Rebecca [videorecording]

     Review by: Chris

Title:  Rebecca [videorecording]

Starring:  Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson, Gladys Cooper, Nigel Bruce

Collection:  Movies

For many years, my sister-in-law, named Rebecca, scoured used bookstores and flea markets for cheap paperback editions of Daphne du Maurier’s classic novel Rebecca and gave them as Christmas gifts to members of her family, including me.  At one time, I had at least three copies.  It was sort of a family joke.  So in honor of her recent birthday, my wife and I watched the equally classic film based on the novel, and I was as delighted as I was the first time I watched it years ago.  The film, released in theaters in 1940, won Academy Awards for best picture and best cinematography.  Starring stage and screen legends Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, it is about an awkward young bride who is overshadowed, overwhelmed, and overcome by omnipresent reminders of her new husband’s first wife, Rebecca, and director Alfred Hitchcock perfectly captures the suspense and gothic tones of du Maurier’s novel.  This is one of those films that makes you say, “They just don’t make ‘em like they used to.”