Rebecca (1940)

Laurence Olivier: 'Maxim' de Winter

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Maxim de Winter : I'm asking you to marry me, you little fool.

• Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper : Most girls would give their eyes for the chance to see Monte!

  Maxim de Winter : Wouldn't that rather defeat the purpose?

• Maxim de Winter : I can't forget what it's done to you. I've been thinking of nothing else since it happened. It's gone forever, that funny young, lost look I loved won't ever come back. I killed that when I told you about Rebecca. It's gone. In a few hours, you've grown so much older.

• Mrs. de Winter : [about her father]  He had a theory that if you should find one perfect thing, or place or person, you should stick to it. Do you think that's very silly?

  Maxim de Winter : No, i'm a firm believer in that myself.

• Maxim de Winter : Please promise me never to wear black satin or pearls... or to be 36 years old.

• Maxim de Winter : She was incapable of love or tenderness or decency.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : I've been thinking...

  Maxim de Winter : Now why would you want to go and do that for?

• Maxim de Winter : Happiness is something I know nothing about.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : No, it's not too late. You're not to say that. I love you more than anything in the world. Oh, please Maxim, kiss me please.

  Maxim de Winter : No, it's no use. It's too late.

• Maxim de Winter : "I'll make a bargain with you," she said. "You'd look rather foolish trying to divorce me now after four days of marriage. So I'll play the part of a devoted wife, mistress of your precious Manderley. I'll make it the most famous showplace in England if you like. Then, people will visit us and envy us, and say we're the luckiest, happiest, couple in the country. What a grand show it will be! What a triumph!"

• Maxim de Winter : You thought I loved Rebecca? You thought that? I hated her!

• Mrs. de Winter : I wish I were a woman of 36, dressed in black satin with a string of pearls!

  Maxim de Winter : You wouldn't be here with me if you were.

• Maxim de Winter : That's not the Northern lights. That's Manderley!

• Maxim de Winter : I knew where Rebecca's body was, lying on that cabin floor on the bottom of the sea.

  Mrs. de Winter : How did you know, Maxim?

  Maxim de Winter : Because... I put it there.

• Maxim de Winter : [after he has asked her to marry him]  My suggestion doesn't seem to have gone at all well, i'm sorry.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Oh, but you don't understand! It's that I... well I'm not the sort of person men marry.

• Maxim de Winter : Oh, I was carried away by her, enchanted by her, as everyone was. And when I was married, I was told I was the luckiest man in the world. She was so lovely, so accomplished, so amusing. She's got the three things that really matter in a wife, everyone said. Breeding, brains and beauty. And I believed them, completely.

• Maxim de Winter : [to his wife at breakfast]  Have a look at "The Times"; there's a thrilling article on what's the matter with English cricket!

• Maxim de Winter : [to Rebeca]  It wouldn't make for sanity, would it, living with the devil.

• Maxim de Winter : You despise me, don't you?