Hitchcock & Selznick: Making Rebecca's Gothic Manderley (1940)

[@KateCarew]

Ever since I was a little girl this has been one of my favorite films! I use it at a “night night” film. I think it set the tone for my taste in film in many ways. It’s just so immaculate from every angle. The casting, acting, lighting, dialogue/script, sets…it’s just so so good.

[@JudyGarlandRulez152]

This is one of my favorite movies. I have it on repeat a lot of the time.

[@CinemaCities1978]

I love it too. I always love when fans of the films I make videos on actually like my videos.

[@poetcomic1]

Rebecca's bedroom is one of the great 'rooms' of classic Hollywood.

[@simonf8902]

Judith Anderson. Stellar Aussie actress. Massive sapphic overtones.

[@CinemaCities1978]

Absolutely massive!

[@theprisonerofzenda2862]

✨️Joan Fontaine is a true jewel in "Rebecca".

[@mrkurtlovesmovies]

Such a wonderful education this was! The pacing and tone were as hypnotic as Manderlay's spell. Loved your use of archival footage and interview clips. I love behind-the-scenes stories from Hollywood's golden era, and you relay them so well here. Think I'll screen this film today! Thanks, CC!

[@CinemaCities1978]

Thanks Mr. Kurt! Forgive me, I thought I was subscribed to your channel and I just realized I wasn't. I just fixed that! Rebecca has been one of those movies I've always loved so this was a fun one to make.

[@mrkurtlovesmovies]

@@CinemaCities1978 The fun was certainly contagious! Looking forward to your next one. 👍🏼

[@hiridavidfeign]

This film is just part of my existence, it's so deeply ingrained in me. I've lately been thinking a lot about Hitchcock's use of miniatures. This helped answer some of my questions about that. Great work as always. Thanks.

[@pgasnow]

this is a wonderful video; i love everything about it i'm a huge fan of both Rebecca specifically and the general idea of houses in gothic and horror media; this is perfect

[@CinemaCities1978]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Manderley is definitely one of film's great gothic houses. I'm thinking of eventually doing a video on Crimson Peak or a "Best Of" type video about horror houses.

[@rosemcguinn5301]

Interesting content! I especially like the way you set the tone at the start. It's actually pronounced Mander-lee, not Mander-lay. It is spelled Manderley, but the pronunciation rhymes with Lee, not lay. That is how it is pronounced in the film, from the very first lines of a voice over, and all the way to the ending.

[@digidol52]

And the stress is on the first syllable.

[@okay5045]

I avoided this movie for a long time but I am so glad I watched it a few weeks ago. It is a great movie. Hitchcock is simply a genius

[@CinemaCities1978]

It I'm glad you enjoyed the movie. May I ask why you avoided it? I'm a Joan Fontaine fan as well so this is one of my favorites.

[@okay5045]

@@CinemaCities1978 I like Joan Fontaine a great deal. I am not a big fan of Laurence Olivier. I agreed with those who said his acting was too big for the small screen but in this he was spot on.

[@CinemaCities1978]

@@okay5045 I agree about Olivier. Besides REBECCA and WUTHERING HEIGHTS, I don't really care for any of his other films.

[@gilgameshofuruk4060]

@@CinemaCities1978 I used to love that version of Wuthering Heights until I saw a stage play of the story and found that the movie is only half the story and has toned down the malice. Olivier was good for how the role was written for the film, but wasn't a true Heathcliffe.

[@jennyp4934]

Great review, you had some really interesting points. Thank you.

[@CinemaCities1978]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!

[@LaurenSnowofLondon]

Still my favourite adaptation of Rebecca.

[@sandrakenney567]

Rebecca a great film by Alfred Hitchcock.Acted by My favourite actor Laurence olivea Joan Fontane + Judith Anderson. the acting was great rest in peace to them all amen🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌷🌷🌷🌷🌹💞💕🌹🕊.

[@MoreMovies4u]

I love it! Great video CC! I really enjoy the research you put in to these videos. The O. Selznick stuff is very interesting. Did you see the remake last year?

[@CinemaCities1978]

Oh, I saw the remake. I didn’t hate it, but I definitely didn’t love it. I think for many people this 1940 version looms so large over all the others that nothing will measure up (kind of like the memory of Rebecca!). The fact they cast Armie Hammer as Maxim didn’t help. Lily James was good, Manderley was proper Gothic but Hammer was such stinker in it.

[@MoreMovies4u]

@@CinemaCities1978 We are so on the same wavelength, my friend. Totally agree and I love your comparison to not measuring up! Fab stuff, as per! Hope you're having a great weekend. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

[@jennyp4934]

I haven't seen any remakes and I'm not sure if I want to. The 1940s version was so brilliant and Jane Fontaine captured the innocence and vulnerability perfectly.

[@MyDarkmarc]

There were many different types of roles that were written for women that could be portray onscreen: the romantic lead, the star's best friend or sidekick, mother, mother-in-law, old maid aunt, and ingenue were just a few. If an actresses made their screen debut after the age of thirty-five most probably they would be offered second leads or supporting roles. I remember an interview with Judith Anderson (back in the 1970's) and she made a witty remark that I still remember to this day, "Hollywood was a good place to learn how not to act". Anderson did not fit the "Starlet" or even the "Femme Fatale" stereotype in appearance but earned great respect from her directors, from the audiences and from the critics. Judith Anderson was born Frances Margaret Anderson on February 10, 1897 in Adelaide, South Australia. She was the youngest of four children born to Jessie Margaret, a former nurse, and Scottish-born James Anderson, a share-broker and pioneering prospector. When Anderson arrived in New York City in 1918 and established herself as one of the greatest theatrical actresses of her day and became a major star on Broadway throughout the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's. Anderson made her Hollywood film debut under director Rowland Brown in a supporting role in Blood Money (1933). Her striking, not conventionally attractive features were complemented with her powerful presence, mastery of timing and an effortless style. Judith Anderson was distinguished stage and later television actress of her era, she received two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award and was also nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award. She is considered one of the 20th century's greatest classical stage actors. The film-version of the best-selling novel by Daphne Du Maurier was Rebecca (1940, Selznick) the film was the American debut of British director Alfred Hitchcock. In the first few days of production Judith Anderson realized that everything and everybody was on her side and she give a performance that is perfectly in tune with the tone and the direction of the film as all these elements coalesce to enhance and elevate each other. Judith Anderson deserves a great deal of credit for the subtlety and intelligence of her performance, which could have easily been construed as camp and overwrought considering the nature of the character. Instead, she makes Mrs. Danvers, Manderlay's unwelcoming housekeeper, one of the most unforgettable villains ever, delivering a performance that is both genuinely terrifying but also expertly controlled and psychologically rich. Notice how Mrs. Danvers: is often seen in shadow, she's rarely seen walking and when she does she usually seen coming from a dark corner of the room. She turns Mrs. Danvers in the personification of efficiency in her early scenes, she purposefully appears as basically inhuman, whose existence revolves around her profession and nothing else. Still, right from the beginning, Anderson suggests that there is something eerie going on with Mrs. Danvers and the fact that the viewer cannot exactly pin-down what it is that makes her character so intentionally frustrating, uncomfortable and later a downright frightening presence whenever she appears. Judith Anderson and Joan Fontaine both deliver an engrossing two character acting duet that makes their scenes together so captivating and compelling to watch there is very little said explicitly, it's all in the subtext of their performances, which makes their exchanges together both reserved and explosive. They have a terrific chemistry with Fontaine being extremely touching at portraying her character's attempts to gain Mrs. Danvers' respect and Anderson being so effectively and subtly cruel as she constantly undermines Mrs. De Winter's authority and self-confidence, unfavorably comparing her to Rebecca (the former wife) and doing her best to make her feel out-of-the-place and unworthy. The turning point in Anderson's performance is the scene in which Mrs. Danvers finds the second Mrs. De Winter inside Rebecca's bedroom and boudoir. Mrs. Danvers begins to show Rebecca's room to her, Anderson uncovers her character's devotion, or rather obsession, towards the deceased woman: it's a challenging scene that could have been played in many different ways while Anderson simply accomplishes it to perfection. Watch how Mrs. Danvers’ handles Rebecca’s fur coat and especially her sheer underwear are most significant she tellingly states that, "you see your hand through the peignoir." Throughout, Judith Anderson keeps her delivery crisp and preternaturally calm, conveying Mrs. Danvers’s madness only with her eyes and body movement, to great effect. Death has not relinquished the hold Rebecca had on Mrs. Danvers; in fact, it’s intensified it. Judith Anderson is frighteningly convincing as she caresses Rebecca’s lace underwear, such that the scene is laced with an almost palpable degree of sexual tension and lesbian subtext. Mrs. Danvers' passion for her mistress is undeniable, and the nature of that passion is left unspecified. The question of a lesbian subtext to the Danvers-Rebecca relationship is one to which the novel alludes to as well, and it gives another layer of richness to Mrs. Danvers’ character. If there was a degree of romantic passion on Mrs. Danvers’s part, her grief becomes more sympathetic; her madness, more understandable. Anderson conveys everything through modifying her voice, sometimes soft and sometimes hard. She never turns Mrs. Danvers into a cheap villain or goes into hysterics, instead finds the humanity in the deranged woman she is playing: there's genuine pain in Anderson's performance and that touch of vulnerability and grief is what makes her insanity all the more terrifying, because it feels real. And she's unforgettable in a later scene in which Mrs. Danvers tries to convince the second Mrs. De Winter that she will never replace Rebecca in her husband's heart and urges her to jump from the balcony - it's the moment of truth in which the character reveals herself in all its cruelty and wickedness. But its Anderson's electrifying performance that is: brilliant, vicious, unhinged and chilling to the bone. Mrs. Danvers is an incredibly effective villain, making Mrs. Danvers a genuinely and subtly threatening presence whenever she appears, but the hints of humanity in her performance is what makes her all the more haunting. An unforgettable performance by an unforgettable character. Her Mrs. Danvers is ghostly in her carriage, but terrifyingly real in her interactions with her new mistress. Yet in the film adaptation, the other-worldliness never leaves her, and Anderson plays it masterfully, creating a character who is deeply unsettling and deliciously spooky.

[@gilgameshofuruk4060]

Great insights. The relationship of Mrs Danvers and Rebecca is open to so many interpretations. Lesbian affair, or a one sided lesbian attraction? In either case, was Mrs Danvers just another of Rebecca's amusements? Was the adoration reciprocated, or did Rebecca just find it amusing to lead Mrs Danvers on, as in the hair brushing reference? My mother has a theory based on the line "I had care of her as a child" that Danvers was a maid in a grand house and fell pregnant by the master of the house. Either through he and his wife being unable to have children or him being unmarried and seeking an heir, the child was raised as his, with Danvers as nursemaid. Unable to express a mother's love, she became obsessed with the child. I grew to think of it as Danvers being fascinated with Rebecca because she was living vicariously through her. Unable to lead a glamorous lifestyle herself, she relished her mistress's adventures, her affairs, her clothes and beauty. When Rebecca died, Mrs Danvers lost all that. As she had invested so much in the second hand experiences, it felt like she had died too. Then, still grieving, she is confronted with the second Mrs de Winter and resents this upstart trying to take Rebecca's place. Mrs Danvers sees it as an insult that her idol has been replaced by a girl who was not only dowdy and timid, but was basically a servant previously. The book leaves all this open to interpretation and by staying faithful to the book, so does the film. Anderson's performance also leaves the answers in the mind of the viewer.

[@jpkatz1435]

​@@gilgameshofuruk4060 Gil, hope you and Inky are enjoying th channel.

[@gilgameshofuruk4060]

@@jpkatz1435 Very much, thank you. I grew up with the classic movies and it's great to see a channel not only promote them, but provide such interesting analysis. Thanks again.

[@christymarks9586]

So glad I found your channel, so many others do not do proper research and I appreciate your take on your subjects!

[@DaKotaCole]

This is my favorite movie of all time.

[@nickimontie]

I have to watch this one again!

[@fatima01917]

I love all of Hitchcock's movies. I especially ❤ Rebecca.

[@bookmouse2719]

Even in the book, you never learn what the Second Mrs. Du Winter's name is. This gave a feeling that she was a nobody. This movie was fantastic but Olivier didn't like his performance (he was too young). Fontaine was superb.

[@spoonlamp]

Nicely done.

[@CinemaCities1978]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@58christiansful]

Very clever analysis!

[@CinemaCities1978]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the video.

[@gilgameshofuruk4060]

I've always imagined Rebecca as looking like Margaret Lockwood when she was The Wicked Lady.

[@GA-1st]

It's a great movie! It's been written that du Maurier actually liked it!

[@chunellemariavictoriaespan8752]

3:55 =Funny... He got his wish with Suspicions... The irony is he got the spirit right more than RKO's idea... And Cary Grant's wish too...

[@evalange4626]

Sprawling Ancestral Pile is what my therapist calls me 😭

[@CinemaCities1978]

😂😂😂

[@chrisjenkins9978]

I would be curious to read the Hitchcock script version. I wonder if it survived.

[@CinemaCities1978]

My bet is that the copies of earlier drafts of the screenplay are probably with Selznick's papers that are archived at the Harry Ransom center in Austin.

[@bookmouse2719]

I used to joke sometimes, "I dreamed I was in Manderley"....and no one would understand me. You would though. 🤪😆

[@gilgameshofuruk4060]

I would too. It's so frustrating to come out with a clever reference to a movie only to be met with blank stares. I love an obscure 60s comedy called The Wrong Box and whenever we identified a potential customer fraud at work I'd quote one of the lines "Life is a fraud, Master Michael, Sir." "I don't know either. It's from some film he likes. Just smile and change the subject."

[@mgconlan]

I'm surprised you did a video about "Rebecca" without mentioning the struggles both David O. Selznick and Alfred Hitchcock went through casting it. Among the actresses considered for the second Mrs. DeWinter were Margaret Sullavan and Vivien Leigh. When Selznick bought the book he had wanted Ronald Colman to play Max DeWinter, but Colman turned it down because he didn't want to play a murderer. (Ironically, due to the Production Code Selznick had to change the story to make Rebecca's death accidental - a change that bothered Selznick so much he personally wrote Daphne Du Maurier apologizing for it - and when Colman finally did play a murderer in "A Double Life," he won his long-deserved Academy Award.) With Colman unwilling to do the role, Selznick had to choose between Laurence Olivier (wrong age, right nationality) and William Powell (right age, wrong nationality), and he chose Olivier simply because he was considerably cheaper. Olivier got $30,000 to make "Rebecca," whereas Powell would have cost $250,000 (both his own salary and the loan-out fee Selznick would have had to pay MGM, Powell's home studio). Also Gale Sondergaard was up for Mrs. Danvers, and she would have been great in it - but so was Judith Anderson. In the 1946 Abbott and Costello comedy "The Time of Their Lives," there's even a reference in which one of the other characters spots Sondergaard and jokes, "Didn't I see you in 'Rebecca'?"

[@crikitaftw]

I've checked and William Powell was born in 1892, which means in 1940 he was 47/48, several years older than Maxim.

[@julie5310]

I feel it must be mentioned that the movie totally changed how Rebecca died, making Maxim a much more sympathetic character.

[@gunterangel]

Because of the Hays-Code, that was imposed on the film imdustry at that time, the script had to tone down Rebecca's death. The Hays code forbade that a murderer would come through without being punished, so they had to change Rebecca's death to an accident not intended by Maxim.

[@kitkeller5831]

Thank you for your videos. What do you would have been the result if the film had been true to the book’s ending?

[@CinemaCities1978]

A lot of it would never pass the censors. In the novel Maxim killed Rebecca and under the production code a murderer must be punished so they had to make these changes to get the script approved.

[@pepelemoko01]

Selznick asked Hitchcock to have a large letter "R" appear in the smoke when "Manderley is burning down. Hitchcock wanted the "R" on her embroidered pillow to go up in flames.

[@CinemaCities1978]

Hitchcock pretty much ignored a lot of Selznick's over the top ideas. . . .thank goodness. . .

[@pepelemoko01]

@@CinemaCities1978 It's a real rabbit hole, found an interview with Bruce Dern, Hitch told him he always wanted to cast a movie with Oliver de Havilland and Joan Fontaine and cast in the same movie, without telling them. Just to catch the hatred when they first see each other.

[@CinemaCities1978]

@@pepelemoko01 Oh jeez.😂..can you even imagine passive aggressive warfare and drama that would've caused. We'd still be talking about it today.

[@pepelemoko01]

@@CinemaCities1978 I also read Olivier was dating Vivien Leigh at the time and she wanted Joan Fontaine's part, but Hitch kept to guns.

[@stuartmw8156]

Love it ❤

[@vanash4]

I saw Rebecca as Paulette Goddard with dark hair. She had the gleam of trouble in beguiling eyes.

[@SarahGreen523]

I just recently rewatched this movie. What stood out to me as a kid was: why in the world didn't Gayle (Mrs. DuWinter #2) just throw out all that monogrammed stuff and buy her own. What stood out for me the most as a now almost 60 year old was: Whoa, Mrs. Danvers definitely had a thing for the first Mrs. DuWinter.

[@deanairvine5271]

Gayle? Where did you find her name? Part of the tension in the book is not ever knowing the new Mrs. DeWinter's name.

[@hayleystratus7713]

All these flims reminds me of is Sunday dinners

[@simonf8902]

Most particular about sauces 🤣

[@CinemaCities1978]

😂

[@Hi-jw7oq]

Selznic was right about Rebecca. The book Jamiaca Inn is really good but Hitchcock's Jamiaca Inn is not good.

[@arnesahlen2704]

*ManderLEY!!,* not ManderLAY. Listen as the name is pronounced in the film! (Sounds different from MandaLAY, a city in Burma.) Otherwise well presented.

[@chunellemariavictoriaespan8752]

8:09 =😂In Fata Morgana...

[@maartenlemmens8628]

Laurence Olivier wanted his partner Vivien Leigh for the female lead role. When this fell through he made life on the set miserable for Joan Fontaine.

[@CinemaCities1978]

Judith Anderson was also very frosty towards Joan. But, as she was playing Ms. Danvers, I'll allow it 😂

[@simonf8902]

Vivian Leigh was manic depressive and impossible to work with. Joan Fontaine was brilliant.

[@lemorab1]

Vivien Leigh was all wrong for the 2nd Mrs. D. Joan Fontaine was exactly right. However, if Rebecca had been glimpsed on screen, Vivien would've been perfect. But, it's appropriate that we never see Rebecca, only feel her unseen presence everywhere.

[@murrvvmurr]

There's a liiiiight Up in th Dewinter house! There's a liiiiight

[@Artois2011]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@jasoncromwell4206]

One thing I am shocked most reviewers don't bring up is the lesbian subplot of Rebecca. Ms Danvers love for Rebecca goes far beyond servant-mistress and into a romantic devotion. Hitch never one to shy away from gay characters (Rope anyone?). I saw Rebecca for the first time shortly after watching Brokeback Mountain and I couldn't help but notice the similarities between Ennis smelling of Jack's shirt and Ms Danvers sniffing Rebecca's fur coat. Ang Lee had to have used that from this movie.

[@simonf8902]

Selznick was a pain in the butt.

[@CinemaCities1978]

I think Hitchcock would call that an understatement 😂

[@felixwaterman4448]

Great melodramatic novel. I read it as a young teenager. The film is good but Max is a pain and the house overdone. A pity that the second Mrs. de Winter's short period of no longer being afraid of the house and people is only briefly portrayed. On being given a cold menu by Mrs. Danvers, she puts a line through it and requests an hot meal. There is also the ambiguous outburst by Max about Rebecca, "She wasn't even normal." Covert lesbianism, perhaps? Then there is the Hayes Code turning Rebecca's death into an accident. Maxim should have swung! A final note, as one gay commentator said, "Let's face it, if you were going shoe-shopping you'd want to do it with the first Mrs. de Winter, not the second." Love the film - but the book more.

[@CinemaCities1978]

I've never heard that shoe quote but it's100% true. 😂

[@felixwaterman4448]

@@CinemaCities1978 I wish I could find the website. The reviewer was hilarious from start to finish. A bit like Steve Hayes.

[@gilgameshofuruk4060]

Even back then Max could have got off with manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. Especially if he could prove Rebecca's affairs. "A tart, no matter how posh, is just a tart" would be enough to excuse his actions.

[@reesetorwad8346]

👍

[@simonf8902]

She has no name. Seminal.

[@simonf8902]

Maxim abused she as a distraction his role in the death of Rebecca. He is not a decent man.

[@Mike8981]

Huh? 😂

[@simonf8902]

Manderley is quite ghastly in fact. Not a fun place to live. Chandeliers in the West Country ? Nonsense.

[@deanairvine5271]

But the Morning Room!🥰 I have romanticized having a morning room ever since I first read t 5he book 55 years ago when I was in jr high.

[@simonf8902]

@@deanairvine5271 yes. I’d love a morning room. And yes it’s the nicest but. But Manderley itself is pure Hollywood fantasy.