THE NEW PROGRAMMES

Evening Star, Issue 23687, 21 September 1940, Page 7

THE NEW PROGRAMMES

UNDIMINISHED POPULARITY • REBECCA ' STARTS ANOTHER WEEK After attracting crowded houses during the past two weeks to the Octagon, ‘ Rebecca,’ the powerful screen dramatisation of Daphne du Manner’s celebrated novel, is still proving as popular an attraction as ever. From the opening scene until the close, this magnificent picture is as brilliant in conception, treatment, and in the work of its east as anything .that has ever been seen on a local screen. Lawrence Olliyier, whose performance in ‘ Wuthering Heights ’ won him such high praise from the critics has the leading role, and outstanding as his acting undoubtedly was in that picture it is doubtful whether his presentation of Max de Winter in ‘ Rebecca ’ is not even finer. He is seen as the scion of an old Cornish family and the owner of the rambling mansion Manderley, and as such he is a singularly dominating figure. Through the story runs the influence of a dead woman, do Winter’s former wife, Rebecca, whoso presence and personality confront her successor at every turn. Joan Fontaine, as the second wife, is given every opportunity to exploit her undoubted acting ability, and she invests her role with a charm and freshness that makes it one ol the outstanding features of the film. Circumstances have made her an underling, and lack of sclf-confidence at first makes her hut a poor mistress of the manor. Moreover, the old housekeeper, who was passionately devoted to Rebecca, is fiercely jealous of her new mistress, and never does she miss an. opportunity of comparing the. girl unfavourably with de Winter’s first wife.