Rebecca (1940)

Joan Fontaine: Mrs. de Winter

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Mrs. de Winter : Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

• [the new Mrs. de Winter wants to dispose of Rebecca's letters] 

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : I want you to get rid of all these things.

  Mrs. Danvers : But these are Mrs. de Winter's things.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : *I* am Mrs. de Winter now!

• 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...

• 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.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Oh, Maxim, Maxim.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : [about her father]  He had a theory that if you should find one perfect thing, or place or person, you should stick to it. Do you think that's very silly?

  Maxim de Winter : No, I'm a firm believer in that myself.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : I've been thinking...

  Maxim de Winter : Now why would you want to go and do that for?

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : 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.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : We can't lose each other now. We must be together always, with no secrets, no shadows.

• 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 : How could I even ask you to love me when I knew you loved Rebecca still?

  Maxim de Winter : What are you talking about? What do you mean?

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Whenever you touched me, I knew you were comparing me with Rebecca. Whenever you looked at me or spoke to me or walked with me in the garden, I knew you were thinking, "This I did with Rebecca," and this and this. Oh, it's true, isn't it?

  Maxim de Winter : You thought I loved Rebecca? You thought that? I hated her!

• Mrs. de Winter : I wish I were a woman of 36, dressed in black satin with a string of pearls!

  Maxim de Winter : You wouldn't be here with me if you were.

• Maxim de Winter : I knew where Rebecca's body was, lying on that cabin floor on the bottom of the sea.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : How did you know, Maxim?

  Maxim de Winter : Because - I put it there.

• Maxim de Winter : [after he has asked her to marry him]  My suggestion doesn't seem to have gone at all well, i'm sorry.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Oh, but you don't understand! It's that I... well I'm not the sort of person men marry.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : [before their marriage]  Oh, I wish I were a woman of 36, dressed in black satin with a string of pearls!

  Maxim de Winter : [chuckles]  You wouldn't be here with me if you were.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : [opening voice-over]  Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me. The drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had always done. But as I advanced, I was aware that a change had come upon it. Nature had come into her own again, and little by little had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers. On and on wound the poor thread that had once been our drive, and finally there was Manderley. Manderley - secretive and silent. Time could not mar the perfect symmetry of those walls. Moonlight can play odd tricks upon the fancy, and suddenly it seemed to me that light came from the windows. And then a cloud came upon the moon and hovered an instant like a dark hand before a face. The illusion went with it. I looked upon a desolate shell with no whisper of the past about its staring walls. We can never go back to Manderley again. That much is certain. But sometimes, in my dreams I do go back to the strange days of my life, which began for me in the South of France.

• Maxim de Winter : Tell me, is Mrs. Van Hopper a friend of yours or just a relation?

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : [before their marriage]  No, she's my employer. I'm what is known as a paid companion.

  Maxim de Winter : I didn't know companionship could be bought.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : I looked up the word "companion" in the dictionary once. It said, "a friend of the bosom."

  Maxim de Winter : I don't envy you the privilege.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : [before her marriage to Mr. de Winter]  I thought I'd take a tennis lesson.

  Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper : I see. I suppose you've had a look at the pro, and he's desperately handsome and you've conceived a schoolgirl crush on him. All right, go ahead. Make the most of it.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : [before their marriage]  Would you please tell me, Mr. de Winter, why you asked me to come out with you? Oh, it's obvious that you want to be kind, but why do you choose me for your charity?

  Maxim de Winter : I asked you to come out with me because I wanted your company. You've blotted out the past for me more than all the bright lights of Monte Carlo. But if you think I just asked you out of kindness or charity, you can leave the car now and find your own way home.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : [before their marriage]  I wish there could be an invention that bottled up the memory - like perfume. And it never faded, never got stale. Then whenever I wanted to, I could uncork the bottle and live the memory all over again.

  Maxim de Winter : And what particular moment in your young life would you want to keep?

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Oh, all of them, all these last few days. I feel as though I'd - I'd collected a whole shelf full of bottles.

  Maxim de Winter : 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.

• Maxim de Winter : Of course, if you don't love me, that's a different thing. Fine blow to my conceit, that's all.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : [before their marriage]  Oh, I do love you. I love you most dreadfully. I've been crying all morning because I thought I'd never see you again.

  Maxim de Winter : Bless you for that. I'll remind you of this one day and you won't believe me. It's a pity you have to grow up.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : It's big, isn't it?

  Frith : Yes, Madam.

• Frith : Mrs. de Winter, I mean, the late Mrs. de Winter, always did her correspondence and telephoning in the morning room after breakfast.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Thank you, Frith.

  Frith : Is anything wrong, Madam?

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Oh, no. Uh, which way is the morning room?

• Major Giles Lacy : Do you hunt?

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : No, I don't. I'm afraid I don't even ride.

  Major Giles Lacy : Oh, have to ride down here. We all do. Which do you ride, sidesaddle or astride? Oh, yes, of course, I forgot. You don't, do you? Ha! You must. Nothing else to do down here.

• Beatrice Lacy : How do you get along with Mrs. Danvers?

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Well, I - I've never met anyone quite like her before.

  Major Giles Lacy : You mean she scares you? She's not exactly an oil painting, is she?

  [chuckles] 

  Beatrice Lacy : Giles, you're very much in the way here. Go somewhere else.

• Major Giles Lacy : Do you rumba?

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : I've never tried.

  Major Giles Lacy : You must teach me.

• Beatrice Lacy : You're very much in love with Maxim, aren't you? Yes, I can see you are. Don't mind my saying so, but why don't you do something about your hair? Why don't you have it cut or sweep it back behind your ears?

  [the Second Mrs. de Winter tries sweeping her hair back] 

  Beatrice Lacy : Oh, no, that's worse. What does Maxim say about it? Does he like it like that?

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Well, he never mentions it.

  Beatrice Lacy : Oh, well, don't go by me. I can see by the way you dress, you don't care a hoot how you look. But I wonder Maxim hasn't been at you. He's so particular about clothes.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : Can't I help you? I could at least lick the stamps.

  Frank Crawley : That's terribly nice of you.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : I was down at the cottage on the beach the other day. There was a man there - a queer sort of person.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : Wasn't she afraid to go out like that alone?

  Frank Crawley : She wasn't afraid of anything.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : Please don't think me morbidly curious. It isn't that. It's just that I feel at such a disadvantage. All the time, whenever I meet anyone, Maxim's sister or even the servants, I know they're all thinking the same thing. They're all comparing me with her, with Rebecca.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : I daresay I've been stupid. But every day I realize the things that she had and that I lack: beauty and wit and intelligence and, oh, all the things that are so important in a woman.

  Frank Crawley : But you have qualities that are just as important, more important, if I may say so. Kindliness and sincerity and, if you'll forgive me, modesty mean more to a husband than all the wit and beauty in the world.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : I suppose that's why you married me. Because you knew I was dull and gauche and inexperienced and there could never be any gossip about me.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : I'm awfully sorry, darling. It was very careless of me. Mrs. Danvers must be furious with me.

  Maxim de Winter : Oh, hang Mrs. Danvers. Why on earth should you be frightened of her? You behave more like an upstairs maid or something, not like the mistress of the house at all.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Yes, I know I do. But I feel so uncomfortable. I - I try my best every day, but it's very difficult with people looking me up and down as if I were a prize cow.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : Maxim, can't we start all over again? I don't ask that you should love me. I won't ask impossible things. I'll be your friend, your companion. I'll be happy with that.

  Maxim de Winter : You love me very much, don't you? But it's too late, my darling. We've lost our little chance of happiness.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : No, Maxim, no.

  Maxim de Winter : Yes. It's all over now.

• Maxim de Winter : I've loved you, my darling. I shall always love you. But I've known all along - that Rebecca would win in the end.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : No, no! She hasn't won. No matter what happens now, she hasn't won.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : Good evening, Mr. DeWinter.