13th Academy Awards · 1941
Rebecca
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
“"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..."”
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The story
Story of a young woman who marries a fascinating widower only to find out that she must live in the shadow of his former wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years earlier. The young wife must come to grips with the terrible secret of her handsome, cold husband, Max De Winter. She must also deal with the jealous, obsessed Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, who will not accept her as the mistress of the house.
What critics & audiences say
Tomatometer98%Fresh#5 of 98 winnersIMDb8.0162K votes#37 of 98 winners
Metacritic86/ 100#40 of 93 winners
TMDB7.9/ 10
Famous lines
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.
Why don't you go? Why don't you leave Manderley? He doesn't need you. … 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!
…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.
…Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?
Rebecca has won. Her shadow has been between us all the time, keeping us from one another.
You thought I loved Rebecca? You thought that? I hated her!
She's got the three things that really matter in a wife," everyone said: "breeding, brains, and beauty." And I believed them, completely. But I never had a moment's happiness with her.
Sometimes, you know, those little bottles contain demons that have a way of popping out at you just as you're trying most desperately to forget.
…If you say we're happy, let's leave it at that. Happiness is something I know nothing about.
…To be perfectly frank with you, my dear, I can't see you doing it. You haven't the experience. You haven't the faintest idea of what it means to be a great lady.
Quotes via Wikiquote
Fun facts
- To satisfy the Production Code, which objected to a murderer going 'scot free', Maxim's killing of Rebecca was rewritten as an accident. David O. Selznick fumed that the story became 'of a man who buried a wife who was killed accidentally!'Wikipedia · Censorship
- Selznick wanted the smoke from the burning Manderley to spell out a huge 'R'. Hitchcock found that unsubtle and, while Selznick was busy with Gone with the Wind, swapped it for a burning monogrammed négligée case on a pillow.Wikipedia · Production
- Rebecca is Alfred Hitchcock's only film to win Best Picture, and it was his first American project.Wikipedia · Introduction
- Joan Fontaine's casting was announced just three days before filming began, after no fewer than 126 actresses were considered. Laurence Olivier lobbied unsuccessfully for his lover, Vivien Leigh.Wikipedia · Casting
- Hitchcock edited the film 'in camera', shooting only what he wanted in the final film, to limit Selznick's power to re-edit it.Wikipedia · Production
- Censors insisted there be 'no suggestion whatever of a perverted relationship between Mrs. Danvers and Rebecca'. Judith Anderson later denied playing Danvers as a lesbian, saying 'we never thought of such things at that time'.Wikipedia · Censorship
- When Hitchcock submitted his first treatment, which changed much of the novel, Selznick replied with a lengthy memo saying he was 'shocked beyond words'.Wikipedia · Preproduction
- Ronald Colman turned down the role of Maxim de Winter, worried the film would be a 'woman-starring vehicle' and about the 'murder angle', and the part went to Laurence Olivier.Wikipedia · Casting
- Filming began days after Britain declared war on Germany, and Hitchcock and the mostly British cast feared for their families back home. The 36-day shoot stretched to 63 days.Wikipedia · Production
- Rebecca is the only film since 1936 to win Best Picture without winning any Academy Award for acting, directing or writing.Wikipedia · Accolades