Why did Rebecca use the alias "Danvers" when visiting Doctor Baker?

reno_rita

Near the beginning of the Hitchcock film Rebecca (1940), the well-connected socialite Mrs. van Hopper states that Before [Rebecca] married, she was the beautiful Rebecca Hildreth But near the end Dr. Baker reveals that Rebecca was one of his clients, yet he only had known her as Mrs. Danvers: Yes, I have Mrs. Danvers for three o'clock ... [Her assumed name] is a surprise! I'd known her for a long time. So, if Rebecca was a patient of Baker's...

Originally asked by syzygy on Stack Exchange (movies) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

There's quite a lot you can dig into about this name choice. I think the most convincing argument is that Rebecca wants her husband to be framed for her murder, at the same time as avoiding an even more painful death by dying of cancer. Framed is probably the right term, because she can't be confident that he will murder her. However she wants to end that night dead with Maxim the most likely suspect. In the book it is the first time that the Doctor has seen her, in the movie he knows it is an assumed name. That is not particularly relevant. It is however intentional that the name could eventually be traced to her and the visit uncovered by the police. The visit was not related to a...

Full answer by iandotkelly: https://movies.stackexchange.com/a/132441 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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