In 1934 Christy Cabanne directed the first talky version of Jane Eyre for Monogram Pictures Corporation, an American film studio which mostly produced B films (secondary films to be the first in a double feature with an A film). I think the year in which it was produced has much to do with the radical changes in the book's text.

The year 1934 was the first year that the Movie Production Codes--the Hayes Codes—went into effect.

In 1930, responding to public pressure, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) drafted a set of codes in order to regulate the movie industry. It was drafted by William Harrison Hays and was known as either "the Production Codes" or the "Hays Code."

Between 1930-34, the MPAA had no effective way of enforcing the Code, but then started enforcing it in 1934. An amendment to the code established the Production Code Administration, and required all films to obtain a certificate of approval before being released.

This might be the reason why in this version, Adele is now a Rochester, Rochester's much pampered and petted niece. There is no word of her being an illegitimate child of a paid mistress. And during the proceedings, Rochester is working with his London lawyer to get his first marriage to Bertha annulled by the courts. He says no word to anyone, but it is never his intention to join into a bigamous marriage. Jane leaves him anyway, and runs to work in a soup kitchen run by Rev. Rivers, a much older man whom she plans to marry and follow to India. Through a meeting with a now down-and-out Thornfield servant, she learns of the fire and Bertha's death, so she returns to the blind, but two-handed Rochester.

TOP

Clive-Bruce version Bruce: Virgina Bruce around the time she starred in Jane Eyre. This is no plain Jane! Source: http://www.cineyestrellas.com/Elenco/ Actrices/B/Bruce_Virgina_1.jpg

On the whole, this is a bad film. It has been released on DVD as a cheap version, so the print is dark and sound quality is relatively poor. The acting is very stagey. Colin Clive, perhaps most famous as Henry Frankenstein of the Whale Frankenstein films, tries, but he obviously is enamoured of Jane from almost the first.

Virginia Bruce is no Jane. She is tall, beautiful, blonde and in some ways, too “tough". She is not a bad actor, but she is too 1930s “new woman" for the role. This is a Jane with too much spunk. She yells at her Aunt Reed, she yells at Brocklehurst and gets herself fired from Lowood, and she's already inherited her money before she becomes a governess, so she's not really a dependant. She also sings a song for Rochester. Lovely voice, but again, doesn't fit.

On the whole, I would say give this film a miss, but on the other hand, it might be a very interesting look at how societal strictures changed how books were filmed. And at 63 minutes, it's certainly short enough to watch in one class.

TOP

Orson Welles as Rochester and Joan Fontaine as Jane Eyre. Source: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/ cbmc/images/jane-eyre.jpg

Ten years later, Robert Stevenson directed Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine in a classic version of the novel. With a screen play by John Houseman and Aldous Huxley and a stellar cast, including the child actors Margaret O'Brien (Adele) and Elizabeth Taylor (Helen Burns), many viewers call this the “best" Jane Eyre ever filmed.

The blind Rochester and Jane in the final scene. Source: http://www.geocities.com/ joanfan20/costars3.JPG

Again, much is cut out, and there are a number of changes to the text, but the core of the story remains. It's done in a true 1940s style—melodramatic, swelling music, dramatic lighting, costuming done by a Hollywood ideal not based in reality—but at the heart, this is Jane Eyre and it's well worth watching.

Orson Welles makes an excellent Rochester. Unlike most Rochesters before and after, Welles is not a handsome man. He's not ugly, but Jane can say that she doesn't think him handsome and the audience won't snort in derision. And of course his acting is excellent. Welles was often undervalued by his contemporary audiences, but he's sometimes riveting to watch. And that voice—his famous deep voice rolls over us, hypnotizing us along with Jane.

Rochester and Jane before their aborted wedding. Source: http://www.standaard.be/Assets/ Images_Upload/FL_EYRE.MM.jpg

Fontaine doesn't get to do much other than gaze, tremble and sigh, but her face is expressive, and we feel moved by Jane's story.

This is definitely an excellent version to watch with a class, and can be the basis of much discussion.

TOP

Timothy Dalton as the too-handsome Edward Rochester. Source: www.timothydalton.com/ rjane.html

Perhaps the most faithful version of Jane Eyre is the 1983 miniseries starring the far too good-looking Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke. She is certainly tiny enough to be the little Jane, and while not plain, she almost looks plain next to Dalton.

A happy and in love Jane and Rochester. Source: www.timothydalton.com/ rjane.html

This is an excellent version of Jane Eyre, in parts word-for-word from the text. But the problem for teaching purposes is that it is five hours long, so too time consuming to show in a class.

Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke as Rochester and Jane. Source: www.timothydalton.com/ rjane.html

I do suggest perhaps showing part of the film in order to allow students to get a taste of it. The costuming and set design is quite authentic, up to usual BBC standards, and the acting is quite fine.

Sian Pattenden as the young Jane Eyre in the miniseries version. Source: www.timothydalton.com/ rjane.html

The young Jane is played quite ably by Sian Pattenden. She does an admirable job of portraying young Jane's struggles to be proud but to find love.

The aborted wedding ceremony. Source: www.timothydalton.com/ rjane.html

TOP

Anna Paquin as the young Jane. Source: http://members.tripod.com/ ~AthenaIris/MOVIEJANE2.JPG

The 1996 version was directed by the great Franco Zeffirelli, who also wrote the screenplay with Hugh Whitemore. Like all Zeffirelli films, this is a visually beautiful work, but one perhaps expects more romantic feeling from the man who gave us the amazing 1969 film Romeo and Juliet.

The wedding scene. Source: http://www.moviesnapshot.com/1996Reviews/ Jane_Eyre.html

Zeffirelli has collected a stellar cast, even in smaller roles. The young Jane is played, for perhaps too brief a time, by Anna Paquin, three years after her Academy award-winning performance in The Piano.

Charlotte Gainsbourg, daughter of French singer Serge Gainsbourg and English actor Jane Birkin, makes herself positively plain for the role of the adult Jane. She is a physically slight woman, and at times almost fades into the background. Because of cuts to the novel in the screenplay version, this Jane doesn't seem as spunky or as independent as the book Jane.

Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt as Jane and Rochester. Source: http://www.boxoffice.com/ jpg/may/rvw01.jpg

Rochester in this version is played by the American actor William Hurt. A blond, quiet actor, he doesn't quite seem to “fit" the Rochester role. He plays a very subdued, almost Austenean Rochester.

On a whole, this is a good version of the book, and has its legion of fans. It can easily be adapted to a course, but if there is to be only one film version, perhaps the 1997 version is the one to choose.

TOP