Jane Eyre (1934)
by Christy Cabanne
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DVD details
Actor: Aileen Pringle, Beryl Mercer, Colin Clive, David Torrence, Virginia BruceDirector: Christy Cabanne
Cinematographer: Robert H. Planck
Editor: Carl Pierson
Producer: Ben Verschleiser
Writer: Adele Comandini
Writer: Charlotte Brontė
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 62 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-03-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Alpha Video
DVD Reviews of Jane Eyre (1934)
DVD Review: A Film Time Capsule thankfully preserved on DVD.
Summary: 4 Stars
This version of JANE EYRE is enjoyable for film history buffs. So, thank goodness it has not been lost, and is available on DVD.
This is a very early talkie, from one of the smaller movie companies, and all the growing pains show. (Garbo's ANNA CHRISTIE was made the year before this, and while still stagey, it shows what a larger, more successful film company could do, compared to this smaller one. Garbo's film was a film, this feels more like a record of a stage performance.) The script is rather "favorite scenes from JANE EYRE." It takes major plot points and turns them into a brighter story all together, mixing and matching elements at will
Virginia Bruce is tall, platinum, strikingly beautiful with a lovely contralto voice, voluptuous figure and mesmerizing sad eyes (that inspired Italian doll maker Lenci, in many of his boudoir dolls of this period). All of this, of course makes her wrong to play Jane, in one of the most total miscasting moments of film history. Worse yet, she slumps and slinks around like a 1930s starlet, more Jean Harlow than Jane Eyre. To see her languidly lounging against a pillar or a piano, combined with some of the abrupt dialogue lines that contradict the original story, brings lots of laughs to a Bronte fan. This version also added characters and played loose with details in ways that also made me laugh.
Colin Clive as Rochester is handsome, refined, and gentlemanly. He treats her like an Etonian suitor. Virginia Bruce rather brusquely runs the scenes with him, and often seems very bored with him, practically rolling her eyes. So, of course, all of this is wrong for the story. Now, I must say, they are both very good actors, and inhabit their roles, and for this period, they are both very fine (compare them with the supporting cast, especially the hysterically bad Adele - a child actor coached to the ends of every finger and curl in the most obvious stage mannerisms of the day), but the limitations of the medium of that day and their miscasting does them no favors.
The casting of his fiancée is very odd indeed, and shows how the beauty of WOMEN was valued at that time, over girls. She looks a good ten years older than Rochester, and quite the dark-haired demimonde vamp. Watching many versions of JANE ERYE, I find that the casting of this role and Adele tell us a tremendous amount about the tastes of the times.
The sets are bright and light, but we must understand, that some of this dynamic was needed for the cameras that were being used at the day, the makeup is very dramatic, but again, the makeup then needed for a face to "read" on camera was not even natural skin tones. So for these things, this version is a fascinating film study of a particular moment when films were transitioning. Miss Bruce's costumes are lovely - more Cinderella than plain Jane - and are also a notable moment of history, when this high waised, fully flounced skirt was "in style" for period films. This type of dress, too, was copied by doll maker Lenci. You will notice that all the lines are spoken very slowly and distinctly, and many will dismiss it as bad acting, but this too, had to do with early sound recording, it was necessary for the way film was made.
Since I AM interested in film history, this has made me anxious to see more of Virginia Bruce. I want to see if her particular presence was used in more contemporary pieces, where her looks and personal style would have made her shine. This is a time capsule.
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