The song 1939 "Perfidia" by Alberto Domínguez is used throughout, and was used previously in Rebecca (1940) when Maxim seduces the heroine. "Perfidy" means treachery or betrayal.
The plagiarism suit against Daphne Du Maurier, publishers Doubleday and Selznick International Pictures Inc. was filed on 15 September 1941, a summary judgement took place on 3 September 1946, and the complaint was dismissed on 14 January 1948.
It was brought by Jackson Clifford MacDonald on behalf of the estate of his mother, the late Edwina Levin MacDonald.
Little is known of Edwina Levin MacDonald. Born in Campri, Louisiana May 10 1898, she wrote the short story 'I Planned To Murder My Husband' which was published in Hearst's International Magazine in October 1924. This was expanded into the novel 'Blind Windows' in 1927 in which the wilful daughter of a Louisiana plantation owner leaves for New Orleans to marry a much older creole divorced man who is cruel and constantly compares her to his living ex-wife. Following a nightmare in which she murders him, her husband sees the error of his ways before dying, and she then marries her childhood sweetheart who had introduced them.
Forty-six 'parallelisms' with 'Rebecca' were put forward, but dismissed.
MacDonald also wrote 'A Lady of New Orleans' in 1925, and died April 17 1946.