Jane Eyre (1944)

Film: Jane Eyre (1944)
Stars: Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine, Margaret O'Brien, Peggy Ann Garner, John Sutton, Sara Allgood, Agnes Moorehead, Elizabeth Taylor
Director: Robert Stevenson
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine, had she made it just a few years longer would have turned 100 years old last week, and while I was too busy prepping for NaNoWriMo to do something on the actual day, I felt it was worth acknowledging her as an actress after such a centennial.  Fontaine, in my eyes, has always paled in respect to her sister, Joan being an actress who had a brief moment of major stardom (where she scooped up a trio of Oscar nominations), and then spent the rest of her career being perhaps more infamous for a feud than anything else.  But Fontaine was a fine actress, and as it was about to leave FilmStruck I decided to catch Jane Eyre for the first time, watching Fontaine's "plain" young governess fall madly in love with the complicated, tortured Edward Rochester, played most appropriately by Orson Welles.

(Spoilers Ahead...though seriously, you haven't read Jane Eyre?) It should be stated right up-front that Jane Eyre is one of my all-time favorite books.  I've read it a couple of times, and it's nearly impossible to put down.  Charlotte Bronte paints a tough, feminist icon in the form of her titular heroine, and it's really one of those stories like Great Expectations or Pride & Prejudice that is almost impossible to screw up, it's so compelling.  Still, though, I'd seen other versions that were remarkable (particularly the 2011 version with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender), and was curious to see what one with such an expansive cast would achieve.

All-in-all, I didn't leave disappointed.  I won't recap the plot that much (it's such a famous story), but the movie takes great care in the earlier chapters to portray Jane as a young woman in a way that I don't think I've seen before onscreen.  Peggy Ann Garner, as the young Jane, is marvelous in this role.  She would the following year win an Honorary Oscar for her brilliant work in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but here she's nearly its equal, headstrong and defiant while very real.  It's rare to see someone steal scenes from Elizabeth Taylor (who plays her doomed childhood friend Helen), but Garner is truly excellent-it's a pity she never got to contend for a competitive Oscar in her career, as she more than earned a nomination.

The romance between Fontaine and Welles is very good.  I'd say that Fontaine sometimes under-emotes, but there's something lost in her eyes and her mannerisms, the way that she clings to relevance through Adele (O'Brien), and how she manages to be both defiant and wear the weight of the world on her shoulders that I found quite captivating.  Welles as Rochester may be typecasting, but he's such a good actor it's hard to argue with such a decision.  His Rochester has occasional charm, but is brooded in his undying passion for Jane and the secrets he quite literally keeps in the attic.  The movie doesn't shy away from the novel's gothic exterior, and while so much of its genius comes from Charlotte Bronte (the script adds little that isn't there on the page), that's a minor quibble for such a grand translation.  Honestly-this may well be my favorite interpretation of the book, and considering how often this has made it to the big-screen, that's saying something.

Those were my thoughts-how about yours?  What version of Bronte's masterpiece do you think is the best big-screen adaptation?  What do you think is the best work of Joan Fontaine's career?  And why don't more film historians talk about the excellent childhood performances of Peggy Ann Garner?  Share your thoughts in the comments!