A good old classic for you all tonight with classy acting from Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine and Alfred Hitchcock’s inimitable directorial style.

‘Rebecca’ is based on the novel by Daphne Du Maurier and the plot revolves, around a shy ‘ladies companion’, who is never named, spending time in Monte Carlo with her employer. Whilst in Monte Carlo, she meets the dashing widower Maxim De Winter, falls head over heels in love with him and marries him.

After the swift wedding and honeymoon, he new Mrs De Winter travels to Maxim’s ancestral home ‘Manderlay’ in Cornwall in the South West of England. She arrives with Maxim to find a house full of servants, many reminders of ‘Rebecca’ the first Mrs De Winter, and a very curious and creepy houskeeper called Mrs Danvers.

The second Mrs De Winter attempts to make the best of her life in this remote pile full of memories of the first Mrs De Winter who had supposedly died in a boating accident, are made more difficult by Mrs Danvers. Mrs Danvers believes that the new Mrs De Winter cannot equal the woman who was lost and undermines the woman’s every move and her marriage to Maxim.

This state of affairs continues until divers looking for another lost boat come across the boat with Rebecca’s body in it and both the body and the boat tell a more complex tale than merely of someone getting lost at sea. The drama then cranks up a gear with accusations of foul play and an interesting twist towards the end.

I saw this film many years ago and it is one that I go back to now and again. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Even if you don’t like Hitchcock, this one is worth giving a try.