrine to her existence, since the sinister Mrs. Danvers seemed to be obsessed by the beauty, elegance and intelligence of the former wife

Evidence of Rebecca's Lingering Presence Throughout the Mansion
Fancy Monogrammed Napkins	Monogrammed Desk Items and Stationary	Rebecca's Signature

• the new bride felt intimidated and overwhelmed, lacking the social skills and the graces of de Winter's first wife; in the morning room, she noticed Rebecca's monogrammed stationary on the desk; she kowtowed to her housekeeper who had presumably instructed the entire household staff to not vary routines established by Rebecca; she felt clumsy and ungracious, especially after breaking an expensive small ceramic statue on Rebecca's desk, and hiding the broken pieces in the back of a desk drawer
• she was also viewed as highly inferior to Rebecca during a visit by Maxim's sister Beatrice Lacy (Gladys Cooper) and brother-in-law Major Giles Lacy (Nigel Bruce) who regarded her as uncultured, unskilled, and possibly an "ex-chorus girl"; Beatrice disparaged the new mistress: "I can see by the way you dress you don't care a hoot how you look"
• after lunch and their departure, while walking along the cliff's edge and disobeying Maxim's wishes, the second Mrs. de Winter scampered down to a cove and beach house, where she encountered "Barmy" Ben (Leonard Cary), a deranged drifter; she found more evidence of Rebecca's influence inside the beach house (monogrammed beach towels); Ben recalled Rebecca's death: "She's gone in the sea, ain't she? She'll never come back no more"; when the new bride walked back to the mansion, Maxim muttered that he was wrong to bring her to Manderley, bringing tears to her eyes; she noticed the "R" monogrammed handkerchief that he had offered her

A Disobedient Visit to the Beach house

Deranged Drifter "Barmy" Ben (Leonard Cary)

Scolded and Comforted by Maxim

• one morning, while questioning the manager of the estate Frank Crawley (Reginald Denny) about the beach house and details about Rebecca's death, the new wife admitted her inferiority: "I, I realize the things that she had that I lack - beauty and wit and intelligence and all the things that are so important"; Crawley encouraged the overwhelmed new bride, but then noted about Rebecca: "She was the most beautiful creature I ever saw"
• one evening while preparing to view home movies of their honeymoon together, the second Mrs. de Winter was forced to admit to Maxim that she had broken the statue-ornament; when she tried to make Maxim understand how inadequate she felt with everyone and her situation, Maxim was too preoccupied or insensitive to realize that his wife was painfully lonely, insecure and sincerely fearful; he reacted to her concerns by feeling selfish for marrying her at such a young age; in the darkness with the flickering light of the projector, she showed worried desperation in her face
• during Maxim's absence one day in London to conduct business, the second Mrs. de Winter had an encounter with Mr. Jack Favell (George Sanders) being secretly escorted around by Mrs. Danvers; he asked that his visit be kept a secret from Maxim (who detested him), and described himself as just "a lonely old bachelor" and "Rebecca's favorite cousin"
• the curious new bride decided to investigate the interior of Rebecca's West Wing bedroom quarters; as she began snooping around, in one of the film's most chilling scenes, Mrs. Danvers appeared and offered to give her a full tour; she opened the curtains to the bedroom and explained her obsessive attentiveness: "Everything is kept just as Mrs. de Winter liked it. Nothing has been altered since that last night"
• Mrs. Danvers began to go through Rebecca's intimate belongings; she opened the closet: ("This is where I keep all her clothes"), selected a fur coat, seductively held it and caressed it next to her own cheek (with a lesbian-fetish interest) and then brushed it by the cheek of a nameless, horrified, and recoiling second Mrs. de Winter, stating: "Feel this. It was a Christmas present from Mr. de Winter. He was always giving her expensive gifts, the whole year round. I keep her underwear on this side..."
• Mrs. de Winter was urged to sit at Rebecca's dressing table and follow the routine of her precise habits; Mrs. Danvers pretended to brush her hair and repeated conversations between Rebecca and herself; she also showed off an embroidered pillowcase on the bed (monogrammed with an "R") and its "delicate" sexy nightgown inside - one of Rebecca's most intimate articles of clothing: "Did you ever see anything so delicate. Look, you can see my hand through it"

Tour of Rebecca's Bedroom and Her Intimate Belongings by Mrs. Danvers

• creating further torment, Mrs. Danvers also suggested that Rebecca still inhabited the house and came back from the dead to watch the living - including the new couple; left alone in Rebecca's room for the remainder of the day, the new Mrs. de Winter searched through stacks of ribbon-tied love letters - and found a "costume ball" invitation to Jack Favell - with his handwritten note in reply that suggested that the first Mrs. de Winter and Favell had been lovers (he pens: "Rebecca - I'll be there - and how!")
• in the next striking scene, the second Mrs. De Winter courageously summoned Mrs. Danvers and demanded that all of Rebecca's monogrammed stationary and personal effects be destroyed immediately; when Mrs. Danvers protested, she stood up to Mrs. Danvers and asserted her controlling authority as mistress of the house: "I am Mrs. de Winter now"
• once Maxim returned from London, she rushed into his arms and asked permission to host her own fancy-dress costume ball to lighten up the atmosphere; she promised: "I'll design a costume all by myself and give you the surprise of your life"; while the new wife was sketching costume designs, the manipulative and evil Mrs. Danvers made a seemingly-innocent suggestion to take inspiration from the stairs-hall portrait of one of Maxim's ancestors (Caroline de Winter) with a fluffy white dress, similarly worn by Rebecca at the previous costume ball about a year earlier - it was actually a cruel set-up to embarrass the bride
• after following the advice and to surprise Maxim with her "secretive" costume, the radiant new bride glided down the stairs in a copy of Rebecca's white ruffled dress for the fancy ball; to her stunned shock, she was rebuked and told harshly by Maxim to take the dress off: ("What the devil do you think you're doing?...Go and take it off. It doesn't matter what you put on. Anything will do. What are you standing there for? Didn't you hear what I said?")
• in the following horrifying scene set in Rebecca's bedroom, Mrs. Danvers inflicted cruel torment upon the second Mrs. de Winter; she suggested that she would never be able to take the previous wife's place: "I watched you go down just as I watched her a year ago. Even in the same dress you couldn't compare...You tried to take her place. You let him marry you. I've seen his face, his eyes. They're the same as those first weeks after she died. I used to listen to him, walking up and down, up and down, all night long, night after night, thinking of her. Suffering torture because he lost her...You thought you could be Mrs. de Winter. Live in her house. Walk in her steps. Take the things that were hers. But she's too strong for you. You can't fight her. No one ever got the better of her. Never. Never. She was beaten in the end, but it wasn't a man. It wasn't a woman. It was the sea"

Mrs. Danvers' Torment of the 'Second' Mrs. De Winter - To Even Commit Suicide
Mrs. Danvers: "You tried to take her place"	The Tormented 'Second' Mrs. de Winter	Mrs. Danvers: "You can't fight her. No one ever got the better of her. Never. Never."
Collapsed in Tears On the Bed	"Why don't you go? Why don't you leave Manderley?"	Mrs. Danvers Urging Suicide: "Why don't you? Go on. Go on. Don't be afraid!"

• after the tormented wife collapsed in tears on the bed, Mrs. Danvers opened the window for fresh air, and then played upon the fears of the over-identifying Mrs. de Winter; she urged her to jump to her death from the second story window: "Why don't you go? Why don't you leave Manderley? He doesn't need you. He's got his memories. He doesn't love you - he wants to be alone again with her. You've nothing to stay for. You've nothing to live for really, have you? Look down there. It's easy, isn't it? Why don't you? Why don't you? Go on. Go on. Don't be afraid!"
• suddenly from outside, commotions and distractions from explosive flares and shouts of the discovery of a sunken boat were heard: ("Shipwreck! Ship on the rocks"); a storm at sea had prevented her from losing her sanity and jumping to her death; the shouting was about the discovery of the actual sailboat in which Rebecca had presumably drowned; she saw her husband leaving the house, and followed him down to the beach area, where she found him morbidly depressed and sitting alone in the beach house; he expressed his concern about the discovery: "The thing has happened, the thing I've dreaded, day after day, night after night....Rebecca has won. Her shadow has been between us all the time, keeping us from one another. She knew that this would happen"
• in the film's high point, the haunted Mr. de Winter for the first time dramatically confessed to his wife that Rebecca's body would be found there in the boat because he had planted it there: ("I put it there"); he knew that the deceased female that he had identified earlier as Rebecca, who was buried in the family crypt, was not Rebecca, but some unknown, unclaimed stranger; he felt that everything in his life was now ruined and he had no hope: ("No, it's no use. It's too late")
• then in the revelation of the film's major plot twist - to her shock - he told her that he actually despised Rebecca: ("You thought I loved Rebecca? You thought that? I hated her!...But I never had a moment's happiness with her. She was incapable of love, or tenderness, or decency"); the second wife replied with disbelief - and relief: "You didn't love her? You didn't love her?"
• Maxim reenacted the troubling event of Rebecca's actual death in the boat house for his second wife - he summarily recounted how his marriage with Rebecca was a miserable and "rotten fraud"; Rebecca's character was vicious, conniving, and cruel; as a cuckolding creature, she mocked her husband with infidelity; only four days after their marriage, he was forced to make a "dirty bargain" with her; she would be able to carry on her private, sexually perverse and promiscuous lifestyle, while in public, she would maintain the family's honor and act as the perfect wife; she was particularly promiscuous with her own cousin and sleazy playboy Jack Favell
• then, Maxim began to recount the troubling event of the night of Rebecca's death in the beach house; as Maxim spoke, the camera panned through the room, pausing on various key objects (such as the divan and the ship's tackle coiled up on the floor) that followed the actions of Rebecca as he described them; in the sequence, Maxim told how the conniving Rebecca had attempted to have him murder her by telling him that she was pregnant with another man's illegitimate child - possibly due to her affair with Jack Favell; during their fearsome taunting and quarrelling, Rebecca accidentally tripped over some ship's tackle on the boathouse floor, fell, and struck her head - and was mortally wounded; Maxim would have deliberately taken her life had she not died accidentally during their argument
• Maxim finished the story of how he panicked and then confessed that he had covered up the act; he took Rebecca's body to her boat, went into the ocean and deliberately sank it by creating a hole in its hull, and then escaped and watched it sink in a cove; afterwards, he lied - claiming that Rebecca was lost in a storm at sea and drowned; and further, when a different body conveniently washed up at Edgecoombe, he identified it as the body of his late wife
• at the conclusion of their conversation, Maxim remained despondent: "I told you once that I'd done a very selfish thing in marrying you. I can understand now what I meant. I've loved you, my darling. I shall always love you. But I've known all along that Rebecca would win in the end" - she encouraged him with a hug to keep fighting for their marriage: "No, no. She hasn't won. No matter what happens now, she hasn't won"
• as a result of the discovery of Rebecca's body in the boat, another inquest was to be held following an inspection of the boat that has been disgorged by the ocean; at Manderley the night before a coroner's inquest into Maxim de Winter's first wife's drowning death, the second Mrs. de Winter was worried about how her husband might lose his temper at the hearing; she lovingly asked to be there at his side, as they stood together in front of the huge fireplace: "Promise me that they won't make you angry...No matter what he asks you, you won't lose your head...I want to go to the inquest with you....I promise you I won't be any trouble to you. I must be near you so that no matter what happens, we-we won't be separated for a moment"

Kisses In Front of Fireplace Before the Coroner's Inquest: "Ah, it's gone forever, that funny young, lost look I loved won't ever come back"

• as Maxim examined his new wife's face, he realized that Rebecca's continued haunting presence had aged her, and noticed how she had lost her youth and matured in spite of his wishes; they shared a very mature, heart-felt embrace and some kisses after he confessed to her: "I don't mind this whole thing, except for you. I can't forget what it's done to you. I've been thinking of nothing else since it happened. Ah, it's gone forever, that funny young, lost look I loved won't ever come back. I killed that when I told you about Rebecca. It's gone. In a few hours, you've grown so much older"
• at the inquest, the evidence suggested that Maxim might be charged with 'foul play' and murder for deliberately sabotaging the boat and killing his wife, although it was also possible that Rebecca might have committed suicide due to problems in her marriage; as predicted by his wife, Maxim became agitated during questioning and was about to divulge the truth of what really happened, but he was saved when she fearfully fainted to the ground in the front row; during a lunch break seated in a vehicle with the couple, the conniving Favell attempted to blackmail Maxim with a note written by Rebecca to him on the day of her death that proved she wasn't suicidal; Favell implied that the note about Rebecca's visit to a London doctor earlier in the day was related to Maxim's motive for murder - Rebecca provoked her husband to strike her down after revealing to him news of an illegitimate child
• following Favell's allegations, the Chief Constable of the county - Col. Julyan (C. Aubrey Smith), Maxim, and Favell paid a visit to the London office of her physician Dr. Baker (Leo G. Carroll), to speak about Rebecca's secret appointment; Favell had assumed that they were meeting to discuss her pregnancy and illegitimate child; the film's second twist was also unexpected; on the day of her death, Rebecca had apparently lied about her pregnancy; during the interview with Dr. Baker, he revealed that Rebecca was shocked to learn in the office of that she was NOT pregnant with a child, but was suffering from terminal, inoperable, deep-rooted cancer; she knew that she had little time left before her death and wished to spare herself from a possibly lengthy and unglamorous death
• Rebecca's last words in the office revealed that she was determined to suicidally end her life immediately and not prolong her life for a few months more; after hearing the bad news, she responded to Dr. Baker: ("Oh no, doctor, not that long"); her final intended revenge was to provoke Maxim into killing her in the beach house (taunting him with the deceitful news of a pregnancy by another man and carrying a child that would someday inherit his possessions) to try to destroy him as well; she deliberately goaded Maxim into killing her, but then she fell and accidentally died; this explanation provided a believable motive for her suicidal fall; Maxim was acquitted and exonerated of any wrong-doing and the inquest was terminated; Favell called Mrs. Danvers from a phone booth to tell her that her deceased mistress Rebecca had kept the truth from both of them: ("Rebecca held out on both of us - she had cancer"); Mrs. Danvers became spiteful of the new wife once again, realizing that now "Maxim and that dear little bride of his will be able to stay on at Manderley and live happily ever after"
• in the film's eerie and suspenseful conclusion, devoted and faithful housekeeper Mrs. Danvers was crazed by the truth that was revealed about Rebecca - that she actually had terminal cancer; she carried a lighted candle through the darkened hallways and set Manderley on fire, determined to burn the cavernous mansion; as the master of the house Maxim de Winter drove home from London (his wife had preceded him) and proceeded up the long driveway to Manderley, the sky was brightly lit by the flames of the mansion - he exclaimed: "That's not the Northern lights. That's Manderley!"
• outside the mansion, he and Mrs. de Winter found each other and embraced, while they watched the great house burn near them; Mrs. de Winter told her husband that Mrs. Danvers was unable to relinquish Manderley to the new couple: "It's Mrs. Danvers. She's gone mad. She said she'd rather destroy Manderley than see us happy here"
• the deranged Mrs. Danvers died in Rebecca's bedroom where she was consumed in the blazing inferno as the flames burned her and the memories of her beloved mistress; she was last seen through a West Wing window, remaining trapped inside Rebecca's bedroom as the burning roof caved in on top of her; the movement of destructive flames approached an embroidered, monogrammed "R" on the pillowcase

Manderley's Destructive Flames - Mrs. Danvers' Self-Destructive Arson
		Mrs. Danvers' Final Revenge
"She said she'd rather destroy Manderley than see us happy here"	The Mad Mrs. Danvers in Flames in the West Wing	The Fire Burning the Monogrammed "R" on the Pillowcase