Home » R.I.P. Joan Fontaine

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R.I.P. Joan Fontaine — 13 Comments

  1. Fascinating to compare all those takes on the proposal scene in Jane Eyre — thanks for posting them.

    It strikes me that, other than Joan Fontaine and Susannah York, all the actresses playing Jane are rather plain and don’t have whatever it is that could still enable them to project beauty. The Jane in the book does that, I think. Fontaine was brilliant at looking both beautiful and plain. York wasn’t able to do that; she still looks gorgeous and sexy and not plain at all.

  2. Ann:

    I completely agree. Susannah York cannot look plain. Joan Fontaine looks plain and appealing and attractive all at the same time. The others just look plain plain, if you know what I mean.

    Although I imagine they can look quite pretty in full makeup and hairdo and all that. But as Jane, they look unappealing, which just won’t do at all.

  3. “Plain” is an interesting old-fashioned concept, isn’t it? Much more respectful than the current popular way of assessing women’s attractiveness — either you’re a dog or you’re “hot.”

  4. The movie “Born to be Bad” shows us that Miss Fontaine could portray a very naughty gal just as well as she could a plain Jane decent gal. It also features one of my favorite male actors, Robert Ryan.

  5. Peter O’Toole, now Joan Fontaine, not that I wish it, but, who’s going to be the third? Usually celebrities dies in threes.

  6. Daniel Day Lewis and Kate Winslet!

    Am I right?

    Fourth Oscar, maybe for Lewis?.

    And I think Kate could pull off a beautiful plain Jane.

  7. I’ve never read the book or watched any of the movies. I often have too short of an attention span to watch video links, listen to podcasts, and such.

    But I just watched about an hour’s worth of Jane Eyre film clips. When I saw that you linked all of those different versions of the same scene, I figured that it was worth my time to check them out.

    I think I like the 1973 and 1983 versions the best, and I also liked the 2011 one.

    According to the credits, it was William Hurt, not John Hurt, in the 1996 version. But I agree, that one wasn’t so good.

    I still kind of think of George C. Scott as General George S. Patton or General Buck Turgidson.

  8. I always thought she was very beautiful, even prettier than many of the name Hollywood starlets of her era.

  9. “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderlay again…”

    Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhh…… Good Journey, Joan.

  10. Personally my favorite Rochester was Jack Benny’s butler. I did stumble on a very interesting tie-in on one of the links though and learned a lot about the Dehavilland Mosquito…

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