Jane Eyre (1943)

Jane Eyre
Directed by Robert Stevenson
Written by Aldous Huxley, Robert Stevenson, and John Houseman from the novel by Charlotte Brontë
1943/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix Instant

[box] Jane Eyre: I should never mistake informality for insolence. One, I rather like; the other, no free-born person would submit to, even for a salary.

Edward Rochester: Humbug! Most free-born people would submit to anything for a salary.[/box]

This is a beautiful rendition of the oft-adapted novel as seen by a Hollywood studio in its prime.

Little Jane (Peggy Ann Garner) is an orphan and has been treated cruelly by her aunt (Agnes Moorhead) and obnoxious cousins.  It doesn’t help that Jane is a strong-willed girl who speaks her mind.  Jane is shipped off to the awful Lowood Academy for girls which is ruled with an iron hand by the religious zealot Mr. Brocklehurst (Henry Daniell).  The one friend she meets there is Helen Burns (Elizabeth Taylor in her uncredited debut).  Poor Helen dies of consumption after being forced out into the rain for having curly hair.  When she comes of age, Jane is offered a job teaching at the school but is ready to hightail it out of there after speaking her piece.  Luckily, she has been offered a job as a governess at Thornwood Manor in Yorkshire.

Jane finds a kind of paradise at Thornwood with her adorable little pupil Adele (Margaret O’Brien).  Then the brooding owner Mr. Rochester (Orson Welles) returns home.  He is clearly a tortured individual but immediately he and Jane appear to be in complete sympathy.  After teasing her for a long time, Mr. Rochester declares his love.  But the mysterious goings on at night signal trouble ahead …

Since so much of the novel takes place in Jane’s heart and head, it is very difficult to capture its texture in a two-hour motion picture.  This does as good a job as any I have seen.  Peggy Garner’s young Jane is perfect and Joan Fontaine’s older version is very good if a little too meek.  I do have my reservations about Orson Welles as Mr. Rochester.  I kept hearing Charles Foster Kane and he seemed a bit too arch for the character.  The production itself is just beautiful.  I particularly like Bernard Herrmann’s great score.

I was amazed to find that this did not receive any Oscar nominations.

Trailer