Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca, adapted to the screen for Masterpiece Theater in this 1997 two-part production, has all the elements of a gripping gothic tale: the innocent young woman with no relations to watch out for her; the charming but also subtly menacing older man; hidden secrets and skeletons in the closet; and, of course, the brooding mansion itself: Manderley. And the result is indeed entertaining, offering twists and turns in the true gothic tradition.

In a very appropriate touch, we never actually know the name of the main character, the young woman who becomes "the second Mrs. de Winter" (Emilia Fox). She is overshadowed completely by the oppressive presence of the first Mrs. de Winter: Rebecca, whose name is constantly in use from the opening scene of the film to the end. Rebecca, the glamorous, fascinating wife of Maxim de Winter (Charles Dance); her untimely demise is still on everyone's minds, and her unseen presence seems to haunt all the characters in this film, in one way or another.

One of the advantages of a longer running time, as we get here with the three hours of Rebecca, is that it allows for a detailed and steady development of character. We get to know the young Mrs. de Winter very well, sharing in her excitement at a new life and also at her growing discomfort and unease as she discovers how poorly she fits into the society of Manderley. In the true spirit of the gothic story, we desperately want the best for her, all the while fearing the worst. Plot-wise, Rebecca is well paced overall. There's a bit of a slow part in the middle, in which it seems as though the character of Mrs. Danvers (Diana Rigg) is being overplayed a bit, but the story soon picks up and heads in an interesting direction.

One of the most compelling things of Rebecca is the way it muddies the waters with regard to "good" and "evil." There are no clear-cut boundaries between right and wrong in the film: the characters we sympathize with are not necessarily the ones who are innocent, and the characters who are "doing the right thing" appear detestable. The film steers us toward hoping for a favorable resolution for the characters we care about, but in doing so, it also makes us complicit... to evil? Perhaps, or perhaps not: it depends on your point of view, but in any case, it's impossible to make any tidy, clear-cut value judgments on any of the characters of Rebecca. Not a single character is clearly innocent or clearly evil, not Maxim de Winter, his new young wife, or even the obsessive Mrs. Danvers. It's this skilful handling of the characters in the film that takes Rebecca up a notch from the standard gothic pot-boiler, and makes it a story with some real substance to it.

The DVD

Video

I was shocked to realize that this production was made in 1997... from the image quality, I assumed that it had been made in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The image is very noisy, and with the presence of edge enhancement in the mix, the result is a fairly blurry image that doesn't have good detail. A certain graininess is apparent as well. Colors are faded overall, and lack vibrancy. If the original film elements were twenty years old, this image quality would be about average for something that hadn't been particularly restored; as it is, there's really no excuse for a television production from the late 90s to look this way.

The image is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, which appears to be its original made-for-television aspect ratio.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack for Rebecca is satisfactory. The film is dialogue-focused, and the track carries the actors' voices cleanly. The overall sound tends to be a little flat, but doesn't exhibit any particular problems.

English closed captions are available.

Extras

As Rebecca was broadcast as a Masterpiece Theater presentation, it includes introductory and closing remarks from the Masterpiece Theater host, with some mildly interesting thoughts offered up here. The handling of this material is rather irritating, as it's built into the film itself rather than being a separate special feature, but at least it's skippable.

In fact, the DVD transfer appears to be a direct port of the A&E original... including having the credits appear again in the middle of the film, along with the introduction to the second part. Instead of doing the sensible thing and removing the unnecessary credits for the home theater release, the DVD producers just left everything as it was for the television broadcast.

Some text bonus material is included on the DVD: a set of questions and answers from Diana Rigg about her role, and cast filmographies. A poster gallery is also included.

Final thoughts

While I'm disappointed with the decidedly lackluster image quality of the DVD, all in all the Masterpiece Theater presentation of Rebecca is recommended. It's an interesting story, well acted and presented, and should be quite entertaining to any viewer who's in the mood for a gothic tale.