Having never read the novel, this was my first experience of Charlotte Bronte’s story. It demonstrates the difficulty of adapting a long written work to a screenplay. You know the author put much of the important information in narrative or thoughts of the characters and it is impossible to put much of it into the dialogue or otherwise communicate it in a 99 minute film. The viewer is left with the clear impression that he is missing something important. Without that something this could just as easily be a story by Charles Dickens or Daphne du Maruier.
I like Crowther’s description of Orson Welles playing Rochester with “the studied arrogance, the restless moods of a medieval king.”
Elizabeth Taylor appears in an uncredited role as young Jane’s best friend and fellow inmate of their awful boarding school.
Three stars for this first film version “Jane Eyre” - HJS.
i have seen the Orson Wells and the William Hurt versions... i have heard that the Broadway musical is excellent...
Netflix has several different versions on DVD or streaming. Good versions of 19th century novels can be done as miniseries. I’ve read “Jane Eyre,” but it’s not a favorite.