Joan Fontaine movie quotes

“How could we be close when I knew you were always thinking of Rebecca? How could I even ask you to love me when I knew you loved Rebecca still?”

Joan Fontaine - Mrs. de Winter

- Mrs. de Winter: I don't ask that you should love me. I won't ask impossible things. I'll be your friend, your companion, I'll be happy with that.
- "Maxim" de Winter: You love me very much, don't you? But it's too late, my darling. We've lost our little chance at happiness.
Joan Fontaine - Mrs. de Winter
Laurence Olivier - "Maxim" de Winter

“- Johnnie Aysgarth: He doesn't like me.
- Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth: I know.
- Johnnie Aysgarth: He doesn't trust me from here to there.”

Cary Grant - Johnnie Aysgarth
Joan Fontaine - Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth

“- Mrs. de Winter: You knew that she wore it, and yet you deliberately suggested I wear it. Why do you hate me? What have I done to you that you should ever hate me so?
- Mrs. Danvers: You tried to take her place.”

Joan Fontaine - Mrs. de Winter
Judith Anderson - Mrs. Danvers

“- Mrs. de Winter: What was Rebecca really like?
- Frank Crawley: I suppose she was the most beautiful creature I ever saw.”
Joan Fontaine - Mrs. de Winter
Reginald Denny - Frank Crawley

- Mrs. de Winter: Our marriage is a success, isn't it? A great success? We're happy, aren't we? Terribly happy? If you don't think we are happy, it would be much better if you didn't pretend. I'll go away.
- "Maxim" de Winter: How can I answer you when I don't know the answer myself? If you say we're happy, let's leave it at that.
Joan Fontaine - Mrs. de Winter
Laurence Olivier - "Maxim" de Winter

“- Mrs. de Winter: I realize the things that she had that I lack - beauty and wit and intelligence and all the things that are so important.
- Frank Crawley: You have qualities that are just as important, more important if I may say so - kindliness and sincerity, and if you'll forgive me, modesty mean more to a husband than all the wit and beauty...” (continue)(continue reading)

Joan Fontaine - Mrs. de Winter
Reginald Denny - Frank Crawley

“He had a theory that if you should find one perfect thing, or place or person, you should stick to it.”

Joan Fontaine - Mrs. de Winter

- "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.

Laurence Olivier - "Maxim" de Winter
Joan Fontaine - Mrs. de Winter

- Mrs. John Day - Peggy: Listen to the wheels, don't they seem to be saying something?
- Mrs. Stephen Haines - Mary: No.
- Mrs. John Day - Peggy: Don't they seem to be saying "Go back, go back, go back, go back?".

Joan Fontaine - Mrs. John Day - Peggy
Norma Shearer - Mrs. Stephen Haines - Mary

“- Mrs. Danvers: Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?
- Mrs. de Winter: No, I don't believe it.
- Mrs. Danvers: Sometimes, I wonder if she doesn't come back here to Manderley, to watch you and Mr. de Winter together.”

Judith Anderson - Mrs. Danvers
Joan Fontaine - Mrs. de Winter

- Mrs. de Winter: But you didn't kill her. It was an accident!
- "Maxim" de Winter: Who would believe me? I lost my head. I just knew I had to do something, anything.

Joan Fontaine - Mrs. de Winter
Laurence Olivier - "Maxim" de Winter

Whenever you touched me, I knew you were comparing me with Rebecca. Whenever you looked at me or spoke to me, walked with me in the garden, I knew you were thinking "This I did with Rebecca".

Joan Fontaine - Mrs. de Winter

“- Johnnie Aysgarth: Don't do that.
- Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth: Why not?
- Johnnie Aysgarth: Because your ucipital mapilary is quite beautiful.”

Cary Grant - Johnnie Aysgarth
Joan Fontaine - Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth

“- Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth: Is whatever it is, painful?
- Isobel Sedbusk: Not in the least. In fact I should think it'd be a most pleasant death.”

Joan Fontaine - Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth
Auriol Lee - Isobel Sedbusk

“- Mrs. John Day - Peggy: Sylvia, you oughtn't talk about him like that! Why, I think it's disloyal!
- Mrs. Howard Fowler - Sylvia: Listen Peggy, do we know how the men talk about us when we're not around?”

Joan Fontaine - Mrs. John Day - Peggy
Rosalind Russell - Mrs. Howard Fowler - Sylvia