She’s a predator, as homosexuals were often depicted in film. Danvers assumes the position of seductress and lover, whispering intimately into her victim’s ear. de Winter to kill herself using tactics perfected over centuries by playground bullies, Mrs. Danvers - is at the housekeeper’s mercy.Īs she tries to incite the second Mrs. Our heroine, distraught after accidentally invoking the late Rebecca’s memory at a costume party - thanks entirely to Mrs. But once her prey tries to assert herself, Danny unhinges her jaw. At first it’s jus that withering gaze and unwavering imperiousness. She’s dangerous for her powers of seduction, and the power she seems to have over the second Mrs. Danvers is thus the big bad wolf of this story. In Hitchcock’s hands, the intimation of nudity is as provocative as nudity itself, which was of course verboten under the Hays Code, as were any references to homosexuality. In the film’s most sexually charged scene, Danny picks up Rebecca’s lacey negligee, and demonstrates how thin and transparent it is. Danvers seems happy in the entire film is when she recalls helping Rebecca undress after she would come home late from a party. She fondles Rebecca’s underwear, still marveled by how beautiful and delicate they remain. The tension is palatable between the two women she’s at once seducing the second Mrs. Danvers dives into Rebecca’s closet and comes out of her own. Or at least, what a friggin’ lady dresses like. Instead of clawing her eyes out then tossing her body into the oft-discussed sea, Danny (as Rebecca so affectionally referred to her) shows the mousy upstart what a friggin’ lady looks like.

de Winter snooping around Rebecca’s room, which has remained untouched since her death. Now let’s go back to that infamous scene, shall we? Always fond of a dramatic entrance, Mrs. The only thing Danvers is really guilty of…is loving too much. He’s not gay after all, just kind of a murderer, which in 1940 is a LOT better. Turns out Rebecca was kind of a trash bag and carried on affairs indiscriminately she fell and hit her head after Max confronted/slapped her about it. Perhaps that’s a bit of a stretch, but Maxim does admit that he never loved Rebecca…right after admitting (spoiler!) that he “accidentally” killed her. For instance, his inexplicable rage - he admits to flying off the handle for no reason at all - could be a product of his own sexual identity crisis, much like Dennis Quaid’s closeted, self-loathing boozer in Todd Haynes’s Far From Heaven. Though eventually established as an avowed heterosexual, Maxim de Winter’s initial ambivalence to his wife is open to interpretation to queer viewers.

de Winter even offers to be Max’s companion - if he’s not in love with her. They must be in the library since Max is clearly in the mood to read.Īs determined as a freshman drama major trying to find a boyfriend in her department’s production of Rent, the second Mrs.

Rebecca movie