Rebecca (1940)

“The shadow of this woman darkened their love.”

Credits: Director: Alfred Hitchcock Screenplay: Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan Based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier Producer: David O. Selznick Music: Franz Waxman Cinematography: George Barnes Editor: W. Don Hayes Art director Lyle R. Wheeler

Cast: Lawrence Olivier: George Fortescu Maximillian “Maxim” de Winter Joan Fontaine: The second Mrs. De Winter George Sanders: Jack Favell Judith Anderson: Mrs. Danvers Nigel Bruce: Major Giles Lacy Reginald Denny: Frank Crawley C. Aubrey Smith: Colonel Julyan Gladys Cooper: Beatrice Lacy Florence Bates: Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper Melville Cooper: Coroner Leo G. Carroll: Dr. Baker Leonard Carey: Ben Lumsden Hare: Tabbs Edward Fielding: Frith Forrester Harvey: Chalcroft Philip Winter: Robert

Hitchcock Before Hollywood

Before ever coming to Hollywood, the industry for which he would direct over thirty films and lend his image, voice, and guidance to a successful television show, Hitchcock directed more than twenty-five films, both silent and sound (in fact, he directed the very first British sound film, Blackmail, in 1929).  Hitchcock began his career as a graphic artist and worked with German Expressionist filmmakers at the Ufa studios in Babelsberg, before returning to England to direct features.  As a result, he developed a very striking and flamboyant cinematic style that included a full range of camera distances and angles, quick cutting, close-ups of key props, point-of-view shots, and sexually suggestive symbolism.  While he enjoyed the sound-image relationship, Hitchcock always favored “pure cinema”: the use of the camera, mise-en-scène, and editing to tell a story. 

The commercial and critical success of Hitchcock’s early British films drew the attention of both American audiences and Hollywood producers.  David O. Selznick started courting Hitchcock in the late thirties and went to great lengths to sign him to his newly founded independent production company, Selznick International Pictures.  Selznick considered Hitchcock an attractive commodity for two primary reasons: 1. Hitchcock’s name alone had commercial clout.  He was a director-star, meaning that audiences were as much, if not more, drawn to his films due to his name on the marquee than the names of the actors and actresses.  2. Hitchcock was a producer-director.  He was capable of seeing a production from its inception through post-production and release.  This appealed to Selznick whose time was currently taken up by a little film called Gone With the Wind.  The most appropriate contemporary comparison to Hitchcock’s status as director-star and producer-director is Steven Spielberg whose name alone sells pictures to the movie-going public.        

Key Terms, People, and Concepts

Pre-sold properties, David O. Selznick, prestige film, production values, previews (or test screenings), B-film, backlot, storyboard, flashback, voice-over narration, high-key lighting, “three-point” lighting system (key light, fill light, and backlight), “race cinema,” Josef Von Sternberg, John Ford, Howard Hawks 

Elements to Look and Listen For

• Hitchcock’s cameo
• Uses of non-diegetic music
• Production values
• Visual representations of the disempowerment of the female protagonist

Interesting Facts

Rebecca is the only Hitchcock film ever to win the Oscar for Best Picture, and although Hitchcock was nominated that year for Best Director, he did not win, nor did he win Best Director the four subsequent times he was nominated [Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Rear Window (1954), and Psycho (1960)].  It wasn’t until the 1968 Academy Awards that Hitchcock received an Oscar.  His acceptance speech for that year’s Irving G. Thalburg Memorial Award for life-achievement consisted of two words:  “Thank you.”  Then he turned and unceremoniously walked off stage.

Joe Breen, censor for the Production Code, told Selznick:  “There must be no suggestion whatever of a perverted relationship between Mrs. Danvers and Rebecca.  If any possible hint of this creeps into [the film], we will of course not be able to approve the picture.”

Because star Laurence Olivier wanted his then-girlfriend Vivien Leigh (the star of Selznick’s triumphant success Gone With the Wind from the previous year) to play the lead role, he treated Joan Fontaine horribly. This shook Fontaine up quite a bit, so Alfred Hitchcock decided to capitalize on this by telling her that everyone on the set hated her, thus making her shy and uneasy on the set—just what Hitchcock wanted from her performance.

Hitchcock is famous for, among many things, his near 1:1 ratio of filmed footage to footage in the final product.  This means that Hitch’s preparation for shooting a film was so thorough that he rarely shot anything not preplanned.  This includes establishing shots, close-ups, alternative angles, and even, to an extent, multiple takes.  In Hollywood, directors average a 15:1, even 20:1 ratio of filmed footage to what ultimately makes the final product.

Commentary

“Rebecca may be the most straightforward film in the Hitchcock canon, a fact due entirely to Selznick’s insistence on strict adherence to the novel.”—Donald Spoto, The Art of Alfred Hitchcock 

“There are two, and only two, important types of manpower in motion pictures, and they are equally rare: the great top executive and the great individual picture-maker.” —David O. Selznick

Notable Hitchcock films produced in Hollywood: 

Suspicion (1941), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rope (1948), Strangers on a Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo (1958), North By Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963), Marnie (1964), Frenzy (1972). 

Notable films produced by David O. Selznick: 

The Four Feathers (Merian C. Cooper, 1929), Bird of Paradise (King Vidor, 1932), The Most Dangerous Game (Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1932), Christopher Strong (Dorothy Arzner, 1933), King Kong (Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933), Reckless (Victor Fleming, 1936), Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939), Spellbound (Hitchcock, 1945), Duel in the Sun (Vidor, 1946), The Paradine Case (Hitchcock, 1947), The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949).

Notable films adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s fiction: 

Jamaica Inn (Hitchcock, 1939), My Cousin Rachel (Henry Koster, 1952), The Scapegoat (Robert Hamer, 1959), The Birds (Hitchcock, 1963), Don’t Look Now (Nicholas Roeg, 1973).

Discussion Questions

1.  In what way does Rebecca exemplify an A-list film, or prestige production?  What elements of the film’s narrative and/or style do you find characteristic of a classical Hollywood prestige film?

2.  Consider one recent recipient of the Academy Award for Best Picture, for instance last years Million Dollar Baby, or films such as Gladiator, Titanic, American Beauty, Forrest Gump, or Silence of the Lambs, etc.  How does the film compare to Rebecca as Best Picture winner?  Could the film be classified as a prestige film?  Explain why or why not.   

3.  Hitchcock said of this film:  “Well, it’s not a Hitchcock picture, it’s a novellete, really.  The story is old-fashioned; there was a whole school of feminine literature at the period, and though I’m not against it, the fact is that the story is lacking in humor.”  Hitchcock seems to be critical of a “typically feminine” literature (and cinema).  What might he be referring to?  Is Rebecca a “feminine” film?  How might Rebecca be designed for a female audience?

4.  Why is Rebecca never shown in the film?  Hitchcock was adamant about avoiding any obvious flashbacks to reveal the “real” Rebecca.  Why do you think he made this decision?

5.  Many critics have pointed out that the heroine’s first name is never revealed, both in the novel and the film.  Why not?  Is there a thematic of ideological motivation?

6.  Hitchcock claimed that Manderley (the de Winter mansion) is really a “character” in the film.  What does he mean by this?  Consider how the characters interact with Manderley, especially our heroine.  How do editing, camera movement and mise-en-scéne “place” our heroine in her new home?  How might Manderley’s fate be thematically significant?