Hitch Takes On English Bastard

Rebecca (1940)

Starring: Laurence Oliver, Olivia D'Havilland Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock Rating: UR Genre: Drama Other

Review Hitch sat out the war trying his hand at this four-hanky mucous-inducer in which master thespian Lawrence Oliver locks the slight but gracious Olivia D'Havilland in her room for a couple of years to soften her up. But to what end? That's Hitchcock's famous "mcMugguffin" in this suspenseful but occasionally tedious trudge through ye olde England. Massive, rotting estates litter the countryside and Olivier screams in the rain while D'Havilland goes slowly mad. I must admit I didn't quite get it. Was D'Havilland the reincarnation of Olivier's first wife, back from the dead? Was Olivier the bastard son of the Duke of Marlboro? I'm not sure the maestro really got a handle on what England is about so I'll leave it up to you to tease some meaning from the shock ending. But, like the jelly with the nauseating name, if its Hitchcock who am I to question it?