When I told my desk-mate Lucy that I’d made a Joan Fontaine dish and watched Rebecca, she immediately did a “Joan Fontaine in Rebecca” face that made me laugh like a drain. I then did a “Joan Fontaine in Rebecca” face that made HER laugh like a drain. Ah, the fun we have at work!

Lucy’s face was a bit like this…

Mine was a bit more like this…

But we were both in agreement. Joan Fontaine is brilliant in this film and the film itself is brilliant too.

After we’d finished making each other laugh, a three-way discussion ensued with Louise who sits opposite me about the Daphne Du Maurier obsession she had in her youth. She revealed that she named her daughter Rebecca because of Rebecca… Fabulous. Also, Louise’s Rebecca has a tattoo of the first line of the book on her back.

I reckoned that when her daughter was on the dating scene it would be a great test of a potential partner. Would they get the reference or would they not? I would hope that Louise’s Rebecca would boot them out of bed if they had never read or seen Rebecca. Or I guess maybe she would have given them a second chance if they at least expressed an interest in reading or seeing Rebecca. Or preferably, both.

I had totally forgotten what a great film this is. It’s Hitchcock at his very best. Laurence Olivier plays his role with aplomb, although you do want to give him a good shake at times. Yelling, “TELL HER, TELL HER, TELL HER”. It’s all Maxim’s fault really, for not telling the second Mrs De Winter the whole story. But therein lies great literature and great movies I guess.

Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers is glorious.

I just loved the whole kit and caboodle of this dinner and a movie…

I would heartily recommend Joan’s fish dish. It was a real showstopper! I had intended making a whole Joan Fontaine menu with her Curried Tomatoes as an accompaniment and her Snow Whirl Chocolate Roll for pud. Time got the better of me though. I might do that sometime though, this fish dish was so good it definitely deserves a re-run. The photo does NOT do it justice.

I made this dish and watched the movie prompted by The Calls of Cornwall: The Daphne du Maurier Blogathon

organised by Danielle at Pale Writer and it was great to have an excuse to watch Rebecca again. Do skip over here to see the many and varied contributions to this ace blogathon.

Here’s the recipe for all you fans of Rebecca and fans of Joan Fontaine’s FACE in this movie.

Joan Fontaine’s Filet of Sole a la Bagge

For those intrigued by the little snippet of the following recipe, I made this in 2010 when I was young, free and single and running around after rockabillies – haha! You can read all about it here – Silver Screen Sunday – Now Voyager

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