Rebecca (1940)
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Synopsis: Masterful suspense from the master Alfred Hitchcock
Reviewed by: Shaharyar Khan

Hitchcock was lured to Hollywood from war-torn Britain by Selznick and made Rebecca as his first American based film. This novel by Daphne Du Maurier begins in the South of France and crosses to the rugged shores of Cornwall into the brooding, mystery-laden mansion of its millionaire owner, played by Laurence Olivier.

The film, made in black and white, is extraordinarily arresting because, despite the panoramic landscape that the novel covers, Hitchcock has brought remarkable precision and terseness to the film so that the story - the mystery of Rebecca - unfolds with the audience constantly on tenterhooks.

Hitchcock achieves this suspense by drawing superb performances from Laurence Olivier as the brooding millionaire, Max, who wins over a young, naive and socially inferior acquaintance to take her to Manderlay, the mansion, as his second wife, and especially from Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers the monstrous, imperious house-keeper who shared Rebecca's secret.

Amazingly, Hitchcock manages to invest Manderlay, the mansion, with its own persona so that as the story unfolds, the scenery becomes as much part of the suspense as the players. Rebecca is a brilliant film in which Joan Fontaine as the mousy wife deserved an Oscar but lost out to Ginger Rogers. She was compensated a year later when in a much less demanding role she played opposite Cary Grant in Hitchcock's Suspicion.

As usual the bit players are brilliant. George Sanders as the blackmailing cad and C. Aubrey Smith (who was a leading English cricketer in Hollywood) as the Chief Constable.