Jane Eyre (1943 film)

Jane Eyre is an American film adaptation of Charlotte Bronts 1847 novel of the same name, released by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by William Goetz, Kenneth Macgowan, and Orson Welles uncredited. The film stars Welles and Joan Fontaine. Elizabeth Taylor made an early, uncredited appearance as Helen Burns.

Orphaned, unloved, and unwanted tenyearold Jane Eyre Peggy Ann Garner lives with her cruel and selfish, uncaring paternal aunt, Mrs. Reed Agnes Moorehead of Gateshead Hall. Jane is ecstatic when Mrs. Reed, eager to be rid of the child, arranges for Jane to be sent to Lowood Institution, a charity boarding school for young girls, run by the disciplinarian Reverend Brocklehurst Henry Daniell.Based on what Mrs. Reed has told him, Mr. Brocklehurst labels Jane a liar in front of her inmates and orders her to stand on a stool for hours on her first day of attendance. She is comforted and befriended by another student, Helen Burns Elizabeth Taylor. Later, Jane protests when Brocklehurst orders that Helens naturally curling hair be cut. Both are punished by being forced to walk circles in a courtyard during a downpour. Dr. Rivers John Sutton, a sympathetic physician who periodically checks on the students, brings them inside, but it is too late for Helen, who dies that night. ........

Source: Wikipedia