{"id":1661,"date":"2007-07-23T07:53:54","date_gmt":"2007-07-23T07:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/23\/back-to-manderl\/"},"modified":"2007-07-23T07:53:54","modified_gmt":"2007-07-23T07:53:54","slug":"back-to-manderl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/23\/back-to-manderl\/","title":{"rendered":"BACK TO MANDERLAY WITH REBECCA AND JANE EYRE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rebecca_poster\"<\/a> OK so this movie<\/a> was made in 1940 — way before I was even born!  I read the book in 9th or 10th grade and saw the movie a couple of times late a night and probably with my sisters, pretzels and mustard.  And commercials.  Even so it had a profound effect on me then – and, apparently, now.<\/p>\n

It’s on TCM<\/a> — I usually have the TV on when I’m working.  But I keep having to go back and forth between Rebecca and Angel – AN<\/em>gel <\/a>for God’s sake! — because it’s just about unbearable.  This poor girl (she doesn’t even get a name – just "the second Mrs. deWinter) is a mouse – pathetic and scared.  Everything she does is a mistake.  Right now she’s begging her new husband for a costume ball like the ones Rebecca used to hold — I had to turn it off.  I know she’s going to wear Rebecca’s costume — know what will happen – and I, of course, unlike Joan Fontaine, know the truth about the witchy, Rebecca <\/a>herself.  I can still see the flames — oh but I don’t want to tell you the ending — maybe you’ll see it yourself some day with your stomach in your mouth in mortification for this poor girl.<\/p>\n

\"Jane_eyre_welles\"<\/a>As I was writing this I realized that there’s another romantic tale — from a Bronte 100 years earlier – where the ending involves a fire; it’s another book I loved – made into a film – Jane Eyre<\/a>.  Wikipedia<\/a> says there were 5 silent film versions and have been 10 film versions (they count Rebecca<\/a> in that – apparently it was a "tribute" based on Jane Eyre so I guess this comparison isn’t very original, alas) and 7 TV versions. Another mousy dreamer – another poor girl making her own way (maybe with more of a spine though), another strong, angry man with a deep painful secret.  How embarrassing that I still love both stories – remember where I sat when I first read each book and can’t quite avoid either film when it pops up on TV.  <\/p>\n

Rebecca may not have – as Maxim deWinter so desperately feared – "won in the end" but her successor – and Jane – won my heart long ago and I guess there’s no point in fighting it.  Always, always, the phrase "last night I dreamed I went to Manderlay again" will strike images and memories of my days as a dreamy girl whose literary journeys to great but unhappy mansions and great but horribly haunted love affairs were such perfect gifts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK so this movie was made in 1940 — way before I was even born!  I read the book in 9th or 10th grade and saw the movie a couple of times late a night and probably with my sisters, pretzels and mustard.  And commercials.  Even so it had a profound effect on me then … Continue reading BACK TO MANDERLAY WITH REBECCA AND JANE EYRE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5,6,28,7,97],"tags":[251,2195,2194,2197,3416,2193,2192,252,2198,2199,2196,2148,44],"class_list":["post-1661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baby-boom","category-books","category-culture","category-film","category-life","category-television","tag-books-2","tag-charlotte-bronte","tag-dumaurier","tag-fiction","tag-film","tag-hitchcock","tag-jane-eyre","tag-literature","tag-mrs-danvers","tag-mrs-reed","tag-novels","tag-rebecca","tag-women-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gBq8-qN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}