Alfred Hitchcock Collectors Guide: Rebecca (1940), Part 5

by Brent Reid
Brent Reid
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Soundtrack and radio

  • Among the Master’s very best scores: Waxman’s timeless opus was Oscar-nominated
  • Franz Waxman scored over 160 classic films, many iconic, but loved Rebecca the most
  • Even better known are the numerous versions of his specially adapted “Rebecca suite”
  • After reams of musicological commentary, first complete physical and recorded history
  • Numerous radio, big and small screen remakes regularly appear right up to present day
  • On the airwaves: adaptations started appearing within months of the novel’s publication
  • Dozens since made in many languages and the main English versions are readily available

Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.

Rebecca: Writing on a Classic; Collectors Guide, Part 2: Production, 3: Home video, 4: 1956 re-release and bootlegs, 5: Soundtrack and radio, 6: Remakes

Rebecca (1940, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) German 1951 Illustrierte Film-Bühne programme, no. 1351

German 1951 Illustrierte Film-Bühne programme, no. 1351

Contents

Soundtrack

Continuing Rebecca’s mainly non-American personnel roster, the man responsible for its brilliant music was German-born émigré and über composer Franz Waxman. Though he was credited for over 160 films, including many of the biggest successes from the golden age of Hollywood, Rebecca was his personal favourite. He also went on to score Suspicion, The Paradine Case and Rear Window for our man Hitch.

Rebecca’s original soundtrack recordings have never been issued separately in their entirety and almost certainly the masters, along with those for the other Hitch-Selznicks, no longer exist. But they can be heard most effectively via the isolated music and sound effects track on all restored US BDs and DVDs. Such blended tracks were specially produced by studios to facilitate dubbing in foreign markets. Only the Rebecca Prelude (1:38), heard over the opening titles, has been officially released on these, with the Disques Cinémusique albums additionally including Rebecca’s Room (6:47).

There are literally dozens of Hitch film music compilations featuring chunks of Rebecca’s original score but they’re mostly bootlegs, lifted directly from the soundtracks of ropy video copies. Physical boots include:

  • US: Cinema Records LP/rear (197-)
  • Spain: Soundtrack Factory CD/rear (2001)
  • UK: él/Cherry Red CD/rear (2010)
  • UK: Enlightenment 4-CD/rear (2018)

Franz Waxman, Rebecca (1940, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) Royal Scottish National Orchestra cond. Joel McNeely (2002) Varèse Sarabande CD

As for new full score recordings, they’re like buses: you wait for ages then, comparatively speaking, two (almost) come at once. The first, laid down from November 1990–February 1991, was relatively swiftly followed by a compilation of two performances from May 2000 and January 2002.

There are also various modern recordings of uniquely adapted Rebecca suites, several of which are essential for any fan of Hitch’s films or film scores in general:

*RCA Red Seal CD adds five bonus tracks not on any other editions

  • Silva Screen 2-CD/MP3 Psycho: The Essential AH (1999) City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Paul Bateman (7:08)
  • Naxos 2-CD Discover Film Music (2008) Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra cond. Adriano (3:16)
  • Toccata CD/MP3 Music for AH (2014) Danish National Symphony Orchestra cond. John Mauceri (8:22)
  • Chandos CD/MP3 Hollywood Soundstage (2022) Sinfonia of London cond. John Wilson (7:34)

Mirko Pirozzi | Rebecca suite – Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin cond. Christian Schumann, 22.9.22 (7:53)

Lastly, for the sake of completeness, is Hitch fan and noise-drone/ambient musician Cory Strand’s Rebecca: A Reinterpretation and A Reassembly (2014). Like most of his hundreds of hours-long soundtrack makeovers, they were released as limited editions before the former was posted on Bandcamp.

Cast dramatisations

Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in 1950

Mr. and Mrs. de Winter: Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Mew the cat in their Chelsea home, 19 December 1950; another

Good Evening: AH on Radio – Charles Huck and Martin Grams, Jr.

There have been dozens of full cast dramatisations of Rebecca for radio with the first, by and starring Orson Welles, coming hot on the heels of the novel’s publication and long predating Hitch’s version. Subsequent recordings saw all three film leads reprise their roles: Judith Anderson, Joan Fontaine (twice) and Laurence Olivier, whose 1950 version opposite his real-life wife Vivien Leigh saw her finally getting to play the second Mrs. de Winter as she had originally wished, having been screen tested. Similarly, several much later readings featured stars of latter-day screen versions.

As usual, all the earliest surviving adaptations are American, thanks to the ongoing popularity of old time radio, while those from the UK, courtesy of the BBC, are either unavailable or missing believed wiped. All known circulating versions are rounded up here but leave a comment if you know of any others.

Joan Fontaine and Brian Aherne, at home circa 1940

Joan Fontaine and real-life husband Brian Aherne at home circa 1940

Hollywood’s Most Famous Sibling Rivalry – Life

Loretta Young’s appearance in the 1948 adaptation was to help plug her upcoming film noir, The Accused.

Here are a few more recent adaptations for good measure:

Solo readings

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938) UK Random Century Audiobooks cassette (1991)

UK cassette: its Gary Blythe illustration also adorned a tie-in paperback

There are also several radio serialisations, later sold as audiobooks alongside dedicated recordings. The latter include complete and abridged solo readings by Anna Massey, Harriet Walter and Joanna David who were all in the 1979 TV remake; and the latter’s daughter Emilia Fox, star of the 1997 version. There are also at least a handful of French and German renditions but I’ve rounded up all the available English-language recordings I could track down.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938) UK Random Century Audiobooks cassette (1991) rear

The Accused (1949)

Loretta Young (The Stranger, The Farmer’s Daughter) and Robert Cummings (Saboteur, Dial M for Murder) star in the film noir classic The Accused, a story about one woman’s successful self-defense during a struggle which leads to the death of her attacker. Psychology professor Wilma Tuttle (Young) allows a male student of hers to drive her home. While en route, he attempts to rape her but is killed when his teacher fights back. After fleeing the scene, Wilma is overcome with feelings of guilt while following the investigation by Lt. Dorgan (Wendell Corey, Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock Presents) and comforting her love interest Warren Ford (Cummings), who also happens to be her attacker’s guardian. Directed by William Dieterle (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I’ll Be Seeing You, Portrait of Jennie) and shot by Milton R. Krasner (All About Eve, How the West Was Won), this brilliantly acted drama dives into the psyche of a woman torn apart by emotional violence. – US BD and DVD

  • US: Universal DVD (2016) – region 0
    • Kino BD (2021) – region A

Based on June Truesdell’s 1947 novel Be Still, My Love, this gripping drama also features Douglas Dick as the baddie straight after he played the victim in Rope and once again he’s the MacGuffin who doesn’t last past the first reel. It’s only officially available on a US BD with an audio commentary by film historian Eddy Von Mueller and the trailer, and a DVD which is playable anywhere. Therefore, you’d have to be criminally insane to grab the bootleg DVDs from Italy (A&R Productions, Sinister Film) and Spain (Cine Club). Victor Young’s jazzy score had a single cue included on a couple of contemporary releases, nine cues are on a soundtrack CD/MP3 alongside two of his other scores, and there’s a short piano cover of its Prelude.

Douglas Dick and Loretta Young in The Accused (1949)

Switching sides: Douglas Dick and Loretta Young in The Accused (1949)

Rebecca: Writing on a Classic; Collectors Guide, Part 2: Production, 3: Home video, 4: 1956 re-release and bootlegs, 5: Soundtrack and radio, 6: Remakes

This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.

I started Brenton Film because I love film – quelle surprise! The silent era, 1930s and 1940s especially get my literary juices flowing, so you'll see a lot about those. For more, see the About page and read this before emailing.

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