Rebecca is a Gothic mystery directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was the only film of his to ever win Best Picture despite it being one of his lesser-known works today (I'd venture to say most people know him by his later efforts like Rear Window, Psycho, and The Birds). Interestingly, this film beat out Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator to win its award.
A young woman (played by Joan Fontaine, though we never learn the character's first name) is swept off her feet by an English aristocrat (Laurence Olivier) who owns an extensive estate in Cornwall, and they marry after a whirlwind romance at a hotel in Monte Carlo. Once back at his home, the young bride quickly realizes there was something strange about both the life and death of her husband's first wife, the titular Rebecca. She seems to loom over everything, jeopardizing the fragile happiness of a young couple who married quickly and don't know each other well.
In what I've been told is typical of Hitchcock films, a lot of things are implied or left for the viewer to draw their own conclusions. It was nice not to be hand-fed everything by the director. The plot itself seems to have been taking some inspiration from Jane Eyre and other Gothic-style tales with the huge mystery mansion, the brooding Byronic male lead, and the secrets surrounding the first wife. I even detected some inspiration from the fairy tale Bluebeard. I've seen some descriptions of it as "a Cinderella story gone wrong" but I'd put it more firmly in the Bluebeard family.
Olivier in looks and mannerisms kept reminding me of Cary Elwes. Or maybe the other way around. As an additional fun tidbit, Rebecca's oily former lover, who shows up to play tertiary antagonist behind the dead wife and the creepy housekeeper, was portrayed by George Sanders, the future velvety voice of Shere Khan the Tiger from Disney's The Jungle Book (I had one of those "I know that voice!" moments).
I was curious from the moment we were first shown the exterior of the creepy house which real-life house it was, because the Haunted Mansion at Disney World is a dead ringer (ha ha) for it. In fact the house in this movie was entirely a model and no actual house was used. But I bet you anything at least one of the Disney Imagineers was inspired by it.
Watched: October 21, 2017
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