Guest Author - Vannie

If you are a lover of black and white movies, of gothic movies, of mystery movies, of romance movies, this 1940 Alfred Hitchcock drama is for you. Hitchcock lost nothing in bringing Rebecca, Daphne DuMaurier's dark gothic romance novel to the screen. This movie is good to watch alone but great to watch with a friend. This way when you wonder out loud why Joan Fontaine's character is so annoyingly spineless that you feel like taking a dig are her yourself, you will get an answer. Here is a case of wanting the underdog to win but hoping she will develop a stronger back bone along the way as well.

Filmed in glorious black and white, the opening scene and monalogue sets the tone for this movie. Joan Fontaine who plays the second Mrs. deWinter states in a disembodied voiceover "Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter for the way was barred to me. Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden, the supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me. The drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had always done. But as I advanced, I was aware that a change had come upon it. Nature had come into her own again, and little by little had encroached upon the drive with long tenacious fingers, on and on while the poor thread that had once been our drive. And finally, there was Manderley. Manderley, secretive and silent..."

And so it begins. Fontaine is the pretty and shy companion to an unsympathetic social-climbing, wealthy woman, Mrs. Van Hooper, who seems to enjoy being cruel to Fontaine and putting her down at every turn. When Fontaine meets, falls in love with and marries a rich still grieving widower, you cheer as she escapes Van Hooper's cruelty. But not before she belittle's Fontaine one more time and says out loud what Fontaine is thinking. Why would someone like Maxim deWinter (Laurence Olivier) be interested in someone like her? Fontaine feels no welcome upon her arrival to deWinters Manderly estate where she is greeted by the grim faced housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers' (played splendidly by Judith Anderson) who seems to hate her on sight. Nor does she feel that she is mistress of Manderly. When Mrs. Danver's calls for Mrs. deWinter on the intercom Fontaine is startled and replies in a confused manner.

This movie has many layers. Relationships are blurred. Rebecca's shadow hovers like a mist and lingers in every corner of the house. Everyone appears obsessed with Rebecca, even in death. Fontaine finds that Manderly was not as happy as it was professed to be and that Rebecca's fate was the result of her dark side and her secrets. The end is a shocker.

This is a must see and must have for classic film buffs.