Always forget this one when talking about Hitchcock's movies, perhaps because it was so thoroughly imprinted with the Selznick 'blockbuster' touch. Fresh from the huge success of Gone With the Wind, the formula is attempted again (bestseller adaptation, big name stars) to lesser success, but with darker overtones thanks to a promising young director. Joan Fontaine plays the cringingly obsequious 'new Mrs. DeWinter' (we never do actually learn her name, Maxim usually refers to her as either 'my darling' or 'you little fool'), and while her performance is uncomfortable for the audience, it is very effective, as it tends to put the audience in her corner . . . when she breaks the priceless knick knack on Rebecca's writing desk, our response is the same; "quick, hide it", and we become just as perplexed by her new husband's lightning quick temper outbursts, creeped out by the stern housekeeper (the excellent Judith Anderson), and generally overwhelmed by an oppressive personality who we can only guess at (the title character herself). George Sanders has a small but memorably slimy part, and Nigel Bruce plays his usual 'comic relief' self (a welcome release valve from the overbearing seriousness everyone else seems to carry around with them -- funny how his costume is a strongman carrying around a 'blow up' dumbell, that is so light it actually bounces).
Have seen this a few times over the past twenty years, and recently revisited it, it still holds up well. Highly recommended.