Change Your Image
KathleenGriffin
Reviews
Jane Eyre (1970)
Ebenezer Scrooge meets Jane Eyre
Miscasting happens. Susannah Yorke is a luminous young Jane Eyre, and her performance is impeccable. However, Edward Rochester is supposed to be 35. White-haired George C. Scott looks and behaves like an arthritic 80. Jane's deceased uncle is in better shape! He creaks and snarls, obnoxious and grim. He looks like an ax-murderer who has sent his ax out to be sharpened; we're not surprised he keeps a wife caged in the attic! The great love story looks like a sado-masochistic nightmare. There is enough darkness in the novel, but Bronte's Rochester is relatively young, athletic, powerful, and charming when he chooses to be. He has a fine speaking and singing voice, a good mind, and a conscience that he unsuccessfully attempts to stifle.
Juno and the Paycock (1929)
"What is the stars"
Extremely well-done film, crisp and merciless. The B/W despair of the Dublin slum, and Juno, the woman trying to cope with two adult children in a time of Civil War are presented sharply. The prospect of a small inheritance leads "Capt." Boyle into wild extravagance, shadowed by his hysterical son, who has lost an arm in the conflict, and is hiding, terrified, by the vigil light. The daughter Mary's innocent ambition to escape the tenement is betrayed twice. Two young men die in the embattled streets. The end is one great cry: "Take away our hearts o'stone and give us hearts o' flesh." (NB: If you're expecting a jolly Honeymooners sitcom, skip this!)