Jeremy Brett was the perfect Maxim deWinter, and Joanna David was the perfect Mrs. deWinter. They worked very well together. They later worked together again in a Sherlock Holmes episode. Jeremy Brett WAS Sherlock Holmes -- there was positively none better.
Like many folks who favour Brett's work, I was always disappointed to learn this was never available on DVD. So I thank you for posting. I do seem to recall the ending in later versions being a little more drawn out, this, for whatever reason, seemed quite rushed. But, that aside, Jeremy was one of the finest, exquisite, and most charming actors of his era. Deeply missed.....
Mrs. de Winter is sitting with her husband in the last scene, and speaking to us. Jeremy Brett really stole the show, but Joanna Davis is extremely effective as the mature woman in the opening and closing scenes.
By far the best adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's classic. It felt like going through each page again watching each scene. Truly faithful to the dame and her vision.
That was absolutely wonderful! I thoroughly enjoyed the whole series. Brett was pitch perfect as Maxim. Joanna David and Anne Massey were utterly convincing. Thank you for posting. I shall be watching all over again!
Thanks very much for uploading this! Am I the only one who likes both Hitchcock's film and this version alike? I think each one has its own charm and merit. I'm a big fan of Hitchcock's Rebecca and love Olivier and Fontaine. But this version is truer to the book and Massey's acting is blood-chilling! I wonder why they had to do remakes (1997 and 2020, and the italian version was just a bad joke). Did they think they could do it even better?
11 месяцев назад
1997 is my absolute fav version of Rebecca - it might be further in some slight aspects to the book, but I felt you felt Maxim's internal struggle much better than in the 1979 version. The chemistry was also more obvious in the 1997 version.
This was just wonderful! I didn't know it existed. I love the book and the hitchcock version, but wow this is extremely well done I thought! Thank you so much for posting it for us all to enjoy.
This would have been made six or seven years after Carol Burnett's 'Rebecky'. Anyway, I loved hearing Daphne du Maurier's own words here: some of the most beautiful English I've ever heard. And certain Jacobean touches in the interior were a treat. But I watched this following the Nineties remake, and have to conclude that they primarily serve to illustrate the brilliance of Alfred Hitchcock (and of the Hollywood Studio System). No words can adequately describe the perfection of Hitchcock's production.
I found this quite by chance and have now - thanks to this miniseries - all my ironing done from the past two weeks :) Wonderful film - and so true to the book, never knew this existed! THANK YOU for uploading - that was brilliant!
Thank you SO MUCH for putting this up ! I've always thought this version was the best , both in the casting and the acting. It is very sad that you can't buy it anywhere. But now, thanks to you, we can watch it even if we can't HAVE it! YAY! and thanks again! :)
Thank you so much for sharing this on RU-vid! Since my childhood I have been dreaming of watching this TV-version of "Rebecca" again, in my opinion the one which comes nearest the original novel. I have thoroughly enjoyed it!
As in the novel, we're not told whether Mrs Danvers perished in the fire. Any sequel would have to have Max de Winter beating Favell to death. Rebecca would of course haunt the house, restored or not, and the grounds. I want to know that Jasper survived the blaze.
This is the only version where Manderley was exactly as I imagined it when I read the book! Every other version the house was a disappointment. Happy Valley actually seemed this way to me in my dreams!
Thank you for posting this series! I enjoyed it very much and of course Jeremy was magnificent as ever ;) I liked his Max better than Olivier's Max. (even though Olivier was a living god just like Jeremy!) It is such an incredibly dark story.
@cliomusic @cliomusic But surely you could ask the same of Max, as to why he didn't fire the woman who kept the house as a shrine to the wife he abhorred so greatly? And I don't know that I would call Mrs de Winter weak, so much as meek and intimidated by her new life - I thought she seemed to grow a spine as events progressed. The fact remains that without Mrs Danvers, we would not have a story - Mrs Danvers is the soul of "Rebecca," though she is a twisted soul indeed.
In fact, young Mrs de Winter DID grow... In Chapter 21 when she writes, after Maxim's confession: "I would never be a child again. It would not be I, I, I any longer, it would be we, it would be us. We would be together. We would face this trouble together, he and I. [...] I was not young anymore. I was not shy. I was not afraid. I would fight for Maxim. I would lie and perjure and swear, I would blaspheme and pray. Rebecca had not won. Rebecca had lost"... Just too bad they didn't film that sequence of the book in Chapter 20 where young Mrs de Winter orders Mrs Danvers to change and simplify the menu, saying when the housekeeper protests: "It is me now who am Mrs de Winter. And if it enjoys me to send my instructions by Robert, I shall do so"...
Thanks for posting! I enjoyed that. I still think the Laurence Olivier version is the best but that's pretty close. Jeremy Brett was a great actor and the best Sherlock Holmes ever.
I find it interesting that in the Hitchcock movie Maxim didn’t kill Rebecca- it was an accident. I’ve got to read the book now. BTW- I love this version. Watching the Charles Dance as Maxim tonight.
Thanks very much for sharing the whole series! You know, I saw parts of it as a very little child in my country, my parents used to send me to.bed before the episodes finished . I remember that that big R in fire at the beginning scared me and I felt very sad for the girl, I wanted her to run away from that house, I couldn't possibly understand why she stayed there....As an adult I've seen the others versions. I must admit that my favorite one is by far Hitchcock's film, but this was the one that stuck to my head as a child and you've given me the chance to watch it. Thanks again!
Thanks so much for sharing this. Ever since I first saw this on the BBC in 1979 I was transfixed. This portrayal is so faithful to the book. I think that the film version is rubbish by comparison. Jeremy Brett, Joanna David and Anna Massey all play their parts to perfection.
I wonder why the individual Mrs. De Winter is relaying the tale to isn't Du Maurier herself. Otherwise, the final shot is perfect, showing the ashen skeleton of what once was Manderly
An Excellent production but my nudge goes to Hitchcock's version there was nothing lacking in the original to begin with. And George Sanders and Judith Anderson were just too good. And I think Brett (Big fan of Brett RIP)and David were excellent but not quite ready to upstage Olivier and Fontaine . Now Sherlock Holmes is different story .....
I saw this in 1979 and have been chasing it ever since. I think Jeremy Brett is the best Maxim, though Charles Dance bought a sexual tension to the part, Joanna David is perfect, plain and calm even better than her daughter Emilia Fox. Anna Massey's Mrs Danvers is definitive. I am undecided about Flavel. George Sanders was sinister, this one a sleeze, but the Flavel in the Charles Dance version did sleeze and venom. Sorry, but Laurence Olivier was a ham.
Small correction: it's Jack Favell ;-) and I quite found that the actor was close to du Maurier's description... as were all characters, by the way! I'd waited sooo long to watch this version again, and in English, as Belgian telly only gave it dubbed in French... :-( ... Pity we can't find it in DVD... It's the best!!
I totally agree with you, also on your last appreciation. Always found Lawrence Olivier too theatrical for movies.
11 месяцев назад
I loved Dance's version - I felt the inner struggle and the love for wife #2 much better than in the 1979 where I felt the struggle wasn't explore in depth and the love for wife #2 was almost glossed over
Thank you so much for this, I could not find it anywhere. I'm a Jeremy Brett fanatic (greatly admire Anna Massey too) and think he made an excellent Max de Winter. However, I disagree with those who feel they should diminish the importance of Hitchcock's version, in order better to defend this one. H's film won its autonomy from the book by developing themes the book demurred from emphasising, i.e., paedophilia(child-bride, 'never grow up', etc.) and the homoerotic love between R. and Danvers.
I always wondered who Mrs. de Winter was speaking to at the beginning and end of this adaptation. Of course, the novel is in first person, but she's not speaking to anyone in particular that we know of.
irisheyes317 It already has been brought to the stage originally in Vienna back in 2006 with a very successful 3 year run and has since enjoyed many other European productions as well. They tried bringing it to Broadway in 2012 but it didn’t work out because of financial drama and a fraud case, the producers lost the rights to a Broadway run in 2017 and the case finally closed about 2 months ago. The musical itself is really good and the Vienna production is here on RU-vid with English subtitles. I’d 10/10 recommend it to anyone, fan of the novel or not.
I liked the Charles Dance version and liked Emilia Fix and Diana Rigg but Charles Dance (his acting was good but) just didn't look like Maxim, he was too old and in no way IMO should Maxim be BLONDE! honestly Brett's acting is perfect, such ferocity as well as tenderness and vulnerability, and looks appropriately dark and smouldering and sultry and the right age.
Maybe she/he wanted to see whether the film would "get better"... I personally found it THE best of all versions, and SO happy to be able to watch it again after all these years, AND in English at last! A true enchantment... Sooo faithful to the book, the décor, the fashion of these late thirties... All characters, perfect!! Pity we can't get it in DVD! 'Wonder why the 1997 version seemed to portray the action in the late twenties!! BTW, Charles Dance, though the right character, was way too old to play Maxim... Who was 42 and not 10 years older! (Dance was 51 in 1997, and looked even older, whereas Olivier was just 33... and Brett 46...)
I think why Mrs. Danvers burnt the mansion down was because she knew her mistress Rebecca would always be their and should could not bear having that brat of a girl take over everything. all she ever wanted to have her mistress come back somehow to manderly. even if she was dead. Mrs. Danvers died in the mansion.
priestessmikokikyo77 You pity Rebecca and the Danvers? They are horrible people. Yes the girl is annoying. She can't stand up to Danvers or herself or Maxim and never grows up. But R and D are worse.
Jeremy Brett is brilliant in this movie. Sir Laurence Olivier was... as usual... in same role. Ham actor. Never understood "greatest actor alive" nonsence. Ever see the movie with Marilyn Manore? The Prince and The Showgirl. Awful. She was stunning and he was a ham.
Well, that may have been a good yarn, whichever filmed version you favour, but it would have been the more admirable had not the bulk of its ideas been lifted straight out of "Jane Eyre".
I guess Daphne du Maurier never wrote her novel (1938) with the intention of making a "happy ending"... And after all, well, Manderley was burned, but Maxim and young Mrs de Winter were safe, and deep in love with each other; she was so relieved of what she thought to be a hopeless love, at last facing a loving Maxim - whom she believed was still desperately in love with Rebecca whereas it was all the contrary!... (Hopefully dear Frank Crawley and the personnel... and the dogs... could escape the fire...) Isn't that the most important?
I don't like this one at all! Max de Winter's crazy eyes make me shiver and de second Misses de Winter seems to have no feelings! (Miss David is too old to play this part). I like the old movie (1940) much better and love the 1997-one with Charles Dance and Emilia Fox.
this was absolutely horrible. the actress was soo wooden and i didn't care for maxim at all. there was always a stiffness about him in too many scenes. the adaptation was slow and unmoving and i think everything was better (the actors, the story) in the Hitchcock film. 2/5
