“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.”
First wives often get a bad wrap. Painted as vengeful shrews by the husbands who left them, the stereotypical first wife is a conniving crone desperate to ruin the younger woman replacing her. But anyone who’s been married knows that relationships are much more complicated. Arguably foundational to this pervasive misconception is Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca. Based on the 1938 novel by Daphne du Maurier, the Best Picture winner introduces us to an unnamed newlywed struggling to live up to the memory of her husband’s late first wife.
Though she tries her best, the second Mrs. De Winter (Joan Fontaine) may not have what it takes to be the Lady of a great house like Manderley. Young and naive, she marries a lonely widower named Maxim (Laurence Olivier) only to face scrutiny from the massive staff of his cold ancestral home. Chief among her haters is Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), the lady’s maid to her predecessor. But no matter what the narrator does, she can’t seem to get a foothold in her new life. Until a dreadful tragedy washes up on the shore of their oceanside home.
In the latest episode of Bloody FM’s The Lady Killers Podcast, co-hosts Jenn Adams, Rachel, Sammie Roffman, and Shelby Novak conclude gothic horror month with a deep dive into this foundational text. Why don’t we learn the narrator’s name? What does Maxim see in her? How close is Mrs. Danvers to Rebecca, and is the first Mrs. De Winter truly a villain? They’ll answer these questions and more while returning to the treacherous secrets of Manderley.
Stream below and subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every Thursday.