I know I was too young to fully understand the entire point of Daphne du Maurier's incandescent novel, "Rebecca" the first time I read it. But the creepy concept of an English manor ruled by the memory of its previous mistress stuck with me and in the last 40 years I've probably reread the book a dozen times.
The same can be said for Alfred Hitchcock's stellar film of the same name, released in 1940. Starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine.
Now, I'm not a purist. I believe there are some films that improve with a make over. ("3:10 to Yuma" comes to mind, as does "Gatsby.") That said, there are some films I believe are untouchable, and should never be remade: Gone with the Wind, The Grapes of Wrath, Dr. Zhivago, films like this. And, up until this weekend, "Rebecca" was on that list. "Rebecca" is on my top 100 list of films of all time. I'm not as glamorous as say, AFI, but I've seen a crap ton of movies, and I know what I'm talking about when it comes to what I like.
Not that I'm entirely sold on the idea of a Rebecca remake. Even after watching the new film, I'm not sure this was something that should have been done. However, it's Covid. Not everyone has access to the classics, but they're looking for something to watch. So let me compare the films side by side. Grading will be based on what the NEW film improved or failed.
Let's start with the main characters:
MAXIM
I'm absolutely on board with the new film on this. I have said many, many times that I think Olivier is woefully overrated and if there is a weak link in Hitchcock's film, it's because no one...and I mean no one...can buy Laurence Olivier as a mysterious romantic stranger who would sweep a young girl off her feet. Especially with the way he delivers every line as if his mouth is a machine gun and the words are bullets he's firing at...oh...Nazis. Weirdly, I thought Olivier was in his fifties when he played this role. He was not. He was barely 32.
Meanwhile...Armie Hammer? Handsome, charming, can deliver a romantic line without looking like he's in pain. Oh yeah. UPGRADE! (And far younger looking and acting at 34.)
MRS. DE WINTER
(Brilliant and so annoying that du Maurier didn't name her main character.)
Okay, Joan Fontaine does her level best, I'm sure, to be a young, innocent girl. At 23, she pretty much was a young innocent. But she wanders around with her shoulders hunched like she doesn't know what a basic things are. One almost expects her to look at an omelet and say, "What's an egg?" She's not bad as the young Mrs. DW, but she's not...well she's a little annoying. It's like, "He's your husband. would you just ask him a question already?"
Lily James is no young innocent at 31, (and is there a British project she isn't in right now?), but she handles the part of Mrs. DW in a far different way. Instead of being a shriveling creature freezing in the headlights, she's a young woman trying to actually improve herself without much help from the outside world. (The scene where she orders breakfast in French is great.) She doesn't let the idea of Manderly steamroll her. She's overwhelmed, but she wants to learn, she's trying to learn, she's trying to be a better wife all the way around. She's young, but you can tell she wants to make it work. UPGRADE.
THE MUSIC:
I'm a huge fan of movie music and I have to be honest here, I think both movies have just terrible music. My biggest gripe about old films is that the music is very, very jarring with any kind of subtlety. Like listening to a junior high orchestra. It's all loud. It's all fast. But at least for the 1940 film, it fit. Meanwhile, Rebecca 80 years later stuck some really, really random Irish vibing tune in at just the weirdest times. Rebecca is not a comedy. But I found the music hilarious and just wrong. DOWNGRADE.
ROMANCE
I realize acting, like everything else, has evolved over the generations. That said, I think you can still look at a classic romantic movie and say, "Yeah, I get that romance. They've got a spark."
I call to mind the scene edited out of the theatrical release, (but in the director's cut which you have to see) of "Streetcar Named Desire." It's just Marlon Brando watching Kim Hunter walk down a flight of stairs. But good lord in the morning it is HOT!
And then there's the kiss in "Gone with the Wind" no, not the one where Clark Gable carries Vivien Leigh up a flight of stairs, although that's pretty good. The one I'm talking about is much earlier in the film, where Rhett's leaving Scarlett and a wagon full of weak people on the road to Tara and he's going off to war. WHEW!
Okay, now let's look at all the steamy kissing we get in 1940's "Rebecca." Right. There is none. Basically, Maxim and the unnamed young girl get together BECAUSE IT SAYS SO IN THE SCRIPT. You get zero vibe (and I put this at Olivier's feet as a fail. Maxim is the LEAD in this romance, and he acts like he's about as interested in romance as he is in women's shoes.) from Maxim that he's anything other than rude, abrupt, and just annoyed with life. And why young miss goes with him? Well, again...IT SAYS SO IN THE SCRIPT.
Meanwhile, 2020. Now, the romance in the book is hinted at, and honestly by 2020 standards, this film is mild on the spicy meter. (There's one shot of a couple on a boat making out naked...but it's at a distance and I'm not even sure why it's there, but whatever.) However, you do get the feeling that there's a real attraction between the two and Lily James seems heartbroken at the thought of leaving for New York and never seeing Armie Hammer or his sun kissed pecs ever again. Hammer, for his part, is a solid romantic lead and while he's not paving any new ground with his performance here, he holds up his end of the bargain, and really does seem like a legitimate romance there in Monte Carlo. UPGRADE
MRS. VAN HOPPER
Florence Bates is brilliant as the employer from hell, Mrs. Van Hopper, but one of my personal faves, Ann Dowd, (only slightly less evil than her "Aunt Lydia" from "A Handmaid's Tale.") gets some extra screen time to take the horror to a new level. UPGRADE.
MANDERLY
Call me old fashioned, but if a house is supposed to be a creepy, it should feel creepy and not so, oh I don't know, Downton Abby-ish. The black and white film goes a long way to adding to that creepiness. DOWNGRADE
THE IN-LAWS
The one tiny, tiny bit of humor in either film comes from Maxim's sister Beatrice and her bumbling husband Giles. While hilarious and just what we need in the 1940 version, 2020 guts the parts and removes the humor. DOWNGRADE.
JACK FAVELL
George Sanders is oily and urbane and witty and you can't wait to see him on the screen again and again. Sam Riley...well, I'm not sure what he's trying to do, but he winds up feeling like a dopey frat boy who needs some cash. DOWNGRADE
MRS. DANVERS
Here's the real crux of the story. It really all hinges on Mrs. Danvers. Seriously, the book, the movie, all of it. She is the real center figure. So, how did we do?
Judith Anderson is EVERYTHING that is right with the 1940 film. She is emotionless. She is cold. She is in those creepy long dresses and her hair...well you just know she's not right with that hair. But what really gets you is that moment...that moment she and the new Mrs. DW are looking out the window...well, you know...if I had her whispering in my ear I'd probably jump. Her ending is perfection.
Meanwhile...Kistin Scott Thomas...sigh. She does not rise to the level of creepy needed in this film. She barely manages "Annoyed headmistress." And the relationship put together in music montage form (normally I love a good music montage but not here) tries to cover for the fact that she can't get creepy enough to scare anyone. And her final scene is, in a word, lame. Which is fitting.
DOWNGRADE
Final notes on the new movie: Armie Hammer is great, but sleepwalking in his boxers, not great.
The actors who play Robert and Clarice look like they just came from a casting call at "American Horror Story: FreakShow."
Some of the added scenes are terrible. Just really pointless and bad. Not the ones where Armie Hammer is shirtless though. Those are gold. (Much like his chest hair in the Monte Carlo sun.)
FINAL ANALYSIS:
The front half of the movie is actually better than the original. Seriously. The ship sinks, however, the minute we get to Manderly. The villains (Favell and Danvers) and the terrible casting of those parts, ruin the second half of the film. (Sam Riley and Kristin Scott Thomas should be fined or have their SAG card suspended or something for a year.) So here's what you want to do if you want the BEST Rebecca experience.
Watch the first half of the 2020 movie. Watch the second half of the 1940 movie.
Or, you could just read the book.
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