Tonight I watched "Jane Eyre", the 1943 version with Joan Fontaine and Orson Wells. I'd seen part of it earlier in the year on TCM, which is the default channel here at Pearl's, and it looked really good - ultra mysterious and gothic. I ordered it from the Libe back in May or June, but they sent me a different version from the 1990s with William Hurt in the Wells role. Nothing against William Hurt (except that he always does his William Hurt impression in every movie he's in), but I didn't watch that version because I wanted the original one. Tonight I checked on IMDB, and there are like a dozen versions of "Jane Eyre", maybe more. It's got to be one of the most filmed stories of all time.
Yesterday I was at the Northridge Libe, scanning the dvd racks for something to watch, and I came upon a Korean copy of the 1943 film. I own a few Korean "official releases" of other movies, and they've all been watchable prints, so I checked out the "Jane Eyre" dvd because it was the Wells/Fontaine version, the one that had me intrigued because it was so mysterious.
It's one of those old melodramas, like "Wuthering Heights" or Hitchcock's "Rebecca", which had also starred Fontaine three years earlier. You know the kind of story I mean, set in the Moors of England, or high in a castle against a fog-bound cliff on some faraway island. There's always a Mansion that has A Name. There also has to be a young woman who is newly arrived as a governess or in a similar employ, and who is frightened at first by her gothic surroundings and the creepy inhabitants, but who is also Stoic and Bound By Duty to stay on the job. Finally, there has to be an older man who is Filled With Inner Turmoil Because Of A Long Kept Secret Having To Do With His Past, or His Family's Past.
If you've got all those ingredients, you've got a movie like "Jane Eyre", which was of course originally a book written by Charlotte Bronte in the mid-19th century. My Mom was a fan of the Bronte sisters, and of Jane Austen, so I'm sure she mentioned the 1943 movie to me also. No doubt she would have seen it on it's initial release.
Like my Mom, Jane Eyre is an orphan, living with her cruel aunt in Victorian England. Luckily for Mom, and for my family, she was adopted at six months by a nice couple in Ohio. Jane Eyre is not so fortunate. Her wealthy aunt, who could easily raise her if she chose, has instead decided to persecute the poor little girl, denouncing her as being "of the Devil" because Jane has dared to stand up to the unwarranted punishments meted out by her aunt (Agnes Moorehead). Because she has "talked back" to her aunt, she is sent away, at nine years of age, to a place called Lowood Institute, a reformatory for girls run by a Puritanical religious fanatic (Henry Daniell).
I must interject here to say that, if America has the black cloud of slavery hanging over it's past, then England has the cloud of institutionalized child abuse.
Jane's life with her aunt has been a horror show, and it will only get worse under the tutelage of Mr. Brocklehurst at Lowood. He clearly hates the girls in his charge, and he singles out Jane for special punishment because of her outspokenness and sincerity. Brocklehurst has ordered the other girls to shun Jane, but one disobeys. She is Helen (played by a young and uncredited Elizabeth Taylor), who becomes Jane's only friend at the Institute. Mr. Brocklehurst is determined to break the bond between these two children, and he is successful, though I shant describe how because it is too depressing.
Now we will fast forward ten years. Jane, who is made of tough stuff, has spent a decade at Lowood and is ready to graduate. Mr. Brocklehurst, in an attempt to keep her captive, offers her a teaching job at the Institute, but she declines, much to his chagrin.
Instead, she advertises in the newspaper, looking to be hired as a governess. Shortly a letter arrives, from an Edward Rochester (Orson Welles), hiring Jane to look after a small girl in his care (Margaret O'Brien). She is the daughter of a French dancer Welles was engaged to. The dancer died and her little daughter remained with Welles in his mansion. She is not technically his daughter but he has raised her as such, though he is gone for long periods and spends little time with her.
Jane Eyre arrives at the darkened mansion to find Rochester absent as usual. She is shown around the mansion by his maid Mrs. Fairfax, who also introduces her to Adele (O'Brien), the neglected little daughter.
Jane settles in and begins to do her job, but notices some strange goings-on inside the place. Noises at night. A high-pitched cackle coming from behind a door. Several days later Mr. Rochester returns home. He is by turns brusque and polite with Jane, and though she feels faintly intimidated by him, she also senses in Mr. Rochester a deep hurt, something she is attuned to in others from her own life experience.
As a result, she and Mr. Rochester will come to confide in one another. A relationship will develop, but they keep it under wraps because she is his servant. In time, however, as the mystery within the house deepens, and secrets are closer to being revealed, Welles will rely on Jane for his very survival.
But will she be there for him?
This version of "Jane Eyre", which I take to be the original, is superb, with Joan Fontaine shining in the lead role as Jane, the soul of empathy. Orson Welles is also at his Shakespearean best, grand and eloquent. It's always a treat to have Margaret O'Brien in any movie, and she is charming as usual though she doesn't have much to do. Elizabeth Taylor delivers an emotion packed brief role as Helen, Jane's only friend at the Lowood Institute, and Agnes Moorehead is wicked and aloof as Jane's cruel Aunt.
It's an incredible cast and a high caliber production, filmed on sets at 20th Century Fox. The Korean print I watched was passable, but I wish Criterion would do a restoration of this film so it's dark imagery would stand out in all it's morbid glory.
Two Huge Thumbs Up for "Jane Eyre", the 1943 version. Look for it when you're in the mood for melodrama. ////
That's all for now. I'm heading out for an afternoon stroll and then back to Pearl's.
See you tonight at the Usual Time. Tons of love, with millions of x's & o's! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo, etc. :):)
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