The Evil Maid - by frediXfilms
Dramatization of the evil maid at Manderley in Hitchcock's gothic thriller, Rebecca from 1940.
The protagonist, Maxim has fallen in love again after his beautiful but evil wife called Rebecca, died.
(read full story below.)
Plot:
The story begins with images of a ruined country manor, and a woman telling us that she can never return to Manderley — as it no longer exists, except as a ruin.
Joan Fontaine plays a young woman (who is never named) who works as a companion to the wealthy Edythe Van Hopper (Florence Bates). In Monte Carlo, she meets the aristocratic widower Maximilian (Maxim) de Winter (Laurence Olivier) and they fall in love. Within weeks, they decide to get married.
Maxim takes his new bride to Manderley, his country house in Cornwall, England. However, the servants are reluctant to accept the new Mrs. de Winter as the new lady of the house. They are loyal to Maxim's first wife, Rebecca, who died under mysterious circumstances.
Particularly unpleasant is the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson). She is still obsessed with Rebecca's beauty and sophistication, and preserves her former bedroom as a shrine, even to the point of seeming to worship Rebecca's handmade underwear and expensive négligée. In the documentary film The Celluloid Closet, it was suggested that Mrs. Danvers' obsession with Rebecca hinted at homosexual desires.[2] Rebecca's "cousin" Jack (George Sanders) (actually, and as well, one of her lovers) occasionally appears at the house when Maxim is away, and seems to know Mrs. Danvers well, calling her by the name "Danny", which was Rebecca's pet name for her.
The new Mrs. de Winter is intimidated by Mrs. Danvers and by the responsibilities of being the new chatelaine of Manderley. As a result, she begins to doubt her relationship with her husband. The continuous presence of Rebecca in the house starts to haunt her.
Trying to act more like the perfect wife, Mrs. de Winter suggests to Maxim that they host a costume party. Maxim reluctantly consents. Mrs. de Winter excitedly plans her own costume in secret, but Mrs. Danvers suggests that she copy Caroline de Winter, an ancestor, whose portrait hangs in the upstairs hallway. On the night of the party, Mrs. de Winter reveals her costume to Maxim, who is both surprised and angry at her, shouting at her to change her costume. Mrs. de Winter rushes upstairs, sees Mrs. Danvers go into Rebecca's room and follows her. There she confronts Mrs. Danvers about her knowing that Rebecca had worn the same costume the previous year. Mrs. Danvers retaliates by saying that she will never take Rebecca's place and almost convinces Mrs. de Winter to commit suicide. But Mrs. de Winter snaps out of her trance when a sudden commotion starts downstairs — a ship has been spotted foundering off the coast.
Mrs. de Winter (after changing her outfit) rushes downstairs to the front lawn, where she hears news that a sunken boat has been found off the coast - with Rebecca's body in it. She spots a distant glow from the cottage on the shore and enters to find Maxim. Maxim admits to his new wife that he had misidentified another body as Rebecca's in order to prevent discovery of the truth. From almost the beginning of their marriage, he and Rebecca had hated one another. They had agreed to "keep up appearances" of a real marriage for the sake of the family honor. Rebecca, however, began to get "careless" after a while, for example disappearing for days on end and then returning as though nothing was wrong. Maxim was also aware of Rebecca's ongoing affair with Jack. One night, suspecting to find Rebecca and Jack together, Maxim came down to the cottage. Rebecca had been expecting Jack, who had never come to see her. She told Maxim that she was pregnant with Jack's child. During the argument, she fell, hit her head, and died. Maxim took the body out in a boat which he then scuttled.
In the ensuing police investigation, officials question whether the damage to the boat indicates that Rebecca may have committed suicide. Jack quickly provides evidence, a letter from Rebecca, that strongly suggests that she was not suicidal. He then tries to blackmail Maxim with it, but the blackmail plan backfires. Maxim comes under suspicion of murder; and the second Mrs. de Winter must face the prospect of losing her husband. The investigation focuses on Rebecca's secret visits to a London doctor (Leo G. Carroll), which Jack presumes was due to her illicit pregnancy. However, an interview with the doctor reveals that Rebecca was, in fact, suffering from cancer, and would have died very shortly. She was not pregnant: she had lied to Maxim, apparently trying to goad him into killing her — as an (indirect) means of suicide.
As Maxim returns home to Manderley, he finds his wife safe and sound but the house on fire, set alight by the deranged Mrs. Danvers, who dies in the flames.
