|
By Patricia Brennan LA Times-Washington Post Service Moonlit waves crash on a rocky shore; beauty and love, violent death and mystery are in the air. The "Masterpiece Theatre" production of "Rebecca," Daphne Du Maurier's gothic mystery, is lush, with a romantic musical theme that soars on the strings of violins. Next week's conclusion resolves the mystery, but it moves faster than the languid first half and loses a crucial bit of something delicious: Constructing a profile of Rebecca from those who knew her ("The most beautiful woman I ever saw," one man says. "Eyes like a snake," says another) is much more fun than seeing portions of her -- never a complete face -- played by an actress. If you can't wait, you could read the book, published in 1938. "Rebecca" was subsequently staged as a play, and from that version, Alfred Hitchcock made his first American film. Starring Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson and George Sanders, "Rebecca" won an Academy Aware as best picture of 1940 -- the only Hitchcock film to win an Oscar. This television version is almost twice as long as -- and richer in detail and psychological exploration than -- the original movie. Its cast, too, is excellent, headed by Charles Dance as the aristocratic Maxim de Winter, a moody and enigmatic man who cannot seem to get over the death of his beautiful wife, Rebecca, in 1926. A wealthy widower, he is fascinating to other women who have designs on him. But less than a year after Rebecca's death, he marries a young woman he meets in Monte Carlo. She has been the traveling companion of Mrs. Van Hopper, a wealthy, boozy and somewhat gauche American divorcée, played with flair by Faye Dunaway. Mrs. Van Hopper is a bit disappointed that de Winter gets away, but no doubt she'll return to New York for more fun and frolic after her young traveling companion leaves for England. At 21, the shy second Mrs. de Winter -- throughout the story, she never has a first name -- is rather inexperienced and naive to be marrying a middle-aged lord of the manor such as de Winter. A strange match, you may say, but after next week's episode, you'll see why he chose her. The actress who plays her is Oxford-educated Emilia Fox, who, like her character, was 21 when she made the movie. The daughter of actors Edward Fox and Joanna David, she played Darcy's sister Georgina in "Pride & Prejudice." Coincidentally, Fox's mother played the same Mrs. de Winter role opposite Jeremy Brett in a BBC television production of "Rebecca" that aired in four parts on PBS' "Mystery!" in 1980. "I think she was a bit nervous for me," Emilia Fox said. "My mother's performance I never went back to at all because it hasn't aired again. I saw the Hitchcock version about three years ago, and then when I found out that I'd got the part, I didn't go back to the Hitchcock version until halfway through the filming. "But the book was my friend. I think especially that what goes on in the character's mind is important. Daphne Du Maurier wrote with such detail what she was thinking." Upon arriving at Manderley, the formidable stone manor house, the new Mrs. de Winter meets the estate staff. Chief housekeeper is the sinister Mrs. Danvers, played by the imperious Diana Rigg. Danvers is a woman who obviously worshipped Rebecca and plans to make the usurper's life miserable. Young Mrs. de Winter is about to enter a house haunted by a woman with whom she cannot compete, as Danvers makes clear. The wing housing Rebecca's bedroom, looking out over the ocean where she drowned, is no longer used. The new wife will have to content herself with a room that looks out over the grounds. (The malicious Danvers softly suggests that Mrs. de Winter consider ending her misery by leaping out the window.) "I think she's not so much evil as unhinged," Rigg said, "unhinged by her grief for Rebecca, which has been unassuaged, and by her possessiveness of Manderley and all the memories it holds of Rebecca." Fox said she viewed Danvers "as the partner of Rebecca. If she told the girl to jump, it's almost a crime of passion for Rebecca. At that time, that servant-mistress relationship was so much stronger than now. It's like the nannies who go on to look after their child's children. And suddenly to have this replacement figure who is not glamorous and beloved...I don't know if it's borne of evil -- her hatred -- or jealousy." Geraldine James plays Maxim's sister, Beatrice, and Jonathan Cake plays rakish Jack Favell, Rebecca's more-than-a cousin. Danvers seems to have turned a blind eye to their relationship. Readers who know how "Rebecca" turns out may wonder whether Maxim de Winter has a dark side, but Dance thinks not. "Viewed in the context of the 1920s and the social mores and pressures of the time, and his social standing, no, I don't think he had an evil side." © Patricia Brennan for LA Times/Washington Post Service |