![]() ![]() Hitchcock also did “The Birds” in 1963, a stark tale of flocks of birds making wanton attacks on humans. (The book itself has been described as “a Charlotte Bronte story minus Charlotte Bronte.”)Īlfred Hitchcock directed “Jamaica Inn,” a Cornish tale of an orphan entwined with smugglers in 1939. “Rebecca,” in which Joan Fontaine played the naive second wife of Sir Laurence Olivier, a widower with a funereal secret who is haunted by the image of his glamorous first wife, won an Academy Award as best picture in 1940. Several of her works have been adapted for film and television. Her books sold well into the millions but a spokesman for one of her three publishers said he didn’t have specific figures. ![]() “Rebecca” alone ran to 42 printings with the last edition in 1980. In an art form often distinguished by economic perfidy, Miss Du Maurier, who in 1969 was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by the queen, had been a success since publication of her first novel in 1931-”The Loving Spirit.” Pritchett still offered this paean to her talent: “Many a better novelist would give his eyes to be able to tell a story as Miss Du Maurier does, to make it move at such a pace and to go with such mastery from surprise to surprise. Taking note of some minor shortcomings he found in “Rebecca,” critic V. ![]() Through the 29 novels and dozens of short stories she penned in her lifetime ran the melded threads of romance and intrigue. ![]()
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