MovieChat Forums > Rebecca (1940) Discussion > Unintentional comedy

Unintentional comedy


1. Joan Fontaine's face when she first lays eyes on Manderlay
2. Mrs. Danvers' face - always (can't help thinking of Cloris Leachman in Young Frankenstein)
3. The ominous organ music strains when the first Mrs. DeWinter is referred to
4. Joan Fontaine's slouchy posture
5. When she enters the morning room and the dog gets up and skulks out

I'm sure there are more to come.... still watching

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And what was with those door knobs at shoulder height?!

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I don't understand the reference to unintentional comedy. There's plenty that's quite amusing in the film.

Like when the second Mrs. de Winter and her husband are going out for a walk, and Max insists she wear a raincoat, as she demurs he says "You can't be too careful with children!" To which she gives a wonderful but slight smile.

There's much of that sort of thing in the film, and I am sure it is intentional.

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"..and I should be making violent love to you behind a palm tree"

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The ominous organ music strains when the first Mrs. DeWinter is referred to

I agree. It was like a ghoulish soap opera scene being repeated, straight out of Dark Shadows. But this was 1940, and I am sure to audiences at the time, this type of atmospheric music was a lot more original and suspenseful than we regard it now. Though my guess is that ominous organ music was probably also used on suspenseful radio programs at the time, too. They could have cut back on some of it, kept it in there, but not so much or not so intrusive on the soundtrack.

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One of the funniest moments to me is when the heroine is in the study, the phone rings apparently looking for "Mrs De Winter". She says that Mrs De Winter has been dead for over a year and hangs up. Then a beat before she realises the caller was looking for *her*.

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I found myself snickering at the sentence "I looked up the definition of companion and it said 'Friend of the Bosom'"I need to grow up!

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