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Jane Eyre
(1915) United States of America
B&W : Short film
Directed by Travers Vale
Cast: Louise Vale [Jane Eyre], Franklin Ritchie [Rochester], Gretchen Hartman [Bertha Mason, Rochester’s insane wife], Herbert Barrington, Kate Bruce, Kenneth Davenport, Alan Hale, Laura La Varnie, Hector V. Sarno, Mrs. Wright (Helen Wright)
Biograph Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / From the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. / Released 4 August 1915. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The novel was previously filmed as Jane Eyre (1914).
Drama: Romance: Historical.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Rochester, a young Englishman touring the West Indies, meets Bertha Mason, a beautiful girl, in Spanish Town, Jamaica. The courtship ends speedily in marriage. After the wedding Rochester makes the horrible discovery that his bride’s mother is demented, and later, by chance, her brother learns that she has inherited the taint. Rochester, crushed by the realization, brings his unfortunate wife to England and establishes her in his ancestral home, under care of a nurse who secretly indulges in drink. He has a young ward, Adele, for whom he engages a governess, Jane Eyre. Rochester falls in love with Jane and asks her to be his wife. Learning from his lawyer that English law does not recognize his wife’s lunacy as ground for divorce, he resolves to keep her existence a secret and to marry Jane, trusting to the future for justification. But fate, in the person of Jane’s cousin, intervenes and the ceremony is interrupted. Rochester endeavors to justify himself, but Jane will not hear him and determines to go out of his life. Shortly after she has left the house, Bertha contrives to bind the nurse and, with a candle, sets fire to the house. Rochester saves Adele and the nurse, but is himself overcome and rescued by his groom. The tire blinds him. Bertha, with a maniacal stream plunges from the root of the blazing building and is killed. Jane learns of the tragedy and returning filled with pity for Rochester, brings him the consolation he needs.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Authors: Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)
Listing updated: 8 December 2024.
References: Spehr-American p. 2 : Website-IMDb.
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