Rebecca

This book starts a little slow, but is good at building the suspense. I knew Rebecca would not be what she seems, but I was surprised that Maxim had murdered her. I was also very disappointed that the movie changed this. The drama of the book is wrapped up in the fact that Maxim did, in fact, commit a crime. In the movie his only real crime is covering up her death.

Mrs Danvers' character in the movie was sufficiently creepy. The scene where she is attempting to coerce Mrs De Winter into suicide is done well.

The movie skips many minor scenes, which are selected skillfully to keep the plot moving.

Much that is implied in the book is spelled out in the movie. The viewer is hit over the hit with what are supposed to be subtle implications. We see Mrs Danvers set fire to the house, when in the book she flees before Manderley is set fire.

The main character of the story, who narrates in first person, is never named in either format. It seems that when she changes from mousy to firm we could have learned her name.

I actually liked one change in the movie... Mrs DeWinter takes a firm hand with Mrs Danvers, and her life in general, when she realizes Mrs Danvers deliberately set her up to anger Maxim. In the book this change does not come until Maxim's confession.

It was amusing to watch such an old film, with the backgrounds so obviously fake.