Generally praised for sticking more closely to the Du Maurier plot than the earlier academy award winning 1940 Hollywood film or the shorter and less complete 1997 television remake the speeches are changed too much to seem pure DuMaurier and the panning long shots and low end seventies technology seem at least in my case to make the visual on the DVD reissue in many cases unpleasant. "Do you know Palm Beach" is NOT do you care for Palm Beach and the first lines of the opening speech "I dreamed I was at Manderlay" meaningless when the point of the first speech is neither spoken or filmed. The three most memorable characters namely Joanna David as the second Mrs.DeWinter with no first name, Anna Massey as Danny Danvers and and Jeremy Brett as the present squire of Manderlay do a wonderful acting job not always filmed to best advantage here in a panning shot, here from behind or at an odd angle, here with a filter or Vaseline on the camera lens making the DVD reissue less pleasant to watch than it might have been on small picture tube televisions of thirty eight years ago. More of the plot than the competing versions but the least palatable photography or editing of the multiple available versions of this famous novel.
Rebecca
(1979)
a poorly edited and photographed otherwise fine remake
14 April 2017
Warning: Spoilers