Like most of the older films I see in theatres, I won't spend a lot of time talking about "Rebecca"--what is there to say that hasn't already been said?
"Rebecca" is one of Hitchcock's earlier well known films--although he has several directing credits that predate it, I have only seen two of them, and the bulk of his most popular films were still over ten years away. There are fewer sequences of suspense than in most of his oeuvre, with the film opting instead for an overall sense of growing unease.
The film was not afraid to have long scenes of dialogue when required, which I appreciated. For all the fancy camera and editing tricks that can be used today, sometimes the best thing to do is simply to train the camera on your actors, provide them with a good script, and let them act. Letting a scene build slowly to its reveals lends them more weight and importance.
I was also struck by some of the dramatic musical cues, a sign of the times the film was made during. Such underscoring of dramatic events would be over the top and inspire laughter in a film made today, but it was the norm back then and, in this case, it works.
While not as "scary" or unrelentingly suspenseful as some of Hitchcock's later works, "Rebecca" acquits itself well by concentrating on plot and atmosphere, both gradually revealing themselves as the film goes on.
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