Daphne du Maurier’s short stories made into film
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Most people know the films The Birds, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and Don’t Look Now, directed by Nicholas Roeg, made for the cinema in 1962 and 1973 respectively. They are two of Daphne du Maurier’s most terrifying pieces of writing, the stuff of gothic nightmare, although many people still don’t realise that Daphne wrote the short stories on which these films are based.
At the website we also know of thee short stories that were made into film, this time for television, one in the UK and two in the US. The UK film was The Breakthrough, first shown on BBC2 on 8th January 1975. The film was part of a series called The Mind Beyond, produced by Irene Shubik. Kiss me Again Stranger was first shown on American television on 14th April 1953 and Fraction of a Second, renamed from the short story Split Second and starring Bette Davis, was first show on American television on 21st April 1958.
A Daphne du Maurier follower in France recently contacted us at the website and told us about Fraction of a Second, including the fact that it was possible to find it on YouTube. Thanks to the help of our wonderful web designers, who have added the film to the Video and Films section of the website, you can watch it too. It is in six parts, the first part does have a short trailer from later in the film first, so just go past that and the film begins.
If you know of any more of Daphne du Maurier’s short stories that were made into film please contact us here so that we can include the information in our Daphne du Maurier; Bibliography: Film and Video section.