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Rebecca (1940): The Deleted Ending That Revealed What Really Happened to Rebecca

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Alfred Hitchcock's *Rebecca (1940)* is remembered as one of Hollywood's greatest psychological thrillers—but the film audiences know today is not exactly the story Daphne du Maurier originally wrote.

In this video, we uncover the hidden history behind *Rebecca*: the censorship rule that transformed Maxim de Winter from a murderer into a man hiding a tragic accident, the deleted scene that survives only in studio documents, the strange decision to keep Rebecca herself completely off-screen, Hitchcock's battle with producer David O. Selznick, the casting drama behind Joan Fontaine, Mrs. Danvers' unsettling performance, the hidden Hitchcock cameo, and the surprising restoration history that changed the film long after its original release.

If you love classic Hollywood movies, forgotten film history, behind-the-scenes secrets, lost scenes, and the true stories that shaped legendary films, this documentary is for you.

If you enjoyed the video, please *Like**, **Comment**, and **Subscribe to Vintage Vault Secrets* for more hidden stories behind the greatest classic films ever made.

*Featured Topics:*
• Rebecca (1940) explained
• Alfred Hitchcock behind the scenes
• Daphne du Maurier's original novel
• David O. Selznick and the Production Code
• Deleted scenes and lost film history
• Joan Fontaine & Laurence Olivier
• Mrs. Danvers explained
• Hitchcock cameo
• Rebecca ending explained
• Classic Hollywood history

#Rebecca1940 #AlfredHitchcock #ClassicHollywood #VintageMovies #FilmHistory #BehindTheScenes #OldHollywood #JoanFontaine #LaurenceOlivier #VintageVaultSecrets

15 Comments

@PrivatePrivate-so4if 11 hours ago

Awful awkward AI commentary with several incorrect images. Get your research right for heaven’s sake! Kristin Scott Thomas’ image shouldn’t be used for this version of the film!

@susankeefer5981 7 hours ago

I love the movie but love the book even more.

@GrumpyMeow-Meow 10 hours ago (edited)

Alfred Hitchcock resented Selznick’s constant interference and later got his revenge in “Rear Window” by making the villain, played by Raymond Burr, look eerily similar David O. Selznick.

@manekailanakapoor1612 38 minutes ago

Rebecca was an absolutely horrendous person who wanted her husband to kill her. He did not get away with murder. Read the bloody book will you. Mrs Danvers burns down the house and Mr DeWinter has a lot of guilt.

@lanazak773 11 hours ago

Read the book and loved it, then watched the movie and loved it but I (actually just TODAY) was pointing out that the husband killed Rebecca on purpose in the book but by accident (so he could be seen as innocent) in the movie and I thought it was a cop-out. Much more interesting for our leading lady to still love him after knowing this —also explains the animosity toward him from several characters.

@jonathanmcvay4499 13 hours ago

This is my favourite film, but it could have been improved if the script had been written in such a manner that the audience was never allowed to know for certain whether Maxim killed Rebecca, that it was an accident, or suicide. Vivien Leigh couldn’t be cast as the 2nd Mrs. DeWinter because she looked like the description of Rebecca. Hedy Lamarr is who I personally picture as Rebecca.

@adrianovasconcelos2739 13 hours ago

The title of this bogus piece suggests a "deleted ending." Pure bullshit. No recovered footage, no footage of a different ending.

@TheSecretChateau 3 hours ago

Years later and in an interview, Dame Daphne du Maurier, said the 2nd Mrs. De Winter's name was Caroline.

@michaele7880 5 hours ago

Amazing book and movie. So clever.

@csm92459 6 hours ago

I cannot remember the source, but I understood that Hitchcock had originally rewritten the entire story, using the title, characters, and general plot of a dead first wife, brooding husband, creepy housekeeper, etc., but writing his own scenes and plot points. (As he did with Du Maurier's short story "The Birds"). With Rebecca, it only got so far as the writing, never filming. Selznick had been absent while that was happening, being occupied with the final pieces of GWTW. Selznick exploded, and he and Hitchcock went back and forth, with Selznick finally insisting that, as he bought the rights to the book, the movie should be the book and not Hitchcock's version of the story. Hitchcock retaliated in little ways and didn't like the movie mentioned in later years.

@VictoriaJarvis-c1k 7 hours ago

De Maurier said she was shocked by the whole thing because she said that she wrote a book about jealousy.- That Joan Fontaine's character was a twisted young woman torn apart by her jealousy of a dead woman.

Also, the incest angle was more pointed and lurid....Finally, that Maxim intentionally murdered Rebecca.

This movie has nothing to do with the novelette.

@MrMjolnir69 3 hours ago

And of course never showed the "deleted scene"

@bluewren2 5 hours ago

Oh who gives a tinkers damn anyway as if Laurence Olivier could ever be portrayed as a cold blooded murderer.In any case in the version I watched he did actually shoot Rebecca but as she had goaded him into shooting her because she knew she was soon to die of a terminal illness and because she was such a reprehensible female the audience was happy to let the sea hide his secret!I did wonder why Daphne du Maurier had to have Mandalay burnt to the ground but as Rebecca's taste and signature was all over it that must have been it..Darn I just remembered Laurence Olivier was not even in that version:fish-orange-wide-eyes:.

@richardw3470 13 hours ago

Yeah, Olivier acted toward Fontaine like he was the Tudors' villainess Richard III and she was Minnie Mouse. The great Boss of the British stage didn't get his way by having his current sweetie in the role. We should be grateful he didn't try to get one of his 'like' attractions I suppose. Crazy gossip in the past several years said Danny Kaye was one.

Anyone who's read the book knows the ending is different from the movie. Did I miss seeing/hearing the alternate ending of this 'secret' you spoke about? Gullible me thought you actually had acquired the film.