Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Jane Eyre Blu-ray Movie Review

Rebecca: The Previous Generation.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 15, 2013

Who directed Jane Eyre? The credits clearly state Robert Stevenson, but a cult of sorts has sprung up over the decades since the film’s 1943 release to claim that it was really helmed—in spirit if not in letter-by its star Orson Welles. Stevenson’s wife and kids argue quite vociferously to the contrary, and certainly the public record, while tantalizingly ambiguous about what (if anything) Welles contributed, does not seem to support this thesis. But there is simply no denying that there is a huge Wellesian influence looming over the film like one of its intrinsically Gothic shadows. Stevens and cinematographer George Barnes often frame things in much the same way Welles and his cinematographer Gregg Toland did in Citizen Kane or how Welles and Stanley Cortez approached The Magnificent Ambersons. While the use of deep focus is somewhat limited, at least when compared to the “excesses” of the Welles films, there are striking angles and incredible chiaroscuro lighting in abundance throughout this Jane Eyre, certainly one of the most visually striking films in Stevenson’s long but frankly kind of pedestrian career (he went on to a long tenure at Walt Disney Productions, where he contributed fluff like The Absent Minded Professor, but also achieved a certain immortality with Mary Poppins).

Before Jane Eyre trekked through the Moors of Hollywood to the 20th Century Fox lot, it was actually going to be a David O. Selznick production. Selznick evidently put the original package together, which included stars Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine, but he only slowly came to realize how similar this property was to Rebecca. If Joan Fontaine’s Jane character wasn’t quite the milquetoast that Rebecca was, other mirroring elements loomed large: both films featured a lonely woman arriving at a Gothic mansion ruled over by a mysterious, brooding man with a skeleton in his closet (and/or attic), both films featured the presence of a former wife affecting a burgeoning romance between the two, and both films had a fire at the mansion as a central plot point (even if that element were only explicitly portrayed in the Daphne Du Maurier adaptation).

According to at least some reportage, it was these very similarities that led Selznick to shop the property around, which is when it migrated to Fox, with Welles and Fontaine still in tow. There are of course manifold differences between Jane Eyre and Rebecca, not necessarily relegated to their vastly different time frames. Jane Eyre spends much of its running time detailing the childhood travails of orphan Jane, played with a heartfelt gusto by Peggy Ann Garner. Jane’s harridan Aunt (Welles repertory player Agnes Moorehead) shuttles the girl off to the imposing Lowood Institution, run by a martinet named Reverend Brocklehurst (Henry Daniell in one of his most memorable portrayals). Brocklehurst is intent on “breaking” the little girls under his care, and he puts Jane and her new best friend Helen (Elizabeth Taylor, incredibly uncredited) through a series of harrowing punishments, one of which ends up contributing to Helen’s demise.

Somehow Jane makes it through the gauntlet and reaches adulthood, actually refusing an offer of employment by the “good” reverend in order to become a governess at an isolated estate called Thornfield. Traipsing through the foggy, shrouded Moors around Thornfield one night almost leads to tragedy when she is suddenly beset upon by a man on a horse, a collision which sends the horse and rider catapulting to the ground. Though she isn’t initially aware of the fact, this odd man turns out to be her employer Edward Rochester (Orson Welles). Rochester’s ward Adele (a charming Margaret O’Brien) is Jane’s charge, and despite the gloomy surroundings, Jane seems to have finally found a hospitable place to live.

A number of bizarre occurrences, including midnight screams and a dangerous brush with a house fire, ensue, but while Jane has her suspicions of what is going on (which turn out to be incorrect), she finds herself drawn inexorably to Rochester’s brooding, solitary persona. Her love would seem to be unrequited, as it looks likely Rochester is about to marry a socially well placed woman, but a series of unexpected developments first take her out of contention, then place Jane front and center, before a devastating denouement keeps happily ever after apparently well outside of reach.

Jane Eyre is one of the more literate of literary adaptations, courtesy of a well structured script by John Houseman, Aldous Huxley and Robert Stevenson. The film plays almost like a Gothic noir at times, albeit with roles reversed. This is a film about an innocent woman perhaps led to her emotional ruin by an “homme fatale”. The noir aspect is of course fanciful from an actual plot standpoint, but visually this film is filled with the looming shadows, oddly askew angles and psychological manifestations that would come to define that genre over the next decade or more. Cinematographer George Barnes, who had won an Oscar for Hitchcock’s Rebecca, lights this film impeccably. The feeling of claustrophobic gloom hanging over Thornfield, Jane and Rochester is almost palpable. The film’s stunningly evocative production design also contributes mightily to the emotional resonance Jane Eyre achieves. Bernard Herrmann’s achingly romantic (and Romantic) score pulses through the film like the quickening heartbeats of Jane and Edward, with occasional nods to the madness threatening their nascent happiness.

Jane Eyre Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jane Eyre, for all its deserved reputation, was never curated properly after its release, and evidently no original elements survive, or at least are usable. This Blu-ray's AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1 has therefore been sourced quite obviously from duplicate elements, with all that that entails. The film is both "contrasty" and overly soft and grainy at times, keeping fine detail curtailed to some degree. There are also image stabilization issues, especially in the early going, where gate weave and minor warping lead to minor but noticeable frame to frame misalignments. All of this said, Jane Eyre doesn't look as horrible as some probably feared, though it may only be an incremental improvement over the previously released DVD. Fox has obviously done some restoration here, and while there is some damage still on display, the good news is things have not been digitally tweaked to the point that this release does not resemble film. With appropriate (moderated) expectations, my hunch most fans of this film will be quite pleased with the results here.

Jane Eyre Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jane Eyre's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track can't quite overcome some of the limitations of the original stems, but it sounds surprisingly full bodied given reasonable expectations. Some of Herrmann's string cues are just slightly brittle sounding, but dialogue and effects are well woven and prioritized, and there is no damage of any kind to report.

Jane Eyre Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Biographer Joseph McBride and Actress Margaret O'Brien. This nicely done commentary patches together separate commnts by McBride, who wrote Orson Welles, and O'Brien (who sounds a bit frail but who obviously retained very clear memories of the shoot).


• Audio Commentary with Julie Kirgo, Nick Redman and Steven C. Smith. Perhaps aware that one of the recurring complaints about their releases was the lack of significant supplements, Twilight Time's Redman and Kirgo have started offering commentaries on their latest offerings. Their contributions here aren't quite as winning as their more heartfelt take on The Way We Were, but that is more than made up for by the excellent insights offered by Bernard Herrmann expert Steven C. Smith.


• Locked in the Tower: The Men Behind Jane Eyre (480i; 18:48) looks at the contributions of Stevenson and Welles to the picture.


• Know Your Ally Britain (480p; 42:12) is a fascinating piece of wartime propaganda Stevenson made for the United States during World War II.


• Original Theatrical Trailer (480p; 2:16)


• Isolated Score is presented via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.

Jane Eyre Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's an undeniably Wellesian influence running rampant throughout Jane Eyre, but that oft-repeated adage that film is "the most collaborative Art" should probably be heeded, meaning it ultimately doesn't matter whose ideas made it to the screen when the end result is so emotionally resonant and visually stunning. The 2011 Jane Eyre may have followed some aspects of Charlotte Brontë's source novel more faithfully, but in terms of tone and style, this version could hardly be topped. While the image quality here is not optimal, it's also not overly problematic, and the Blu-ray supplementary package and audio are quite good. Highly recommended.