Quotes
 Jack Favell: I`d like to have your advice on how to live comfortably without working hard. Maxim de Winter: I`m asking you to marry me, you little fool.
Mrs. de Winter: Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.
Jack Favell: I say, marriage with Max is not exactly a bed of roses, is it?
The Second Mrs. de Winter: I`m not the sort of woman men marry.
Mrs. de Winter: I wish I were a woman of 36, dressed in black satin with a string of pearls!
Maxim de Winter: You thought I loved Rebecca? You thought that? I hated her!
Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper: Most girls would give their eyes for the chance to see Monte!
Maxim de Winter: Wouldn`t that kind of defeat the purpose?
[after being asked what his costume was]
Major Giles Lacy: Strong man, Old man.
[urging Mrs. de Winter to jump out the window and end her misery]
Mrs. Danvers: Go ahead. Jump. He never loved you, so why go on living? Jump and it will all be over...
Mrs. Danvers: [as the second Mrs. de Winter runs into the room] I watched you go down just as I watched her a year ago. Even in the same dress you couldn`t compare.
The Second Mrs. de Winter: You knew it! You knew that she wore it, and yet you deliberately suggested I wear it. Why do you hate me? What have I done to you that you should ever hate me so?
Mrs. Danvers: You tried to take her place. You let him marry you. I`ve seen his face - his eyes. They`re the same as those first weeks after she died. I used to listen to him, walking up and down, up and down, all night long, night after night, thinking of her, suffering torture because he lost her!
The Second Mrs. de Winter: [turning away in shame and shock] I don`t want to know, I don`t want to know!
Mrs. Danvers: [moving towards her] You thought you could be Mrs. de Winter, live in her house, walk in her steps, take the things that were hers! But she`s too strong for you. You can`t fight her - no one ever got the better of her. Never, never. She was beaten in the end, but it wasn`t a man, it wasn`t a woman. It was the sea!
The Second Mrs. de Winter: [collapsing in tears on the bed] Oh, stop it! Stop it! Oh, stop it!
Mrs. Danvers: [opening the shutters] You`re overwrought, madam. I`ve opened a window for you. A little air will do you good.
[as the second Mrs. de Winter gets up and walks toward the window]
Mrs. Danvers: Why don`t you go? Why don`t you leave Manderley? He doesn`t need you... he`s got his memories. He doesn`t love you, he wants to be alone again with her. You`ve nothing to stay for. You`ve nothing to live for really, have you?
[softly, almost hypnotically]
Mrs. Danvers: Look down there. It`s easy, isn`t it? Why don`t you? Why don`t you? Go on. Go on. Don`t be afraid...
Mrs. Danvers: She knew everyone that mattered. Everyone loved her.
Mrs. Danvers: Oh, you`ve moved her brush, haven`t you?
[moves it slightly]
Mrs. Danvers: There, that`s better. Just as she always laid it down. "Come on, Danny, hair drill," she would say.
[picks up the brush and goes through the motions of combing the second Mrs. De Winter`s hair, without actually touching it]
Mrs. Danvers: And I`d stand behind her like this and brush away for twenty minutes at a time.
[lays down the brush and looks at the portrait of Maxim]
Mrs. Danvers: Then she would say, "Good night, Danny," and step into her bed.
Mrs. Danvers: [brings out a negligee from under the bedcovers] Did you ever see anything so delicate?
[motions the second Mrs. de Winter over]
Mrs. Danvers: Look, you can see my hand through it!
Mrs. Danvers: [just as the second Mrs. de Winter reaches for the door] You wouldn`t think she`d been gone so long, would you? Sometimes, when I walk along the corridor, I fancy I hear her just behind me. That quick light step, I couldn`t mistake it anywhere. It`s not only in this room, it`s in all the rooms in the house. I can almost hear it now.
[turns to the petrified second Mrs. de Winter]
Mrs. Danvers: Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?
The Second Mrs. de Winter: [sobbing] N-no, I don`t believe it.
Mrs. Danvers: Sometimes, I wonder if she doesn`t come back here to Manderley, to watch you and Mr. de Winter together. You look tired. Why don`t you stay here a while and rest, and listen to the sea? It`s so soothing. Listen to it.
[turning away towards the window as the second Mrs. de Winter slips out the door]
Mrs. Danvers: Listen. Listen to the sea.
The Second Mrs. de Winter: No, it`s not too late. You`re not to say that. I love you more than anything in the world. Oh, please Maxim, kiss me please.
Maxim de Winter: No, it`s no use. It`s too late.
Maxim de Winter: "I`ll make a bargain with you," she said. "You`d look rather foolish trying to divorce me now after four days of marriage. So I`ll play the part of a devoted wife, mistress of your precious Manderley. I`ll make it the most famous showplace in England if you like. Then, people will visit us and envy us, and say we`re the luckiest, happiest, couple in the country. What a grand show it will be! What a triumph!"
Maxim de Winter: I can`t forget what it`s done to you. I`ve been thinking of nothing else since it happened. It`s gone forever, that funny young, lost look I loved won`t ever come back. I killed that when I told you about Rebecca. It`s gone. In a few hours, you`ve grown so much older.
Maxim de Winter: That`s not the Northern lights. That`s Manderley!
Maxim de Winter: [to his wife at breakfast] Have a look at "The Times"; there`s a thrilling article on what`s the matter with English cricket!
Maxim de Winter: I knew where Rebecca`s body was, lying on that cabin floor at the bottom of the sea.
Mrs. de Winter: How did you know, Maxim?
Maxim de Winter: Because... I put it there.
Maxim de Winter: She was incapable of love or tenderness or decency.
Maxim de Winter: Happiness is something I know nothing about.
Trivia
Director Cameo: [Alfred Hitchcock] walking past a phone booth just after Jack Favell (George Sanders) makes a call in the final part of the movie.
The first film Alfred Hitchcock made in Hollywood and the only one that won a Best Picture Oscar.
Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make this film several years before but was unable to afford the rights to the novel.
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* Mrs. Danvers is hardly ever seen walking; she seems to glide. Alfred Hitchcock wanted her to be seen solely from Joan Fontaine`s character`s anxious point of view, and this effect tied in with her fear about Mrs. Danvers appearing anytime unexpectedly.
Just as in the original novel, Mrs. de Winter has no first name.
Margaret Sullavan tested for the role of Mrs. de Winter.
Over 20 actors were tested for the role of Mrs. de Winter, which eventually went to newcomer Joan Fontaine. One of them was Vivien Leigh, who Laurence Olivier was pressing for, as they were a couple at the time.
This was Alfred Hitchcock`s second film based on a Daphne Du Maurier novel (the first was Jamaica Inn (1939))
The original script named the heroine "Daphne" after the writer Daphne Du Maurier. David O. Selznick objected and the name was not used.
Ronald Colman turned down the part of Max de Winter. Vivien Leigh and Loretta Young tested for the role of Mrs. de Winter.
Despite scouring most of America, and New England in particular, David O. Selznick was unable to find a suitable location to represent Manderley, so he had to resort to a miniature instead, albeit a highly convincing one.
In her autobiography, `Maureen O`Hara` states that she was the first choice for the lead role.
Rebecca`s handwriting was done by Helen Amigo.
The novel was bought by David O. Selznick for $50,000 as a vehicle for Carole Lombard with the idea that he would attempt to get Ronald Colman for the male lead. According to Selznick`s memos, when Colman put off accepting the part because he was afraid that the picture would be a "woman starring vehicle" and because of the murder angle, Selznick turned to his second choices for the role, Laurence Olivier and William Powell. Olivier was willing to work for $100,000 less than Powell and so he was chosen. Leslie Howard was also considered for the part.
In 1944, Edwina Levin MacDonald sued David O. Selznick, Daphne Du Maurier, United Artists and Doubleday for plagiarism. She claimed that the film was based on her novel "Blind Windows", and sought an undisclosed amount of damages.
Anne Baxter was one of the actresses tested by Alfred Hitchcock for the leading role. He later cast her in I Confess (1953).
Because Laurence Olivier wanted his then-girlfriend Vivien Leigh to play the lead role, he treated Joan Fontaine horribly. This shook Fontaine up quite a bit, so Alfred Hitchcock decided to capitalize on this by telling her EVERYONE on the set hated her, thus making her shy and uneasy - just what he wanted from her performance.
This was the first film Alfred Hitchcock made with David O. Selznick. Hitchcock worked with screenwriter Robert E. Sherwood and Hitchcock`s assistant Joan Harrison in the scripting process. But he was dissatisfied almost from the beginning of the shoot with Selznick`s controlling--some called it obsessive--manner of "producing".
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# David O. Selznick wanted Olivia de Havilland to play the female lead, but was faced with insurmountable problems: she was already committed to Samuel Goldwyn for Raffles (1939), Warner Bros. was being uncooperative about lending her out, and she was reluctant to accept the part because her sister, Joan Fontaine, was also under consideration for the part and her agent, Leland Hayward, was promoting his wife, Margaret Sullavan, for the role. Selznick also considered Loretta Young, Vivien Leigh, Anita Louise and Anne Baxter for the role, but felt that Young and Leigh were the wrong "type." He finally settled on Fontaine, but his staff disagreed with his decision because she was not yet an established star.
Due to the success of this film in Spain, the specific jackets that Joan Fontaine wears during the film began to be known as "rebecas". The word "rebeca" is still used nowadays to refer to this item of clothing.
In order to maintain the dark atmosphere of the book, Alfred Hitchcock insisted that the film be shot in black and white.
Adaptation for the movie by Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan is based on the treatment written by Alfred Hitchcock, Alma Reville and Hogan.
Robert Donat was one of Alfred Hitchcock`s choices for the character Maxim de Winter.
David O. Selznick wanted the smoke from the burning Manderley to spell out a huge R. Alfred Hitchcock thought the touch lacked any subtlety. When Selznick was preoccupied by Gone with the Wind (1939), Hitchcock was able to replace the smoky R with the burning of a monogrammed lingerie case. He also edited the picture in the camera, a method of filmmaking that didn`t allow Selznick the opportunity to re-edit the picture.
In the scripting process, Alfred Hitchcock made lots of changes with the character "Mrs. Danvers." Unlike the character in the novel, Hitchcock made Mrs. Danvers much younger and Hitchcock decided not to reveal her past.
Alfred Hitchcock and Cinematographer George Barnes used Deep Focus Photography in this film. And this is one of the few films to use Deep Focus Photography before Citizen Kane (1941). Hitchcock had also used Deep Focus Photography in his film Downhill (1927).
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Laurence Olivier
(as 'Maxim' de Winter)
with Joan Fontaine
(as The Second Mrs. de Winter)
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