I’m so down.
There’s this famous scene in Hitchcock’s REBECCA where Mrs Van Hoffer puts out her cigarette in a jar of cold cream. Hitch later repeats this joke (or, if you prefer, this characterization) by having Grace Kelly’s character’s mother put out a cigarette in a fried egg in TO CATCH A THIEF.)
Well, it turns out the cigarette-in-the-cold-cream is right from the du Maurier book. I’m so bummed. All these years, I thought it was Hitchcock being brilliant. Sigh.
Remind me again: who played the title role in Rebecca? 
Can you be happy that Du Maurier was being brilliant? That’s one of my favorite books.
That’s a good one.
Now me: What was the first name of the second Mrs. De Winter?
(My Two favorite DuMaurier novels are Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel )
I liked the books better than the movie versions. The movie version of My Cousin Rachel was especially disappointing.
Supposedly Hitchcock wrote a letter of apology to du Marier when the studio changed the ending.
I liked both the book and the film, although the film did have one very significant advantage in Judith Anderson.
–Cliffy
I was watching the Criterion DVD of Rebecca with commentary just last weekend. The film scholar who’s doing the comments notes this scene and its reuse in To Catch a Thief as a recurring Hitchcock motif, with no mention of the book.
I shall have to write him a stern letter.
They changed the ending? HOW???
Who played Mrs. de Winter?
Warning: Spoilers for both book and movie!
Guin-
In the movie, Rebecca’s death is an accident; during the argument in the boathouse, she falls and hits her head. In the book, Maxim deliberately shoots her. They had to change it conform to the production codes of the day: A murderer could not be allowed to get away with his crime.
The 2nd Mrs. de Winter is played by Joan Fontaine.
The DVD, btw, has screen tests for other actresses in the role, including Vivien Leigh, whom Laurence Olivier (Maxim) wanted in the role. From her screen test with Olivier, I think she’s far too perky and self-assured for the Nameless One.
Why is this disappointing?
I was surprised to see a thread called Hitchcock’s Rebecca, since I never think of it as anything other than du Maurier’s Rebecca. I wasn’t even sure it was a Hitchcock film until I opened the thread.
It’s one of my favorite books, and is full of those kind of small “directorial” touches. My personal favorite is the early scene in which she spills her water glass.
I usually think of this film version as David O. Selznick’s Rebecca, since much of it is more in keeping with his vision than Hitchcock’s. If I recall correctly, Selznick wanted to keep the details of the story–the heroine’s character, for example–closer to duMaurier’s novel; Hitchcock wanted to make changes that Selznick overrode.
Kinda reminds me when I discovered that the brilliant series of deductions about the missing horse in the beginning of Eco’s The Name of the Rose was lifted directly from Voltaire’s Zadig.
That’s what I love about The Name of the Rose. Go read the prologue and first twenty pages of Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (which is a spectacularly awful book) and then go back to the opening prologue of Rose. I nearly pissed myself laughing when I figured it out. And he leaves clues too - the first monk to die on the trash pile? His name was Otranto.
I go back and re-read The Name of the Rose every few years, just so I can find new pieces that he lifted from somewhere else. It would not surprise me in the least if there is no original story there at all, but I think it’s great, because the pieces fit together beautifully.
They changed the ending?! They changed…the essence of the book!! Well just for that, I will never be able to watch the Hitchcock movie ever again. My god…This is so, so wrong.
But I’m glad DuMaurier came up with the cigarette thing. It’s one of my favorite books, so for me it isn’t a disapointment at all. 
Hitchcock (or someone else involved in the movie) did come up with Mrs. Van Hopper’s immortal line, on taking some cough syrup, “Wretched stuff! Get me a chocolate, quick!” On reading the book, I was disappointed not to find it there. The coldcream is a brilliant touch, though.
I’ve read the book a few times-it was always one of my favorites. And I wasn’t sure if it was Joan Fontaine or her sister, Olivia deHaviland.
They had a sequel, Mrs. deWinter, but um, I think they killed off Maxim or something, so I didn’t want to finish it. It wouldn’t be fair.
BTW, how did they refer to Mrs. de Winter in the movie?
I figured her name was Delphinia. No reason. Just thought it would make a good name.
“The 2nd Mrs. de Winter is played by Joan Fontaine.”
Who, I might add, is quite the dish in this movie.
Olivia deHaviland does play Rachel in My Cousin Rachel, so it’s kind of a matched set.
As in the book, they dodge around it; Maxim calls her things like “my dear,” and everyone else says “Mrs deWinter.” In the DVD commentary, the guy says that they did consider giving her a name. The top contenders were Daphne (after the author) and Ivy (as a sort of play on “I”).
I think that would have been terrible! I think that Daphne DuMaurier knew exactly what she was doing when she did not give the heroine a name. Through the 2nd Mrs. DeWinter’s eyes, everything was about her inferiority to Rebecca. Not having a name of her own – except one that Rebecca shared – emphasized that.
I think that a credible job was done on the movie. But nothing could be as spellbinding (no pun intended) as the novel. I think it’s time for another good read!
BTW, when my students did book reports, usually someone chose REBECCA. I always interviewed my students about the books in addition to requiring written reports. Just to tease the students who selected REBECCA, I would ask what the main character’s name was. There would be a stunned silence and then great protests of “Miss Zoe, I promise you, I really did read this book, but I just can’t remember he name!”
(Manical teacher laughter…)
Hmmm… what kind of name is C K Dexter Haven?
Evil, evil, evil.
One of the great things about both the book and the film is that the reader/audience doesn’t even realize that the 2d Mrs. de Winter is unnamed. The poor girl – even the sympathetic audience cares more about Rebecca than her.
–Cliffy
