Murder! (1930 film) names of the two principal characters. The portrayal of the character Sir John Mernier was loosely based on that of the actor Gerald du Maurier, who was a friend of Hitchcock. Hitchcock later adapted three novels written by du Maurier's daughter Daphne du Maurier: "Jamaica Inn", "Rebecca" and "The Birds". Hitchcock makes his cameo appearance in the film as a man walking past the murder victim's house. The film's sets were designed by the art director John Mead. The German language version of the film, "Mary", was shot simultaneously on the same set with German speaking actors. Miles Mander reprised
Daphne du Maurier the press." Shortly after "Rebecca" was published in Brazil, critic Álvaro Lins () and other readers pointed out many resemblances to the 1934 book, "A Sucessora" ("The Successor"), by Brazilian writer Carolina Nabuco. According to Nabuco and her editor, not only the main plot, but also situations and entire dialogues had been copied. Du Maurier denied having copied Nabuco's book, as did her publisher, pointing out that the plot elements used in "Rebecca" said to have been plagiarized were quite common. The controversy was examined in a 6 November 2002 article in "The New York Times". The article said that