Jane Eyre

A Love Story Every Woman Would Die a Thousand Deaths to Live! Small plain and poor Jane Eyre comes to Thornfield Hall as governess to the young ward of Edward Rochester. Denied love all her life Jane can't help but be attracted to the intelligent vibrant energetic Mr. Rochester a man twice her age. But just when Mr. Rochester seems to be returning the attention he invites the beautiful and wealthy Blanche Ingram and her party to stay at his estate. Meanwhile the secret of Thornfield Hall could ruin all their chances for happiness. Made two years after Citizen Kane, this 1943 version of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre sure looks like star Orson Welles muscled his way behind the camera much of the time. (In fact, costar Joan Fontaine--who plays the title character--has maintained that Welles methodically did just that every day on the set.) Not that the film's official director was a hack: Robert Stevenson, who later had a busy career at Disney making numerous live-action hits for the studio, such as Mary Poppins, gets the credit. But there's no mistaking Welles's masterful hand in the film's bold and creative look, and there's no getting away from his enigmatic charisma as Rochester, the widower who takes in Jane as a governess to his daughter. An engrossing, gorgeous film, there's even a small role for Elizabeth Taylor at the beginning as Jane's unlucky, doomed friend at a cruel boarding school. --Tom Keogh (from amazon.com)