Rebecca marks Alfred Hitchcock's first hollywood studio film, and it has all the grandeur of the big hollywood classics. An attractive girl (Joan Fontaine) is traveling with an older society woman (as a paid companion) when she meets, and subsequently falls in love with wealthy aristocrat, Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier). It's a whirlwind courtship, and soon Maxim brings his new bride home to his enormous family estate. It is there the new wife begins unravelling the mystery of his first wife, the late Rebecca de Winter (Rebecca's character is so dominant that, while she's the film's title character, the new wife is only referred to in the credits as "the second Mrs. de Winter"). Maxim admires his new wife's youthfulness and beauty (and Fontaine really is striking), but seems haunted by the memory of his dead first wife. The household staff, especially Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) treat the new wife as an interloper, and keep the house as if a shrine to Rebecca (her monogram is seemingly on every article in the house). The new Mrs. de Winter is a little too timid to stand up to the bullying of the staff and feels intimidated by Maxim's upperclass friends. The memory of Rebecca extends far in the couple's world, and even in death, Rebecca seems to want to reach out and smother her replacement. Rebecca is an unusual film in that it's a Hitchcock film that doesn't necessarily feel like a Hitchcock film. Sure, there are a few moments that have Hitchcock's signature all over them (near the beginning of the film, when newlywed Maxim buys his bride a bouquet of flowers, and she's struggling to see over them, screams out Hitchcock more than anything), but overall, while the film is expertly crafted, it lacks that weird Hitchcock flavor (not that this is a bad or good thing, just different). The performances are all top notch and the story is compelling. Rebecca would make my (hypothetical) list of top 100 films, though I'm not sure how high it would rank, it'd definitely be there.