Jane Eyre (1944)

l-r: Joan Fontaine (as Jane), Orson Welles (as Rochester), Margaret O'Brien (as Adele), Peggy Ann Garner (as Young Jane), and Elizabeth Taylor (as Helen)

England, 1829. As the film begins, young Jane (Peggy Ann Garner), an orphan, is living in a strict house of her wicked and cruel aunt (Agnes Moorhead). At the age of 10, she is sent to a prison-like boarding school, Lowood, where she's taunted, teased, called an "unregenerate child" and cruelly punished, all while getting "spiritual instruction". Her best friend Helen (Elizabeth Taylor) helps her keep her sanity.

Jane Eyre and her best friend Helen, played by Elizabeth Taylor

The story advances a few years and Joan Fontaine plays Jane at 18. She accepts a job at a country estate known as Thornfield Hall, where she works as a governess and caretaker of little Adele (played by Margaret O'Brien), who appears to be an orphan, like Jane. The master of the household is Mr. Rochester, played by Orson Welles, who is very domineering and intimidating. As time goes by, Jane learns to accept him and grows fond of him, becoming jealous when he courts another woman.

I was impressed with Joan and thought she was well cast opposite Welles.

Rochester also has feelings for her, but there is something he's not telling her.

I was not familiar with this story before seeing this movie, the first film version I had ever seen of this. So the last part of this movie really was exciting for me because I did not know what to expect. Why was the the door upstairs banging?, I asked. It is a thriller of a story. Joan Fontaine is excellent, and has the right personality and maturity to bring this character to life, even if she was a little older (27) than the character. Welles is also fantastic in this, very convincing as this character.

There have been a number of other movie versions of this classic novel over the years, but I haven't seen them and cannot compare them to this version. To me, this is the definitive version. Featuring a beautiful music score by Bernard Herrmann (Citizen Kane), intense black-and-white cinematography by George Barnes (Rebecca) and is well directed by Robert Stevenson. I really liked how at certain points actual pages from the novel were shown as Joan (as Jane) narrates.

The credited screenwriters are director Stevenson, Aldous Huxley, John Houseman, a good friend of Welles' from his early days in the theater. Stevenson went on to direct many classic Disney films of the 1960s. He does a good job directing all the child actors here, and gets a few comic moments out of little Margaret O'Brien.

This movie is 96 minutes long and you can watch it streaming on NetFlix or rent on DVD.

Cast:

Edward Rochester............Orson Welles

Jane Eyre.........................Joan Fontaine

Young Jane (age 10)........Peggy Ann Garner

Helen...............................Elizabeth Taylor

Dr. Rivers.........................John Sutton

Mrs. Reed........................Agnes Moorehead

Mrs. Fairfax....................Edith Barrett

Blanche.....................Hillary Brooke

The final title card encouraged the audience of 1944 to buy war bonds.

This version was recently featured on Ebert Presents; view the clip here on the official website

"Letter From An Unknown Woman" (1948)

"Letter From An Unknown Woman" was originally a 1922 novella by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881-1942). Hollywood adapted the story in 1933 as Only Yesterday with Margaret Sullivan and John Boles, and directed by John M. Stahl (Leave Her to Heaven, Imitation of Life). Undoubtedly, fans of the original novel - including those in Hollywood - wanted to see a more accurately adapted film version, set in the turn of the century Vienna.

After Joan Fontaine's marriage with Brian Aherne ended in 1945, she dated respected producer John Houseman, and the two were engaged for a time (the engagement ended due to John's overbearing mother, per Joan's autobiography)

In 1948 Joan and her husband, producer William Dozier, formed a new production company called Rampart Productions, where they would serve as co-executive producers on film projects.

In the meantime, filmmaker Max Ophuls was looking for work since he moved to America. He became good friends with top talent such as Preston Sturges and Houseman (who eventually produced the film for Rampart). In 1946 Ophuls was fired from the first production he was associated with, possibly due to arguing with others in the studio system; he very much wanted to be in control of all aspects of the film, and especially wnated to be as mobile as possible with his camera as he shot the actors. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. gave him his first break with The Exile, a mild success with audiences (I haven't seen that film yet). For his second project, it's quite likely that Ophuls was familiar with the Zweig story enough to want to film it.

It's not hard to understand why Joan and Dozier would be attracted to the Letter project. For one, Joan was working on Billy Wilder's musical The Emperor Waltz for Paramount that same year, and like Letter, was also set in Austria. Wilder may have even talked her into the project, if not suggesting it personally. Secondly, music is a main theme of both Letter and Waltz, and Joan is a lifelong classical music fan (one of her favorite composers is Rachmaninoff).

Speaking of music, so many of Joan Fontaine's films are remembered for their musical scores or themes - Rebecca & Suspicion (score by Franz Waxman), September Affair (where Joan plays a pianist), Serenade (with Mario Lanza), and Tender is the Night (featuring its Oscar nominated title song).

Joan, in her autobiography, remembers working with Ophuls: "With [Ophuls], I communicated intuitively. After a take, Max would come over to me and start to speak in German, which I scarcely understood. I would nod before he had said six words and he would then resume his position behind the camera. After the next take was completed, he would rush over and say, "How you know egg-zactly vot I vont? Preent dat!"

Letter didn't do well at the box office when it was first released, and this may have contributed to the demise of Rampart Productions, which folded after just two productions: Letter and You Gotta Stay Happy (with Jimmy Stewart). Ironically, the inspiration for the name "Rampart" was to project feelings of sturdiness and longevity. Also sadly, Joan and Dozier were divorced in 1951.

I don't say this about too many films, but Letter is a masterpiece. One of Joan's best films, and, as many have said, one of Mr. Jourdan's best as well, next to Gigi. Many feel they both give the best performances of their careers in this movie.

Over the years, Letter has earned the respect of many film historians and buffs. This film was the #1 most requested film from fans of Turner Classic Movies for quite a long time before finally airing in April of 2010 as part of a Louis Jourdan marathon.

I will have a deeper analysis of this film in an upcoming post, for those who have already seen it.

Stay tuned!