Stunningly dramatic Alfred Hitchcock drama adapted from the Daphne du Maurier novel.
A young woman (Joan Fontaine) meets a widower (Laurence Olivier) and they marry after a whirlwind romance. But when they return to his mansion in Cornwall, they find that the shadow of his dead wife Rebecca still haunts everyone who came into contact with her. Then there’s the sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), who has a dangerous obsession, and Rebecca’s lover Favell (George Sanders), intent on seeing her death investigated as a murder.
In typical Hitchcock style, the tension builds to almost unbearable levels. The film is noirish and verges on horror in places. Unusual framing and camera angles help to unnerve and unsettle.
Fontaine is wonderful as the woman trying to come to grips with a new life as a married woman who can never live up to her predecessor. Olivier is intense but could be more so. He doesn’t quite have the presence his reputation would suggest.
It’s perfectly paced and dynamic to the moment of the shocking conclusion.
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