大象传媒

Hitchcock himself dismissed his adaptation of Daphne du Maurier鈥檚 Rebecca as "novelettish". That鈥檚 an unnecessarily harsh judgement of a compelling film, which won the director his only Best Picture Oscar.

Produced by David Selznick, Rebecca is a delirious Gothic melodrama, swimming with queer undercurrents. Laurence Olivier plays brooding widower Max de Winter. Joan Fontaine plays his unnamed second wife, who discovers that life on de Winter鈥檚 imposing Cornish estate is dominated by memories of her deceased predecessor.

Foreshadowing Rear Window and Vertigo, the film digs deep into male anxieties about female sexual desire. Max deliberately chooses to replace Rebecca - who he confesses to having hated for her infidelities - with Fontaine鈥檚 girlish character. He treats her less as an adult partner than as an incompetent child. Lacking in "beauty, brains, and breeding", she becomes obsessed with Rebecca, dressing up in the latter鈥檚 exquisite clothes for a costume ball.

The title character is never seen, but she is described as a "beautiful creature" and is repeatedly associated with water. Her spirit haunts everything. The menacing housekeeper Mrs Danvers (Judith Anderson) is certainly scarily devoted to her late mistress. "Danny" - note the male nickname - gets to caress one of Rebecca鈥檚 furs and fondle her underwear!

"DIGS INTO ANXIETIES OF FEMALE SEXUAL DESIRE"

Taking in Lyle Wheeler鈥檚 magnificent interior sets (they dwarf Fontaine鈥檚 timid character) and a wonderfully caddish turn from a blackmailing George Sanders, Rebecca sweeps the viewer along to an incendiary conclusion.