Many people that are familiar with Alfred Hitchcock likely know him because of his notable classics, such as Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and, of course, Psycho. However, his first true classic, Rebecca, came out much earlier and seems to be talked about a lot less. I find this interesting, because Rebecca is actually Hitchcock’s only film to ever win the Oscar for Best Picture. It may not have gained quite the same notoriety as his later films, but Rebecca is definitely still worth watching.

The basic gist here is that a woman meets a man named Maxim de Winter. The two begin a relationship and get married pretty quickly. Then, they return back to Maxim’s home, a mansion filled with many servants. The new Mrs. de Winter soon discovers that the mansion is still very much filled with reminders of Maxim’s first wife: Rebecca, a woman that tragically died when going out to sea one day. Maxim’s new wife keeps feeling Rebecca’s presence in the house, as she keeps being mentioned and she continues to always feel like she falls short of the reputation that Rebecca had. This new obsession begins to drive Mrs. de Winter mad, and so this leads to the mystery of what’s really going on.

In the same way as a more recent classic like Get Out, Rebecca plays a lot with paranoia. While things like motive eventually become perfectly clear, a lot of the movie revolves around Mrs. de Winter trying to find out more and more about Rebecca, and it’s unclear whether the people in the mansion like her or not. I think that this is one of the movie’s bigger strengths. Hitchcock is of course known for mastering the art of suspense, and that’s definitely at play here. Rebecca is much more of a mystery than it is a horror/thriller movie, but it still keeps you on your toes just the same.

I personally think that the movie’s biggest talent comes in how it deals with the character of Rebecca. This is one of those movies where we never actually see the character of Rebecca on-screen, not even in flashbacks. Despite this, Rebecca’s presence is always felt in the movie from beyond the grave, and so she feels like a major character despite never actually appearing. I’ve always found this to be an impressive device in any movie that does this, but Rebecca definitely excels at it.

All in all, I do think that Rebecca is worth watching. At the time of writing, it’s actually the first and only Hitchcock movie I’ve ever seen (one of my greatest personal sins as a movie buff), and so I can’t really compare it to his other movies yet. I can only judge this one on its personal merits. For what it’s worth, I thought it was pretty good. My only real problem with it is that I think it’s kind of slow at times. The movie is over 2 hours long, which I think is a bit much. I think the movie could have benefited from a bit of trimming, because there were a few points I was bored, especially in the first half. Other than this, I thought Rebecca was a really well-crafted mystery, and so if you’re looking for an old suspenseful classic that isn’t talked about as much anymore, give it a try.

4/5