Jane Eyre

1944, Twilight Time

Charlotte Brontë’s passionate Victorian novel is brought to the screen in classic fashion in this 1943 version of Jane Eyre, directed by Robert Stevenson (Old Yeller, Mary Poppins) and starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine. The screenplay by Stevenson, John Houseman, and Aldous Huxley details Jane’s dramatic journey from the brutality of a school for impoverished children, following as she goes out into the world, becoming a governess at the mysterious Thornfield Hall and breaking taboos by falling in love with her mercurial master, the brooding Edward Rochester. Featuring stunning cinematography by George Barnes (Rebecca), and one of the incomparable Bernard Herrmann’s most monumental scores (available on this Twilight Time release as an isolated track).