Jane Eyre (1944)

Sent away to school by her mean spirited aunt (Agnes Moorehead), a spirited young girl (Peggy Ann Garner) survives the oppressive and harsh atmosphere of the school to become a governess. In charge of a precocious young child (Margaret O'Brien), she (Joan Fontaine as the adult Jane) finds herself attracted to the brooding head of the household (Orson Welles). Charlotte Bronte's Gothic romance (though, of course, the great novel is much more than that) has been filmed countless times going all the way back to 1910! Though it eliminates some key portions of the novel, this is a fairly faithful adaptation (Aldous Huxley was one of the screenwriters) of the novel and one of the best. The director Robert Stevenson, abetted by his ace cinematographer George Barnes (an Oscar winner for REBECCA), gives the film the requisite Gothic atmosphere and guides his cast to some marvelous performances. Fontaine, one of the great beauties of the screen, would seem to be miscast as the plain Jane but she's a good enough actress to suggest the plainness of the character and no one does brood better than the young Welles. Bernard Herrmann provides one of his most evocative scores. With Henry Daniell, John Sutton, Sara Allgood, Hillary Brooke, Ethel Griffies, Edith Barrett and young Elizabeth Taylor, already a startling beauty at age 11.