Frenchman's Creek (1941)
"Frenchman's Creek" is a 1941 historical novel by Daphne du Maurier. Set in Cornwall during the reign of Charles II, it tells the story of a love affair between an impulsive English lady and a French pirate.
According to Variety, Hitchcock attempted to secure the film rights to the novel in 1941 but his offer was rejected.[1]
The novel was eventually adapted into the 1944 Paramount film Frenchman's Creek, directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring Joan Fontaine, Arturo de Córdova, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce — Fontaine and Bruce had both appeared in Hitchcock's adaptation of du Maurier's Rebecca (1940).
