The original book end shows that maxim is indeed a murderer. I always despised him, in spite of his charm. He was a horrible person. But this one takes out all tension. We don't see how the 2. Mrs de winter ignores his guilt and instead paints Rebecca as a monster. No doubt we were supposed to feel that, but the danger is taken out of it in the film. I really like it, but maxim is innocent in it.
shareThe Motion Picture Production Code rules as enforced in those days would not permit Maxim to "get away" with murder as happens in the book.
Now, one could argue that Rebecca's deliberate goading of Maxim into killing her...."suicide-by-goaded-and-infuriated-husband", as it were....was at least a partial exoneration of Maxim's guilt.
Well, maybe if the movie was made today. But not in 1940. So, Maxim had either to be punished for murder or be shown to be innocent of the killing. I think Hitchcock made the right choice given the options available at the time.
Well there's a remake on Netflix soon - so maybe Maxim will be a murderer in that one.
shareI don't really think of Maxim as a murderer. Rebecca was manipulating him to be the instrument of her ending. I've always believed, that the note to Favell was to insure that there was a witness so she would bring Maxim down with her. In Rebecca's mind, she made him. She was going to destroy him.
FYI: In the new version, that's one aspect they restored. Maxim shoots her.