Jane Eyre (1961): A Short, Atmospheric Production

It's always good news when I find another Jane Eyre movie to review. In the case of the 1961 made-for-TV version, though, the news isn't entirely good: the video of it that I found on YouTube (in early 2025), apparently recorded from an ancient TV broadcast, was missing 1-2 minutes of sound in several places. Fortunately, the gaps were small enough that a reasonable review was still possible.

This broadcast was sponsored by Breck, a leading vendor of hair care products in those days (and still selling shampoo today). The run length, just short of an hour, includes occasional extended Breck ads. (I don't know whether there is a connection between Breck and the curls piled atop Jane's head.)

As in most TV versions, Jane's childhood is omitted and scarcely mentioned. The film begins as she first arrives at Thornfield. She asks Mrs. Fairfax whether Mr. Rochester is there (unlike the book, in which she hadn't heard that name yet). When Jane then comments that it's a very big house, Mrs. Fairfax replies ominously: "Much too big, especially for only us ... and of course the others." "What others?" asks Jane. "Why ... the servants," Fairfax stammers. Very suspicious.

Further suspicion is aroused by Adele, who runs in to greet Jane in the bedroom that Fairfax is showing her. "Mademoiselle," the youngster declares, "it's good your room is on this side of the house. You will not hear things." At this point, if it were a horror film, the audience would be silently urging Jane to get out of there.

Jane's first encounter with Rochester occurs when he startles her as she enters the library to get a book. As they discuss Adele, Rochester gruffly says, "I know that I frighten her. I frighten most people." His speaking style is unpleasant, wavering between haughty and sharp. But Jane feistily stands up for herself.

Soon, we see her in bed, where she hears maniacal laughter. She leaves her room, smells smoke, and enters Rochester's room, where a curtain is ablaze. She pulls it down, douses it, and wakes him. In the hallway, they are joined by Grace Poole. Rochester blames Grace; she is oppositional and petulant.

The scene ends with a laughably overdramatic monologue from Rochester, addressing Jane: "Be thankful you are too young to have nightmares ... nightmares of the past that pursue you into a hell from which there is no way back." (Cut to ad for Breck dandruff shampoo.)

Once the action resumes, we see Blanche Ingram speaking with Rochester outside the society party; the entrance of Mason; and a call upon Jane to tend Mason that night after he is bloodied. When Rochester later thanks Jane for her help, he inclines his head toward her as if to kiss her, then pulls back. He tells her how Adele came to live there, concluding with another dramatic delivery: "The sins of the flesh have plagued me like so many fevers." Then he tells Jane that she is his only friend.

An ensuing voice-over by Jane informs us that "I had come little by little to admit to myself that I loved him." No reason is given, and with this Rochester being one of the harshest ones filmed, her love is hard to comprehend.

A bit later, we see Rochester returning from a trip. He tells Jane he is to be married, which distresses her. But when she tries to leave, he declares, "I have come back, if you will have me, to marry you." She brings up Blanche, and he says "... that supercilious stick, I abominate Miss Ingram!"

On we go to the wedding, where Mason arrives and declares an impediment. After Rochester takes the group to the attic to see a dangerously deranged Bertha, Jane makes it clear to him that she is leaving. He angrily tries to persuade her to stay, in a tone that should have driven her off even faster.

We next see Jane in a classroom, preparing for her students. St. John Rivers comes to see her; he is a stout, balding, buffoonish fellow, so different from the book. Later, he haltingly asks her to consider supporting his missionary work in India, which would imply ... he can't say it, so Jane actually has to interject, "Are you by any chance asking me to marry you?" He confirms it, then leaves, and she says to herself, "Mrs. St. John Rivers ... never, never."

By this time, we have seen Bertha setting fires in Thornfield and falling from a battlement, then Rochester being struck down by a falling beam. After St. John has left her, Jane imagines she hears Rochester's voice. She returns to Thornfield and is greeted by Fairfax (sadly, during one of the times when the video's sound failed). Jane goes to the blind Rochester and states her name. "Oh. What brings you to Thornfield?" he replies joylessly. After repeatedly speaking caustically to her, he eventually softens, apologizes, and receives her kiss. Music swells; a Breck ad concludes events.

Jane was played by Sally Ann Howes, age 30 at the time and clearly older than Charlotte's vision. (She later gained fame for her portrayal of Truly Scrumptious in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.) She was the type of Jane one would expect from that film era: either tightly controlled or dramatically emotional, depending on the situation. Rochester's portrayer, Zachary Scott, was in his late 40s (and succumbed to brain cancer just four years later). His Rochester, angrier and less charismatic than most, might have been a product of direction rather than his own choices.

Rest assured that if you haven't seen this version, you haven't missed too much; and that whether your hair is oily, dry, or "normal," Breck has a shampoo for you.

Summary

STRENGTHS

• Much of the plot is shoehorned into less than an hour
• Thornfield's interior is suitably atmospheric 

WEAKNESSES

• Unsympathetic portrayal of Rochester gives no indication of why Jane might fall for him
• Howes is markedly too old to be Jane
• St. John is unrecognizable from the book during his brief appearances
• Brontë's dialogue is completely rewritten