Rebecca (1940)

I'm being a little premature here as I won't watch this until tomorrow night, but this review is up next.

This movie stars some people, I did not check whom. It is directed by Hitchcock and won the Oscar for best picture - his only film to do so. Hitchcock did not win best director (an award he never won) and therefore did not win an Academy Award for this - he never won one but did receive an honorary award down the line.

This film was once released on DVD by Criterion (who releases excellent DVDs by the way) but the rights were purchased by a studio some time ago who, for some strange reason, refuses to release this (or 2 other Hitchcock films) on DVD and the Criterion version is now out of print and will sell for about $75 used or $150 new - that goes for all 3 out of print Hitchcock Criterion DVDs. Too bad.

The film is now completed.

Before I begin, just a touch more background information. This was Hitchcock's first-ever American film and was produced by David O. Selznick who produced Gone With The Wind the year before (1939). Both of those films would win Best Picture and Selznick managed the impressive feat of winning the award in consecutive years.

While most people would not compare Rebecca to Gone With The Wind, I can't help but do it thanks the the aforementioned background information. These two films couldn't be much different. This film is in black and white whereas Gone With The Wind is in color. This film is set in modern times (or at least it was when it was made) while Gone With The Wind is set during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Gone With The Wind is primarily a love story. While Rebecca does contain a love story throughout, it also contains elements of suspense and mystery which Gone With The Wind is, for the most part, lacking. This film is a standard 2 hours long or so while Gone With The Wind is an epic film spanning just short of 4 hours. With that, let's move onto the actual review.

As usual, plot summaries can readily be found online. Wikipedia's summarizes the plot quite nicely and there's no reason for me to say anything about it here. As for the plot, it's pretty good. I didn't notice any major plot holes, although I must admit that the plot was a little slow-moving early on. It builds quite nicely and ends up very good in the latter part of the film. The ending, while sufficient, isn't quite as good as the events leading up to the ending which was too bad.

As for the acting, it was pretty good. Joan Fontaine is most excellent in her portrayal of a woman whose name is never given (although Mrs. de Winter will suffice for the purposes of reviews). She seems very nervous in the film which is rather appropriate for the character she plays. The other actors, while good, don't quite match Fontaine.

As for the rating, this film was made during the days of the Hays Code so it's pretty much impossible for it to be worthy of anything but G or PG. This film was not rated, but didn't contain much in the way of offensive content. The film is somewhat dark and does discuss murder and even hints at a lesbian relationship between several characters although this is very subtle. Overall, this film probably should be rated PG.

79/100
C+

UP NEXT: Let's continue our journey with foreign films and try something Italian - Bicycle Thieves.

HAHAHA!
Now you need to read the book.

cdurbfan22 wrote:

HAHAHA!
Now you need to read the book.

Read? Yeah, that'll happen

I only gave this a 79? Well I don't change scores once I make them but further research leads me to believe that by rewatching this it'd score higher.

catbox_9 wrote:

cdurbfan22 wrote:

HAHAHA!
Now you need to read the book.

Read? Yeah, that'll happen

I only gave this a 79? Well I don't change scores once I make them but further research leads me to believe that by rewatching this it'd score higher.

:haha: I'm sure.

Probably so. You may notice things that you hadn't before.