Non-P: du Maurier?

[Paul Mackin]

Thanks, David, for the excellent post.  The book's now on my Kindle
for evening reading. After that I want to see the film again . Of
course, the heroine half condoning murder wouldn't have survived the
code.  Neither would any kind of explicitness about girl-girl or
incestuous relationship. That would have been a bit over my head when
I first saw the movie in 1940 at our neighborhood theater.  In later
viewings,  I think I got it, even without the book. Despite the
silliness you mention.

Rita's marriages were pretty eventful too--Prince Aly Khan--wonder if
she converted, like Elizabeth Taylor did with Mike Todd. Their
daughter was Princess Jasmin. Guess If Rita had married our P., the
child would have been Jasmeen. Sorry, forks, I getting senile. But,
really,  husband don't exert that kind of influence over any of the
women I know today.

Thanks again, David.

p

On Sun, Nov 22, 2015 at 7:54 PM, David Kilroy <thesaintgodard at gmail.com> wrote:
> Didn't know about Rita-- I never kept track of Welles' marriages outside of
> Oja --so thanks for mentioning her.  You made me go over her bio.  Didn't
> realize she starred in an adaptation of Salomé.  Have to track that down.
> Writing a dancer means eventually I'll have to *draw her dancing*, which
> means tons of study & practice.
>
> "You've no artistic integrity, that's your trouble; this is how you cheapen
> yourself."  --Noel Coward to Sir Lawrence
>
> That was before he took the contract that made his film career.  He faded in
> and out several times; Rebecca was one of his comeback phases.  Olivier
> aside, having rewatched it again I'm quite taken with Joan Fontaine; George
> Sanders is delightfully sleazy, and Judith Anderson is mellifluously
> malevolent as Mrs. Danvers.  Hitch lavished all his best efforts on Anderson
> and it shows.
>
> The big flaw with the film, I feel like, isn't that it's faithless as an
> adaptation-- it concentrates du Maurier's story beats rather masterfully,
> and is attentive to all the best details --the issue is where Hollywood
> moralizing puts a hammy hand in.  The romantic lead of the story wasn't
> permitted to be a jealous villain so Rebecca's murder was rewritten as an
> "Oh whoopsie" kind of accident.  Conversely the lesbian subtext of Mrs.
> Danvers' & Rebecca's relationship in the novel is made cartoonishly explicit
> onscreen, with Danvers fondling the cups of Rebecca's ephemeral nightie.
> Gawd.  Mrs. Danvers can't just start the fire at Manderlay and slip away
> into the night, she has to burn herself alive!  That's why ending with that
> shot of the burning bed left me in stitches.  It's so judgmental, while the
> novel didn't really come down on any particular side.  This moralizing has a
> curiously ameliorating effect on the titular specter:  Rebecca is only there
> in inference so all the lip-smacking nastiness of the book is reduced to
> that one amazing scene of Danvers trying to hypnotize our heroine into
> suicide.  Rebecca's androgyny was strongly emphasized by du Maurier and the
> affair with Favell implied to be hideously incestuous, yet none of that
> comes through in the movie, consequently Rebecca is barely there.
>
> Not to say the book is high art.  Du Maurier knew who she was writing for,
> what readers wanted.  Salacious scandal!  She doesn't make the anonymous
> heroine particularly pro-active in any respect; her class-consciousness
> elides over the course the story, so when she discovers Maxim's a murderer
> she makes her one true stand, the one thing I didn't expect, taking the
> murderer's side!  The film verson of her is maybe less vanilla, but all in
> all du Maurier's not trying to make a big point by crafting a gutsy heroine.
> "She" is there to witness, strictly a vessel for audience identification.
> Allowing her to be corrupted by the pomp of Manderlay is maybe the closest
> du Maurier gets to saying anything...  If she was even trying to, which I
> doubt.  She was out to make a bestseller.  Boy, she succeeded!
>
> For all my kvetching I'm not against Hitchcock's rendition.  The lighting is
> marvelous!  Rebecca was a big win for him, plus he deserves slack for
> surviving a production with that speed freak Selznick.  And, as I said, the
> movie meant we wound up with Citizen Kane.
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 22, 2015 at 12:01 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Interesting fact:  Rita Hayworth is the mom of Rebecca Welles.
>>
>> Never read the book but have seen movie more than once. Welles went
>> blind, what happened to Olivier? In the  movies, I mean.
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 8:46 PM, David Kilroy <thesaintgodard at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Srsly, ending with that burning bed... haven't laughed like this in
>> > weeks. At least Hitch managed to inspire Orson Welles.
>> >
>> > --
>> > http://davidkilroy.tumblr.com/
>> > -
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>
>
>
>
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