This 1939 Alfred Hitchcock film bears little resemblance to du Maurier's book. Mary played by Maureen O'Hara, who is noted as coming from Ireland, was yet to become a Hollywood Star. Charles Laughton, as co-producer of the film, threw his not inconsiderable weight around.insisting on taking the role of the Squire. He can well be described as 'lording' it over everyone — the albino, villainous vicar being an impossible character to include in 1930's Hollywood. Leslie Banks who played Joss, Mary's uncle has a suitably wonky eye, heavy features and a menacing stance but isn't half as bad as in the book. Patience, his wife, is perhaps the most uninspiring of the characters — rather like the book.
However, the wild seas — how very wet the actors must have got — the bleak moors and the coldness of the Inn came over well. Jem, the romantic interest in the book, is changed into an undercover customs/police man, Traherne. The story line diverges dramatically towards the end.
Considering that Daphne was alive at the time of its production it seems she had little influence over the script.
We have to remember of course that 1939 was a very different time from now and also from Cornwall of the early 19th century. Hollywood films had to conform to strict production codes and audiences' expectations were different too, and of course war was looming.
The book
We were pretty critical of the film but everyone enjoyed the book. It is a good read, a page turner, as they say with good characterisation. Patience irritated me but also personified all those women, particularly in days when opting out of a marriage was very difficult, who stayed with abusive men who have holds over their women. Just a kind word infrequently reminds them of the love they once had and is sufficient. How Mary put up with it all was rather pathetic, why she cared so much is beyond me. She could perfectly well have gone back to her farm which her mother had been running on her own before she died and Mary seems like a sensible woman with the guts to do it herself. We wonder if her relationship with Jem would have ended up the same way as the older couple?
Du Maurier is a master of atmosphere and description and it is a good story.
It is surely time for it to be refilmed and we could all come up with suitable actors for the main parts. Remembering Charles Dance in Rebecca left a few swooning.
