Jane Eyre

1943
Approved
1h 37m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

9.7K

YOUR RATING

Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles in Jane Eyre (1943)

Play trailer2:14

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72 Photos

Period Drama Drama Romance

After a harsh childhood, orphan Jane Eyre is hired by Edward Rochester, the brooding lord of a mysterious manor house, to care for his young daughter.After a harsh childhood, orphan Jane Eyre is hired by Edward Rochester, the brooding lord of a mysterious manor house, to care for his young daughter.After a harsh childhood, orphan Jane Eyre is hired by Edward Rochester, the brooding lord of a mysterious manor house, to care for his young daughter.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

9.7K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos1

Trailer 2:14

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Photos72

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Storyline

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Trivia
After securing the screen rights, David O. Selznick originally approached Orson Welles to play the role of Rochester opposite Selznick contractee Joan Fontaine. He got Aldous Huxley, John Houseman, and Robert Stevenson involved. Ultimately though, he sold the package to Darryl F. Zanuck and Twentieth Century Fox.

Goofs
The text of "Jane Eyre, Chapter 1" that appears on screen does not correspond to the text of Bronte's novel. Chapter 1 actually opens, "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question."

Quotes
[first lines]
Jane Eyre: [narrating] My name is Jane Eyre... I was born in 1820, a harsh time of change in England. Money and position seemed all that mattered. Charity was a cold and disagreeable word. Religion too often wore a mask of bigotry and cruelty. There was no proper place for the poor or the unfortunate. I had no father or mother, brother or sister. As a child I lived with my aunt, Mrs. Reed of Gateshead Hall. I do not remember that she ever spoke one kind word to me.

Alternate versions
There is an Italian edition of this film on DVD, distributed by DNA srl, "JANE EYRE (1943) + LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (1948)" (2 Films on a single DVD), re-edited with the contribution of film historian Riccardo Cusin. This version is also available for streaming on some platforms.

Connections
Featured in AFI Life Achievement Award: AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Orson Welles (1975)

User reviews138

Review

Featured review

8/10

The best Jane Eyre around

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is certainly one popular item for adaption to the big screen and small. I count 22 versions on the Internet Movie Database, but this one starring Joan Fontaine as plain Jane Eyre and Orson Welles as the brooding Rochester is probably the best known.

I had previously reviewed a 1934 version that starred Virginia Bruce and Colin Clive had done for Monogram. And as befit that studio the budget for the project was pretty anemic. And no one could possibly have believed the glamorous Ms. Bruce could be a plain Jane.

Also Joan Fontaine fresh off her Oscar for Suspicion was a far better actress. Fontaine has played glamor roles, but she dialed down the surface beauty to give a finely etched performance as the shy young thing brought up in cruelty by her aunt Agnes Moorehead and schoolmaster Henry Daniell in the institutional school she is sent.

Fontaine is great, but she is also building on the performance of Peggy Ann Garner as the young Jane Eyre who has enough resiliency to overcome a really horrible childhood. In many ways the Garner/Fontaine character of Jane Eyre echo how Joan's sister Olivia DeHavilland as Catherine Sloper was brought up in The Heiress. The miracle is that Jane Eyre doesn't become as twisted as Catherine Sloper.

Orson Welles with his stage training and magnificent voice and pieces of subtlety in his manner scores well as Mr. Rochester who carries a secret tragedy within him. He engages Fontaine to be governess for his 'ward' Margaret O'Brien and love cannot take its course because of some really big barriers. What they are you have to see Jane Eyre for.

I'm sure that 20th Century Fox must have had Suspicion in mind when casting Joan Fontaine. In both films she goes off to live in a big estate a bit apprehensive about what she's getting into. And in both films she has reason to be apprehensive.

One young actress who received no billing, but got real notice was eleven year old Elizabeth Taylor. She plays Peggy Ann Garner's friend in Henry Daniell's school and her death scene must have not left a dry eye in any theater Jane Eyre was playing.

This version of Jane Eyre sets a very high standard for those before or since to follow.