Jane Eyre (1944, Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine)

There have been many film versions of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontė’s brooding melodrama of romance, madness and cruelty, but this literate and highly individual film remains far and away the best. The screenplay was reasonably faithful to the original and provided memorable roles for Orson Welles as the tormented Edward Rochester and Joan Fontaine as the shy, orphaned governess Jane Eyre.

Welles, inevitably, dominated the drama: Jane Eyre , which came only three years after his extraordinary debut in Citizen Kane , features one of his best performances. Given this competition Fontaine did very well indeed to make an impression at all: in fact she gave a fine, perfectly judged performance to more than hold her own against Welles. Notable in support are Henry Daniell, as Brocklehurst, the cruel overseer of the orphanage; and Margaret O’Brien, the ward of Rochester. Peggy Ann Garner, too, was first rate as the young Jane, and Elizabeth Taylor made one of her earliest screen appearances as Jane’s unhappy consumptive childhood friend.

Technically Jane Eyre is impeccable and the work of British-born Robert Stevenson is assured. The studio-bound recreation of Victorian Yorkshire – in particular Rochester’s Thornfield manor house – is superb and is brilliantly complemented by the moody monochrome cinematography of George Barnes.

production details
USA / 97 minutes / 1944

Director: Robert Stevenson
Writers: Aldous Huxley, Robert Stevenson, John Houseman, from the novel by Charlotte Brontė

cast
Orson Welles as Edward Rochester
Joan Fontaine as Jane Eyre
Margaret O’Brien as Adele Varens
Peggy Ann Garner as Jane Eyre (younger)
John Sutton as Dr. Rivers
Sara Allgood as Bessie
Henry Daniell as Henry Brocklehurst
Aubrey Mather as Colonel Dent
Edith Barrett as Mrs. Fairfax
Barbara Everest as Lady Ingram
Hillary Brooke as Blanche Ingram
Elizabeth Taylor as Helen Burns (uncredited)
Billy Bevan as Bookie (uncredited)
Mae Marsh as Leah (uncredited)
Erskine Sanford as Mr. Briggs (uncredited)
John Abbott as Mason
Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Reed
Adele Jergens as Woman at Party (uncredited)