Jane Eyre (1943)

Directed by Robert Stevenson. Starring Joan Fontaine, Orson Welles, Peggy Ann Gerner, Agnes Moorehead, Henry Daniell, John Sutton, Margaret O’Brien, John Abbott, Sara Allgood, Hillary Brooke, Aubrey Mather, Edith Barrett, Ethel Griffies.

Adequate cinematic retelling of the Charlotte Brontë melodrama-streaked novel about a plain, unwanted orphan growing into the role of governess at Thornfield Hall; unlikely to win many converts, but should please most devotees of the original text. The atmosphere generated by George Barnes’ gloomy photography and Bernard Herrmann’s richly ominous score outshines the stars, although Welles makes for a formidably moody Edward Rochester (the first of many “for hire” portrayals that he agreed to in order to help finance his personal projects). Studio-bound production, but those restrictions are often camouflaged by shadows and able craftsmen. Story implausibilities, periodically congested pacing, and young O’Brien’s grating voice and dialect keep it from the upper tiers of the era’s numerous classic lit fabrications. Look for an uncredited Elizabeth Taylor in one of her earliest screen appearances. Welles also served as an associate producer.

60/100