Episode Details

Jamie offers Marsh a cinematic serving suggestion: a pairing of Hitchcock’s classic 1940 adaptation of Rebecca with the 1948 version of Brighton Rock starring Richard Attenborough. Discussed: hauntings, Hell and the occult origins of beef tea.

• You can watch both of these films for free on The Inter-Net! Rebecca is on Youtube and Brighton Rock is on archive.org.
• Rebecca (1940)
• Joan Fontaine as the second Mrs. de Winter
• Laurence Olivier as George Fortescue Maximilian “Maxim” de Winter, owner of Manderley
• Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers, housekeeper of Manderley
• George Sanders as Jack Favell, Rebecca’s first cousin and lover
• Florence Bates as Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper, employer of the second Mrs. de Winter
• Du Maurier’s novel is available for free in this typo-ridden pdf and elsewhere as scans.
• The battle between producer David O. Selznick and director Alfred Hitchcock for control over the picture is described in this half-hour documentary on Youtube.
• Intertexts for Rebecca include the legend of Bluebeard and Jane Eyre. The recent movie adaptation of Jane Eyre, starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender is worth seeing too.
• Rebecca has recently been re-adapted by Ben Wheatley, starring Lily James, Armie Hammer and Kristin Scott Thomas. It’s on Netflix. It has its moments and star turns, but the epilogue deserves to be scuttled off the Cornish coast.
• Anne of Green Gables is a novel which offers a redemptive arc to an austere matronly figure.
• The twist in Arrival has something to do with this hypothesis.
• Lisa needs braces! Dental plan!
• Brighton Rock (1948) – released in the US as Young Scarface
• Richard Attenborough as Pinkie Brown
• Hermione Baddeley as Ida Arnold
• Carol Marsh as Rose Brown
• William Hartnell as Dallow
• Harcourt Williams as Prewitt
• Wylie Watson as Spicer