Perhaps little new can be said about Jane Eyre, for both the novel and its film adaptation have enjoyed a hardy popularity. Like most Victorian novels, Charlotte Bronte's book is a thinly-disguised social criticism with its target religious bigotry and self-righteousness. Miss Bronte was indeed indignant, and once described her novel as an attempt "to pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee." In true Dickens' fashion, she wrote about insufferable aunts, cruel schoolmasters, and orphans' asylums, and made them all as black as the corridors of Thornfield. But she added to her novel a vivid sense of melodrama, replete with thunderstorms, dark castles, and voices drifting across the moor.

As a result, the film version of Jane Eyre often resembles the peculiar combination of ghost story and murder mystery, lacking only the corpse and the supernatural. It is bombastic, thoroughly enjoyable, and, of course, a fitting vehicle for Orson Welles. In appearance alone, Welles is a perfect Edward Rochester, who emerges dramatically out of the mists possessing a mysterious character to be explained only as the secrets of the past are discovered. In time, the past becomes obvious, but not before Welles forcefully displays the contradictory elements in Rochester, a man whom Miss Bronte describes as having a fine should hidden behind a sardonic exterior.

In contrast to Edward's revelation, Miss Bronte chose to unravel Jane's character step by step, following her growth from a mistreated Chile to governess of Thornfield. Jane Eyre's early years provide the film with its best opportunity to depict the author's social philosophy, and the scenes of the orphanage contain both excellent photography and acting. Joan Fountain plays the mature Jane Eyre with all the simplicity and firm sense of right and wrong that Miss Bronte intended.

The supporting cast is generally excellent. Camera work adds much to the mood of the film, and usually relies upon darkness and shadow to accompany the drama. Jane Eyre has probably received its classic film treatment in this version, which retains the novel's exciting pace and a good deal of its insight. The appeal of the film, however, does not rest solely on a fine performance or lively drama. Despite its confused, mysterious overtones, Miss Bronte's novel is drawn along clear, simple lines. Her characters, once their secrets are uncovered, are easy to understand and she leaves no loose ends to contradict all that has gone before. In the end, rewards and punishments are dispensed in a manner which would have pleased even Job, and Miss Bronte's justice, if fanciful, is at least attractive.