Rebecca

Theatrical poster

Directed by
Alfred Hitchcock

Produced by
David O. Selznick

Written by
Original novel:
Daphne du Maurier

Adaptation: Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan
Screenplay:
Joan Harrison
Robert E. Sherwood

Narrated by
Joan Fontaine

Starring
Laurence Olivier
Joan Fontaine
Judith Anderson

Music by
Franz Waxman

Cinematography
George Barnes

Editing by
W. Donn Hayes

Distributed by
Selznick International Pictures
United Artists

Release date(s)
April 12, 1940 (USA)

Running time
130 minutes

Country
USA

Language
English

Budget
$1,288,000

Allmovie profile

IMDb profile

Rebecca is a 1940 psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock as his first American project. Its screenplay was an adaptation by Joan Harrison and Robert E. Sherwood from Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan’s adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel of the same name, and was produced by David O. Selznick. It stars Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter, Joan Fontaine as his second wife, and Judith Anderson as his late wife’s housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers.

The film is a gothic tale about the lingering memory of the title character, which still affects Maxim, his new bride, and Mrs. Danvers long after her death. The film won two Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Contents

• 1 Plot
• 2 Adaptation
• 3 Cast
• 4 Awards
• 5 In popular culture
• 6 Footnotes
• 7 External links

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Plot

The story begins with images of a ruined country manor, and a woman telling us that she can never return to Manderley – as it no longer exists, except as a ruin. Joan Fontaine plays a young woman (who is never named) who works as a companion to the wealthy Edythe Van Hopper (Florence Bates). In Monte Carlo, she meets the aristocratic widower Maximilian (Maxim) de Winter (Laurence Olivier) and they fall in love. Within weeks, they decide to get married.

Maxim takes his new bride to Manderley, his country house in Cornwall, England. However, the servants are reluctant to accept the new Mrs. de Winter as the new lady of the house. They are loyal to Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca, who died under mysterious circumstances.

Particularly unpleasant is the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson). She is still obsessed with Rebecca’s beauty and sophistication, and preserves her former bedroom as a shrine, even to the point of seeming to worship Rebecca’s handmade underwear and expensive négligée. Rebecca’s “cousin” Jack (George Sanders) (actually, and as well, one of her lovers) occasionally appears at the house when Maxim is away, and seems to know Mrs. Danvers well, calling her by the name “Danny”, which was Rebecca’s pet name for her. This and more in the film strongly suggests a lesbian relationship, or at least a sexual obsession on the part of Mrs. Danvers, with her promiscuous former mistress; although social ethics at the time strictly forbade any such outright declaration in the narrative.

The new Mrs. de Winter is intimidated by Mrs. Danvers and by the responsibilities of being the new chatelaine of Manderley. As a result, she begins to doubt her relationship with her husband. The continuous presence of Rebecca in the house starts to haunt her.

Trying to act more like the perfect wife, Mrs. de Winter suggests to Maxim that they host a costume party. Maxim reluctantly consents. Mrs. de Winter excitedly plans her own costume in secret, but Mrs. Danvers suggests that she copy Caroline de Winter, an ancestor, whose portrait hangs in the upstairs hallway. On the night of the party, Mrs. de Winter reveals her costume to Maxim, who is both surprised and angry at her, shouting at her to change her costume. Mrs. de Winter rushes upstairs, sees Mrs. Danvers go into Rebecca’s room and follows her. There she confronts Mrs. Danvers about her knowing that Rebecca had worn the same costume the previous year. Mrs. Danvers retaliates by saying that she will never take Rebecca’s place and almost convinces Mrs. de Winter to commit suicide. But Mrs. de Winter snaps out of her trance when a sudden commotion starts downstairs – a ship has been spotted floundering off the coast.

Mrs. de Winter (after changing her outfit) rushes downstairs to the front lawn, where she hears news that a sunken boat has been found off the coast – with Rebecca’s body in it. She spots a distant glow from the cottage on the shore and enters to find Maxim. Maxim admits to his new wife that he had misidentified another body as Rebecca’s in order to prevent discovery of the truth. From almost the beginning of their marriage, he and Rebecca had hated one another. They had agreed to “keep up appearances” of a real marriage for the sake of the family honor. Rebecca, however, began to get “careless” after a while, for example disappearing for days on end and then returning as though nothing were wrong. Maxim was also aware of Rebecca’s ongoing affair with Jack. One night, suspecting to find Rebecca and Jack together, Maxim came down to the cottage. Rebecca had been expecting Jack, but he had never come, she told Maxim that she was pregnant with Jack’s child. During the argument, she fell, hit her head, and died. Maxim took the body out in a boat which he then scuttled.

In the ensuing police investigation, officials question whether the damage to the boat indicates that Rebecca may have committed suicide. Jack quickly provides evidence, a letter from Rebecca, that strongly suggests that she was not suicidal (he even tries to blackmail Maxim with it). Maxim comes under suspicion of murder; and the second Mrs. de Winter must face the prospect of losing her husband. The investigation focuses on Rebecca’s secret visits to a London doctor (Leo G. Carroll); visits which the audience presumes were due to her illicit pregnancies, i.e. that the doctor performs illegal abortions. However, an interview with the doctor reveals that Rebecca was, in fact, suffering from cancer, and would have died very shortly. She was not pregnant: she had lied to Maxim, apparently trying to goad him into killing her – as an (indirect) means of suicide.

As Maxim returns home to Manderley, he finds it on fire, set alight by the deranged Mrs. Danvers, who dies in the flames.

Adaptation

At Selznick’s insistence, the film adapts the plot of du Maurier’s novel Rebecca faithfully. In the novel, Maxim shoots Rebecca, while in the film, he only thinks of killing her after she taunts him, whereupon she suddenly falls back, hits her head on a heavy piece of ships tackle, and dies from her head injuries, so that her death is an accident, not murder. According to the book It’s only a Movie, David O. Selznick wanted the smoke from the burning Manderley to spell out a huge “R”. Alfred Hitchcock thought the touch lacked subtlety. While Selznick was preoccupied by Gone With the Wind (1939), Hitchcock was able to replace the smoky “R” with the burning of a monogrammed négligée case which lies atop a bed pillow. Hitchcock also edited the picture in the camera, a method of film-making that didn’t allow David O. Selznick to reedit the picture. Although Selznick insisted the film be faithful to the novel, Hitchcock made many changes, especially with the character of Mrs. Danvers. In the novel, Mrs. Danvers is something of a jealous mother figure. Her past is mentioned in the book. But in the film, Mrs. Danvers is a much younger character and her past isn’t revealed at all. The only thing we know about her is that she came to Manderley when Rebecca was a bride. Hitchcock made her more like a ghostly figure.

The theatrical release of Rebecca was delayed in order to give it a shot at the 1940 Academy Awards – the 1939 Awards would (obviously) be dominated by Gone with the Wind, another Selznick production.

Cast

• Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter
• Joan Fontaine as The Second Mrs. de Winter
• George Sanders as Jack Favell
• Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers
• Nigel Bruce as Major Giles Lacy
• Reginald Denny as Frank Crawley
• C. Aubrey Smith as Colonel Julyan
• Gladys Cooper as Beatrice Lacy
• Florence Bates as Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper
• Melville Cooper as Coroner
• Leo G. Carroll as Dr. Baker
• Leonard Carey as Ben
• Lumsden Hare as Tabbs
• Edward Fielding as Frith
• Forrester Harvey as Chalcroft
• Mary Williams – The Head Maid
• Keira Tate – The Parlour Maid
• Rose Trace – The Parlour Maid
• Sandra Phillip – The Parlour Maid
• Kelly Sanderton – The Parlour Maid
• Herietta Bodvon – The Housemaid

Hitchcock’s cameo appearance, a signature feature of his films, takes place near the end; he is seen outside a phone box when Jack is making a call.

Awards

Academy Awards wins (1940)

• Best Picture – Selznick International Pictures – David O. Selznick.
• Best Cinematography, Black and White – George Barnes.

Academy Award nominations (1940)

• Best Actor in a Leading Role – Laurence Olivier.
• Best Actress in a Leading Role – Joan Fontaine.
• Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Judith Anderson.
• Best Director – Alfred Hitchcock.
• Art Direction, Black and White – Lyle R. Wheeler.
• Special Effects – Jack Cosgrove, Arthur Johns.
• Best Film Editing – Hal C. Kern.
• Best Music, Original Score – Franz Waxman.
• Best Writing, Screenplay – Robert E. Sherwood, Joan Harrison.

In popular culture

• The movie was spoofed in an episode of That Mitchell and Webb Look where in the first cut of the film, Maxim De Winter (played by Robert Webb) keeps telling his first wife Rebecca (played by Jo Neary) about his future plans for ‘the Next Mrs. De Winter’, such as “We won’t go near the lake – she’ll think its haunted” and “the east wing is reserved for the Second Mrs. De Winter”, instead of Mrs. Danvers (David Mitchell in women’s clothes) thinking the Second Mrs. De Winter is not as good as the first, in this version she believes Rebecca “can’t hold a candle to the next Mrs. De Winter”. Notably, instead of the scene where Mrs De Winter wears Rebecca’s old dress, Rebecca wears the Second Mrs. De Winter’s dress, the portrait having a hole in the face with “TBA” written in it.
• Popular musician Enya bought Ayesha Castle in Dublin and renamed it “Manderley Castle” due to her love of Rebecca (both novel and film).

Footnotes

1. ^ Rebecca at the Internet Movie Database.
2. ^ a b Spoto, Donald (1999). The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock. Da Capo, 213-214. ISBN 030680932X. 

External links

• Rebecca at the TCM Movie Database.
• Criterion Collection essay by Robin Wood.
• Complete list of actors who were considered for roles
• Rebecca Eyegate Gallery

Awards

Preceded by
Gone with the Wind
Academy Award for Best Picture
1940
Succeeded by
How Green Was My Valley

v • d • e

Films directed by Alfred Hitchcock

1920s

Number 13 · Always Tell Your Wife · The Pleasure Garden · The Mountain Eagle · The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog · Downhill · Easy Virtue · The Ring · The Farmer’s Wife · Champagne · The Manxman · Blackmail

1930s

Juno and the Paycock · Murder! · Mary · Elstree Calling · The Skin Game · Number Seventeen · Rich and Strange · Waltzes from Vienna · The Man Who Knew Too Much · The 39 Steps · Secret Agent · Sabotage · Young and Innocent · The Lady Vanishes · Jamaica Inn

1940s

Rebecca · Foreign Correspondent · Mr. & Mrs. Smith · Suspicion · Saboteur · Shadow of a Doubt · Lifeboat · Aventure Malgache · Bon Voyage · Spellbound · Notorious · The Paradine Case · Rope · Under Capricorn

1950s

Stage Fright · Strangers on a Train · I Confess · Dial M for Murder · Rear Window · To Catch a Thief · The Trouble with Harry · The Man Who Knew Too Much · The Wrong Man · Vertigo · North by Northwest

1960s

Psycho · The Birds · Marnie · Torn Curtain · Topaz

1970s

Frenzy · Family Plot

Misc

List of Hitchcock cameo appearances · List of unproduced Hitchcock projects

v • d • e

Academy Award for Best Picture

Wings / Sunrise (1928) · The Broadway Melody (1929) · All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) · Cimarron (1931) · Grand Hotel (1932) · Cavalcade (1933) · It Happened One Night (1934) · Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) · The Great Ziegfeld (1936) · The Life of Emile Zola (1937) · You Can’t Take It with You (1938) · Gone with the Wind (1939) · Rebecca (1940)

Complete List · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)

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