Rebecca

Rebecca (1940)

16 mistakes - chronological order

(2 votes)

Revealing mistake: The first morning the new Mrs De Winter is at Manderley, she goes to have breakfast, but when she attempts to pour milk into her coffee, there's no milk in the jug; she's just pretending to pour it.

Other mistake: On the first morning at Manderlay, as the girl is leaving the dining room, she slips and nearly falls but Frith is there to catch her, but Frith was way into the dining room; there is no way he could have been close enough to catch her.

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Revealing mistake: After Maxim leaves a note, saying he'll be gone for the day and having him gone should be a welcome relief for her, the girl sits in the morning room, crying. As the camera moves away from the girl, some flowers on the right jiggle from being hit by the camera.

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Audio problem: When Maxim gives Mrs. De Winter the bunch of flowers, right after they are married, she says a few times "lovely", the last time she says it, her mouth is closed.

Continuity mistake: When the girl helps Frank by licking a stamp and putting it on an envelope, Frank gets up from the table, holding two pieces of folded paper in his right hand and goes to the filing cabinet to get a folder out, with the papers still in his right hand. When he goes to return to his seat, the papers are now in his left hand.

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Continuity mistake: On the way back from London, Maxim is pretending to drive a right-hand driven car, with Frank beside him, in a studio, with a screen behind them, but when they have body doubles driving in real-life, the car is a left-hand driven car, but only for a minute or two, and then they go back to the studio car.

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Audio problem: While the couple are watching their honeymoon films, a different Joan Fontaine voice can be heard; it is deeper, distorted. The voice says, "Ah, yes, that's very nice."

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Visible crew/equipment: In Mrs Van Hopper's bedroom, Mrs Van Hopper is sitting in a chair in the middle of the room and the girl is standing in front of her. Behind Mrs Van Hopper there is a glass-covered picture, a rather large one, and as the camera gets closer to them and up a bit, we can see a reflection moving in the glass. I can't work out what it is, but nothing else is moving, except the camera angle.

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Continuity mistake: In the beginning, in the hotel foyer, at Monte Carlo, the girl has a cup and saucer in her lap. When Maxim joins them, the girl is holding the cup and its handle is on the right, then she's not holding the cup, it's just resting in her lap, then she's holding it and the handle is on the left.

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Continuity mistake: When Maxim's sister and the girl sit down to chat, just the two of them, the sister, before sitting down, drops her purse at the back of the seat, then sits down, but in the next shot her purse is on her lap.

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Revealing mistake: A lot of "Rebecca" is shot in a studio, even the driving and walking scenes, but in long shots, like when Maxim and Frank are driving back from London, to Manderley, in the "real" shot, you can see it's not Olivier driving the car.

Other mistake: When Maxim and the girl are in the beach cottage after a ship has run aground, Maxim sits in a black chair right next to a lamp that is covered in cobwebs - the place has been empty for more than a year; no-one has cleaned it or been in it, except for Ben, the weird one - but when Maxim sat in the chair, there was no dust rising up and there's not a cobweb to be seen.

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Character mistake: In the beginning of the film, in the foyer of the hotel, Mrs Van Hopper takes a sip of coffee and declares it "stone cold." Then she sees Max De Winter and offers him coffee, but all she asks the girl to get from a waiter is another cup, when what they need is another cup and a fresh pot of hot coffee.

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Continuity mistake: As the newlyweds are coming down the drive to Manderley, in an open-top car, it starts to rain. But before it does rain, the girl's hair goes from perfect to mussy. Her hair is made to look rained-on before it should.

Factual error: Crawley tells the girl that Rebecca's body was in the sea for two months and Maxim had to identify her, which is totally ridiculous: A body in the sea for two months would have been eaten and nibbled on by everything that eats meat and is passing by; there would be hardly anything left.

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The Second Mrs. De Winter: I've been thinking.
Maxim de Winter: Now why would you want to go and do that for?

More quotes from Rebecca

Trivia: Hitchcock's cameo appearance, a signature feature of his films, takes place near the end. He is seen outside a phone box when Jack is making a call.

wizard_of_gore

More trivia for Rebecca

Question: In the back seat of De Winter's car, at lunch from the inquest, I can't get all of what Favell says: As he throws a chicken bone out of the car window, he says, "By the way, what do you do with old bones..." and then I lose it. At the end, he says, "however, for the time being."

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Chosen answer: From the screenplay of "Rebecca" which I found on-line, and verified by looking at two different versions, the entirety of the line is: "By the way, what do you do with old bones? Bury them, eh what? However, for the time being - you know, Max, I'm getting awfully fed up with my job as a motor-car salesman."

Michael Albert

More questions & answers from Rebecca

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