It is inevitable, I suppose, to compare this 1997 Jim O'Brien version of Daphne de Maurier's Rebecca with that of Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 masterpiece · Knowing that this Rebecca was coming up for repeat on PBS, I revisited Hitchcock so as to have it fresh in my mind · Well, I probably be condemned to live out all eternity in hell for the blasphemy of suggesting that they are close to being on a par · Hitchcock builds the Gothic suspense as only he can do, perhaps helped by the black and white filming; O'Brien, no longer bound by the idiotic United Stated censorship rules, better develops the lesbian relationship between the housekeeper Mrs· Danvers and the first Mrs· de Winter · The acting in both is superb.