Jane Eyre was on tonight

[Dothery]

Oh, my Orson! I watched that movie when it first came out. I was only a kid but he hit me right between the eyes. Even with a false nosepiece on he was madly attractive to me, and at that point he was thin, too. I think it's the last time I saw him thin. He always said he was thin for a while but had a fat man struggling to get out.

 

It was the definitive "Jane Eyre" for me for many years, but I'm afraid he's been superseded by Toby Stephens' Mr. Rochester, Maggie Smith's son, who did a beautiful job in the BBC Television series, in spite of a scraggly wig they put on him. Even that couldn't douse those angelic looks. I never saw such a handsome devil playing a would-be bigamist with a mad wife in the tower. He played him like a real lover, as well, and not that haughty Orson.

 

But Orson's scene with Hillary Brooke (and I loved her as Blanche Ingram) where he tells her off is the most beautiful thing. I love the dialogue, I love the way they both do it. Nobody could make it roll off the tongue like Orson.

 

Orson's ashes are in a well in Spain on a bullfighter's ranch. Just a bit of trivia. (I have a ghoulish interest in burials. I check out Findagrave.com on practically everybody. So sue me.)

[casablancalover2]

It's the voice that gets me... I love a deep baritone, naturally yet carefully sounding the syllables.

 

John Houseman is the writer, and he went direct to the source in many scenes. imho, Welles captures Rochester perfectly. Brooding, hiding a pain that's deep and unexplainable.

[dpompper]

 

I love it, too. So MUCH to love about Jane Eyre (1944). That's why it's part of my DVD library.

 

 

Joan Fontaine, Agnes Moorehead, the beautiful Elizabeth Taylor as a a child, Peggy Ann Garner . . . the sets, gowns, lighting, music . . . Henry Daniell is forever the evil Mr. Brocklehurst in every film (to me).

 

 

For all of our "Dogs" thread contributors, how about those two beautiful dogs in the film (not sure of the breed)?!

 

 

Those who got to "know" Orson Welles' work only later in his career missed out on how magnetic and attractive (dare I say "studly?") he was. In addition to being brilliant . . .

 

 

I'm somewhat groovin' to Michael Fassbender's Rochester in "Jane Eyre" (2011). . . but no one has played the role like Orson Welles.

 

 

"Jane . . . JANE!. . . "

 

 

 

 

 

[AddisonDeWitless]

> {quote:title=casablancalover2 wrote:}{quote}It's the voice that gets me... I love a deep baritone, naturally yet carefully sounding the syllables.

for those fans of Welles's voice, you can check out many of his radio performances for free, in whole, on youtube. Although, I think, the Mercury Playhouse version of Jane Eyre has been lost, he does a splendid Dracula, really my favorite version of the story in any form.

[Swithin]

John Abbott, who played the brother of Mr. Rochester's first wife, is a great actor. His best role is in Women in White (1946), in which he plays Frederick Fairlie, a man who can't stand noise. His big scene in that film is one of the great eccentric scenes.

 

 

[casablancalover2]

If you mean Rochester's noble coach dog, Pilot, I believe he was a Great Dane.

[clore]

I very much liked John Abbott in THE VAMPIRE'S GHOST, a Republic horror film which was closer to what Lewton was doing at RKO than what Universal and Columbia were doing in the 40s. I haven't seen it in some 40 years, maybe more, but I'd love to see it again.

[Swithin]

I'm not sure I know that film! Unless it was on one of the old NYC TV horror shows when I was a kid. Sounds great!

 

[Sprocket_Man]

Let's not forget John Abbott's performance as Ayleborne in the original Star Trek episode "Errand of Mercy."