de Winter, owner of Manderley Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers, housekeeper of Manderley George Sanders as Jack Favell, Rebecca's first cousin and lover Reginald Denny as Frank Crawley, Maxim's estate manager of Manderley and friend Gladys Cooper as Beatrice Lacy, Maxim's sister C. Aubrey Smith as Colonel Julyan Nigel Bruce as Major Giles Lacy, Beatrice's husband Florence Bates as Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper, employer of the second Mrs. de Winter Edward Fielding as Frith, oldest butler of Manderley Melville Cooper as Coroner at trial Leo G. Carroll as Dr. Baker, Rebecca's doctor Leonard Carey as Ben, the beach hermit at Manderley Lumsden Hare as Mr. Tabbs, boat builder Forrester Harvey as Chalcroft the innkeeper Philip Winter as Robert, a servant at Manderley Hitchcock's cameo appearance, a signature feature of his films, takes place near the end; he is seen walking, back turned to the audience, outside a phone box just after Jack Favell completes a call. Production At Selznick's insistence, the film faithfully adapts the plot of du Maurier's novel Rebecca. However, at least one plot detail was altered to comply with the Hollywood Production Code, which said that the murder of a spouse had to be punished. In the novel, Maxim shoots Rebecca, while in the film, he only thinks of killing her as she taunted him into believing that she was pregnant with another man's child, and her subsequent death is accidental. However, Rebecca was not pregnant but had incurable cancer and had a motive to commit suicide, that of punishing Maxim from beyond the grave. Therefore, her death is declared a suicide, not murder. Hitchcock later said that Selznick wanted the smoke from the burning Manderley to spell out a huge "R", which Hitchcock thought lacked subtlety. While Selznick was preoccupied by Gone with the Wind (1939), Hitchcock was able to replace the smoky "R" with the burning of a monogrammed négligée case lying atop a bed pillow. Hitchcock edited the film "in camera" (shooting only what he wanted to see in the final film) to restrict the producer's power to re-edit the picture. But Selznick relished the post-production process; he personally edited the footage, laid in Franz Waxman's score, and supervised retakes and extensive re-recording of the dialogue of Sanders, Bates and Fontaine. Rewrites and reshooting were called for after a rough cut was previewed on December 26, 1939. Although Selznick insisted that the film be