David O. Selznick presents Rebecca, produced by David O. Selznick, directed by David O. Selznick, music created by David O. Selznick, executive producer David O.
Rebecca was an turning point in Hitchcock's filmography. Sometime around 1940, David O. Selznick went to England for toffee and came back with a great lump of a director and he was like 'make this lame best-seller into a film'. Unfortunately, as we all know, Selznick was the second worst Hollywood producer of all time, whose job is to efface the signature of the director and he created an MGM film instead of a Hitchcock film.
The monotonous story unfolds pretty quickly at first, and then very slowly. As far as the acting goes, if this film didn't have Olivier it would have nothing, the new Mrs. de Winter is played by Joan Fontaine (who I hate), there's also a sinister housekeeper who gives off a real Lewinsky vibe but in the end not much comes of her.
All that being said the cinematography was good and there were a few interesting superficial similarities to K
ane. Particularly the final scene, which is probably the only Hitchcock ending to take itself seriously.