![]() He takes her up-he nearly kidnaps her-in a patronizing way, one that is not just impulsive but a sign of his own brittle emotional state. That is more an order than an offer, for Maxim de Winter does not treat “I” as his equal. Van Hopper, “I” is rescued by an unexpected marriage proposal from a lately bereaved man. Half crushed in her position as paid companion to the obnoxious Mrs. This is also the story of a withheld honeymoon. I don’t think Hitchcock had ever seen evil more clearly. Danvers-though she has no first name-and the height of Judith Anderson’s chilling performance is that moment when she tries to will “I” into killing herself. Grant that possibility and it’s easier to realize that Rebecca has its own wicked witch. Beyond that, there is some hint of a murder mystery, or of the possibility of murder-a suggestion enhanced by the presence of director Alfred Hitchcock (just arrived in Hollywood after a string of celebrated English thrillers, and already famous as a master of murder).īut Rebecca is also a ghost story, or a restrained scheme of horror, in which a Jane Eyre figure senses a malevolent spirit in the attic or in the mistress’s old bedroom. The counterpoint offers romance, in which the shy, self-effacing “I” may find love and happiness, after being intimidated by the “society” she has married into. de Winters, fair and foul, life and death, and of a man torn between them. ![]() This is, after all, the story of two Mrs. The anonymous young woman is striving to replace the burnished, intimidating reputation of that absent presence, the beautiful and accomplished hostess Rebecca. Take two women: one has a name- the name-yet she never appears the other is there all the time, but she is not identified. An unstressed counterpoint lies at the heart of Rebecca (1940). ![]()
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