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Rebecca (1940 film)
| Rebecca | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Produced by | David O. Selznick |
| Screenplay by | Robert E. Sherwood Joan Harrison Adaptation: Philip MacDonald Michael Hogan |
| Based on | Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier |
| Starring | Laurence Olivier Joan Fontaine |
| Music by | Franz Waxman |
| Cinematography | George Barnes |
| Edited by | W. Donn Hayes |
Production company |
Selznick International Pictures |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time |
130 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,288,000[1] |
| Box office | $6 million[1] |
Rebecca is a 1940 American romantic psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was Hitchcock's first American project, and his first film under contract with producer David O. Selznick. The screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison, and adaptation by Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan, were based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. The film stars Laurence Olivier as the brooding, aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine as the young woman who becomes his second wife, with Judith Anderson, George Sanders and Gladys Cooper in supporting roles. The film won the 1940 Oscar for Best Picture.
The film is a gothic tale shot in black-and-white. Maxim de Winter's first wife Rebecca, who died before the events of the film, is never seen. Her reputation and recollections of her, however, are a constant presence in the lives of Maxim, his new wife and the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers.
Rebecca won two Academy Awards, Best Picture and Best Cinematography, out of a total 11 nominations. Olivier, Fontaine and Anderson also were Oscar-nominated for their respective roles as were Hitchcock and the screenwriters.
Contents
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception
4.1 Box office
5 Awards and honors
6 Adaptations
7 In popular culture
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
Plot
In Monte Carlo, Max de Winter (Laurence Olivier) stops to speak to Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper (Florence Bates) only after recognizing her companion (Joan Fontaine), the girl he had encountered earlier.
Play mediaTrailer of Rebecca.
An inexperienced young woman (Joan Fontaine) meets aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier), and soon becomes the second Mrs. de Winter.
Maxim takes his new bride back to his grand mansion by the sea, dominated by its housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), a chilly individual who had been a close confidante of the first Mrs. De Winter - Rebecca - with whom she is clearly still obsessed. She has even preserved Rebecca’s bedroom suite unchanged, and continues to display various items that carry her monogram. Eventually her constant reminders of Rebecca’s glamour and sophistication convince the new Mrs. de Winter that Maxim is still in love with his first wife, and that this could explain his irrational outbursts of anger. She tries to please her husband by holding a costume party, as he and Rebecca used to. Danvers advises her to copy the dress that one of Maxim’s ancestors is seen wearing in a portrait. But when she appears in the costume, Maxim is appalled; Rebecca had worn an identical dress at her last ball, just before her death.
Mrs. de Winter confronts Danvers about this, but Danvers tells her she can never take Rebecca's place, and almost persuades her to jump to her death. At that moment, however, the alarm is raised because a sunken boat has been found with Rebecca's body in it.
Maxim now confesses to his wife that his first marriage had been a sham from the start, when Rebecca had declared that she had no intention of keeping to her vows, but would just pretend to be the perfect wife and hostess for the sake of appearances. When she claimed she was pregnant by another man, she taunted him that the estate might pass to someone not of Maxim’s line. During a heated argument, she fell, struck her head and died. To conceal the truth, Maxim took the body out in a boat, which he then scuttled, and identified another body as Rebecca’s.
The sudden crisis causes the second Mrs. de Winter to shed her naive ways, as they plan how to prove Maxim’s innocence. When the police say it looks like suicide, Rebecca’s lover threatens to reveal that she had never been suicidal, unless Maxim pays blackmail. When Maxim goes to the police, they suspect him of murder, but investigation shows that she was not pregnant, but close to death from cancer, so the suicide verdict stands. In fact, Rebecca had been trying to goad Maxim into killing her - indirect suicide - so that Maxim would have been ruined, possibly hanged.
A free man, Maxim returns home to see the great house on fire, set ablaze by the deranged Mrs. Danvers. All escape except Danvers, when the ceiling collapses on her. The film ends with an R-monogrammed nightdress-case consumed by flames.
Cast
Joan Fontaine as the second Mrs. de Winter
Laurence Olivier as George Fortescue Maximilian "Maxim" de Winter, owner of Manderley
Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers, housekeeper of Manderley
George Sanders as Jack Favell, Rebecca's first cousin and lover
Reginald Denny as Frank Crawley, Maxim's estate manager of Manderley and friend
Gladys Cooper as Beatrice Lacy, Maxim's sister
C. Aubrey Smith as Colonel Julyan
Nigel Bruce as Major Giles Lacy, Beatrice's husband
Florence Bates as Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper, employer of the second Mrs. de Winter
Edward Fielding as Frith, oldest butler of Manderley
Melville Cooper as Coroner at trial
Leo G. Carroll as Dr. Baker, Rebecca's doctor
Leonard Carey as Ben, the beach hermit at Manderley
Lumsden Hare as Mr. Tabbs, boat builder
Forrester Harvey as Chalcroft the innkeeper- Philip Winter as Robert, a servant at Manderley
Hitchcock's cameo appearance, a signature feature of his films, takes place near the end; he is seen walking, back turned to the audience, outside a phone box just after Jack Favell completes a call.
Production
Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, stars of the film.
At Selznick's insistence, the film faithfully adapts the plot of du Maurier's novel Rebecca.[2] However, at least one plot detail was altered to comply with the Hollywood Production Code, which said that the murder of a spouse had to be punished.[2] In the novel, Maxim shoots Rebecca, while in the film, he only thinks of killing her as she taunted him into believing that she was pregnant with another man's child, and her subsequent death is accidental. However, Rebecca was not pregnant but had incurable cancer and had a motive to commit suicide, that of punishing Maxim from beyond the grave. Therefore, her death is declared a suicide, not murder.
Hitchcock later said that Selznick wanted the smoke from the burning Manderley to spell out a huge "R", which Hitchcock thought lacked subtlety. While Selznick was preoccupied by Gone with the Wind (1939), Hitchcock was able to replace the smoky "R" with the burning of a monogrammed négligée case lying atop a bed pillow. Hitchcock edited the film "in camera" (shooting only what he wanted to see in the final film) to restrict the producer's power to re-edit the picture.[3] But Selznick relished the post-production process; he personally edited the footage, laid in Franz Waxman's score, and supervised retakes and extensive re-recording of the dialogue of Sanders, Bates and Fontaine. Rewrites and reshooting were called for after a rough cut was previewed on December 26, 1939.[4]
Although Selznick insisted that the film be faithful to the novel, Hitchcock did make some other changes, though not as many as he had made in a previously rejected screenplay, in which he altered virtually the entire story. In the novel, Mrs. Danvers is something of a jealous mother figure, and her past is mentioned in the book. But in the film, Mrs. Danvers is a much younger character (Judith Anderson would have been about 42 at the time of shooting), and her past is not revealed at all. The only thing we know about her is that she came to Manderley when Rebecca was a bride.
The Breen Office, Hollywood's censorship board, specifically prohibited any outright hint of a lesbian infatuation or relationship between Mrs. Danvers and Rebecca,[5]:70 though the film clearly does dwell on Danvers' obsessive memories of her late mistress.
The Hollywood Reporter reported in 1944 that Edwina Levin MacDonald sued Selznick, Daphne du Maurier, United Artists and Doubleday for plagiarism. MacDonald claimed that the film Rebecca was stolen from her novel Blind Windows, and sought an undisclosed amount of accounting and damages.[6] The complaint was dismissed on January 14, 1948[7] and the judgment can be read online.[8]
Reception
Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times called it "an altogether brilliant film, haunting, suspenseful, handsome and handsomely played."[9]Variety called it "an artistic success" but warned it was "too tragic and deeply psychological to hit the fancy of wide audience appeal."[10]Film Daily wrote: "Here is a picture that has the mark of quality in every department - production, direction, acting, writing and photography - and should have special appeal to femme fans. It creates a new star in Joan Fontaine, who does fine work in a difficult role, while Laurence Olivier is splendid."[11]Harrison's Reports declared: "A powerful psychological drama for adults. David O. Selznick has given it a superb production, and Alfred Hitchcock has again displayed his directorial skill in building up situations that thrill and hold the spectator in tense suspense."[12]John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote that Hitchcock "labored hard to capture every tragic or ominous nuance, and presents a romance which is, I think, even more stirring than the novel."[13]
The film currently holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Rebecca won the Film Daily year-end poll of 546 critics nationwide naming the best films of 1940.[14]
Rebecca was the opening film at the 1st Berlin International Film Festival in 1951.[15] In 2018, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[16]
Box office
The film earned $2 million in the US and $1 million in Britain on its initial release. It was re-released in Britain in 1945 and made $460,000.[17]
Awards and honors
Rebecca won two Academy Awards and was nominated for nine more:[18] It is the only film since 1936 (when awards for actors in supporting roles were first introduced) that, despite winning Best Picture, received no Academy Award for acting, directing or writing.
| Awards | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Award |
Category |
Subject |
Result |
|
Academy Awards |
Best Picture |
Selznick International Pictures and David O. Selznick |
Won |
|
Best Cinematography, Black and White |
George Barnes[19] |
Won |
||
Best Director |
Alfred Hitchcock |
Nominated |
||
Best Adapted Screenplay |
Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison |
Nominated |
||
Best Actor |
Laurence Olivier |
Nominated |
||
Best Actress |
Joan Fontaine |
Nominated |
||
Best Supporting Actress |
Judith Anderson |
Nominated |
||
Best Film Editing |
Hal C. Kern |
Nominated |
||
Best Music, Original Score |
Franz Waxman |
Nominated |
||
Best Art Direction, Black and White |
Lyle R. Wheeler |
Nominated |
||
Best Special Effects |
Jack Cosgrove and Arthur Johns |
Nominated |
||
Rebecca was twice honored by the AFI in their AFI 100 Years... series
AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – #80
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains – Mrs. Danvers, #31 Villain
Adaptations
The Hollywood screen version of Rebecca was adapted for radio on numerous occasions. The Screen Guild Theater presented half-hour adaptions with Joan Fontaine, her husband at the time, Brian Aherne, and Agnes Moorehead (May 31, 1943), and with Loretta Young, John Lund and Agnes Moorehead (November 18, 1948).[20][21] Joan Fontaine and Joseph Cotten performed a half-hour adaptation October 1, 1946, on The Cresta Blanca Hollywood Players.[22]The Lux Radio Theatre presented hour-long adaptations with Ronald Colman, Ida Lupino and Judith Anderson (February 3, 1941), and with Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Betty Blythe (November 6, 1950).[23][24]
A Broadway stage adaptation starring Diana Barrymore, Bramwell Fletcher and Florence Reed ran January 18 – February 3, 1945, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.[25]
On television, Rebecca was adapted for The Philco Television Playhouse (October 10, 1948), with Mary Anderson and Bramwell Fletcher;[26]Robert Montgomery Presents (May 22, 1950), with Barbara Bel Geddes and Peter Cookson;[27] and Broadway Television Theatre (September 1, 1952), with Patricia Breslin and Scott Forbes.[28]Theatre '62 presented an NBC-TV adaptation starring James Mason as Maxim, Joan Hackett as the second Mrs. de Winter, and Nina Foch as Mrs. Danvers.[29]
The movie was an inspiration for the Kollywood movie Puthiya Paravai starring Sivaji Ganesan. The film has been remade by Bollywood twice—as Kohra (1964), starring Waheeda Rehman and Biswajit Chatterjee; and as Anamika (2008), starring Dino Morea, Minissha Lamba and Koena Mitra.
Rebecca was adapted as a 1979 BBC Television drama series directed by Simon Langton. It starred Jeremy Brett, Joanna David and Anna Massey. Four 55-minute episodes were produced and aired on BBC 1.
Rebecca was adapted as a 1997 British/German television serial directed by Jim O'Brien. The script by Arthur Hopcraft is based on the novel. It starred Charles Dance, Emilia Fox and Diana Rigg. It was broadcast on the ITV network.
In 2018, it was reported that Netflix would be creating a new remake of the film, which would be directed by Ben Wheatley, and written by Jane Goldman. Lily James and Armie Hammer are set to star.[30]
In popular culture
- The film Rebecca was parodied on The Carol Burnett Show in a 1972 skit called "Rebecky".[31]
The Comic Strip Presents episode 'Consuela' was a French and Saunders-led pastiche of Hitchcock's 'Rebecca', with French's eponymous crazed housekeeper taking centre stage.- The film was used as the basis of a sketch on the BBC comedy sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look. In the skit, the plot is changed, at the insistence of the producer, to a prequel, set while the first Mrs. de Winter is still alive and has just begun living with Maxim. The humour is derived from references to the then-unknown second Mrs. de Winter scattered throughout the mansion, such as a dress "reserved for the second Mrs. de Winter" and a painting of a woman with her face covered and the letters "TBA" written.[32]
See also
- A Sucessora
List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a film review aggregator website- Gothic film – Notable films
- Gothic romance film
References
^ ab Box Office Information for Rebecca. The Numbers. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
^ ab Spoto, Donald (1999). The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock. Da Capo Press. pp. 213–214. ISBN 978-0-306-80932-3..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ Chandler, Charlotte (2005). It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock, A Personal Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 129.
^ Leff, Leonard J. (1987). Hitchcock and Selznick: The Rich and Strange Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and David O. Selznick in Hollywood. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 78–80. ISBN 1-55584-057-4.
^ Leff, Leonard J. (1987). Hitchcock and Selznick: The Rich and Strange Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and David O. Selznick in Hollywood. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 1-55584-057-4.
^ The Hollywood Reporter, January 13, 1944
^ The Fresno Bee Republican, January 17, 1948 – see e.g. here Archived September 1, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
^ "MacDONALD v. DU MAURIER". leagle.com. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
^ Nugent, Frank (March 29, 1940). "Movie Review - Rebecca". The New York Times. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
^ "Rebecca". Variety. New York: Variety, Inc. March 27, 1940. p. 17.
^ "Reviews". Film Daily. New York: Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc.: 6 March 26, 1940.
^ "'Rebecca' with Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine". Harrison's Reports: 54. April 6, 1940.
^ Mosher, John (March 29, 1940). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. New York: F-R Publishing Corp. p. 71.
^ "'Rebecca' Wins Critics' Poll". Film Daily. New York: Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc.: 1 January 14, 1941.
^ "1st Berlin International Film Festival". Berlin International Film Festival.
^ https://www.npr.org/2018/12/12/675384976/jurassic-park-the-shining-and-23-other-movies-added-to-national-film-registry
^ BY WAY OF REPORT: Presented by the Royal Air Force
By A.H. WEILER. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] March 3, 1946: X3.
^ "The 13th Academy Awards (1941) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
^ "Critic's Pick: Rebecca". The New York Times. Retrieved December 13, 2008.
^ "Screen Guild Theater". Internet Archive. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
^ "The Screen Guild Radio Programs". Digital Deli Too. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
^ "Cresta Blanca Hollywood Players". RadioGOLDINdex. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
^ "The Lux Radio Theatre". RadioGOLDINdex. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
^ "Lux Radio Theatre 1950". Internet Archive. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
^ "Rebecca". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
^ "Philco Television Playhouse". Classic Television Archive. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
^ "Robert Montgomery Presents". Classic Television Archive. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
^ "Broadway Television Theatre". Classic Television Archive. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
^ Rebecca (1962) (TV), Internet Movie Database. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
^ Kroll, Justin; Kroll, Justin (2018-11-14). "Lily James, Armie Hammer to Star in Daphne du Maurier Adaptation 'Rebecca'". Variety. Retrieved 2018-12-06.
^ The Carol Burnett Show: Episode No. 6.3 (27 September 1972), Internet Movie Database. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
^ Video on YouTube
External links
 |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Rebecca (film) |
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rebecca (film). |
Rebecca at the American Film Institute Catalog
Rebecca on IMDb
Rebecca at the TCM Movie Database
Rebecca at AllMovie
Rebecca at Rotten Tomatoes
Rebecca: The Two Mrs. de Winters an essay by Robin Wood at the Criterion Collection
Streaming audio
Rebecca on Screen Guild Theater: May 31, 1943
Rebecca on Lux Radio Theater: November 6, 1950
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