Devotion (1946)

Director:

Curtis Bernhardt

Writers:

Theodore Reeves (story) and
Keith Winter (writer)

Release Date:

20 April 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Acclaimed...THE GREATEST LOVE STORY OF THE YEAR! Tender! Endearing!

Plot:

In Victorian England, literary siblings Emily and Charlotte vie for the affection of the Reverend Arthur Nichols...

Plot Keywords:

Sister Sister Relationship | Writer | Orchestral Music Score | Leitmotif | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Ida Lupino	...	Emily Bronte
Paul Henreid	...	The Reverend Arthur Nicholls
Olivia de Havilland	...	Charlotte Bronte
Sydney Greenstreet	...	William Makepeace Thackeray
Nancy Coleman	...	Anne Bronte
Arthur Kennedy	...	Branwell Bronte
Dame May Whitty	...	Lady Thornton
Victor Francen	...	Constantin Heger
Montagu Love	...	Reverend Bronte
Ethel Griffies	...	Aunt Branwell
Edmund Breon	...	Sir John Thornton
Odette Myrtil	...	Mme. Heger
Doris Lloyd	...	Mrs. Ingraham
Marie De Becker	...	Tabby
Eily Malyon	...	Mrs. Thornton's Friend at the Ball

Runtime:

USA:107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Spain:T | Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #9002, General Audience)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Filmed between November 11, 1942 and mid-February 1943, the movie premiered on April 5, 1946 at the Strand Theater in Manhattan. The release had been delayed while Olivia de Havilland, after completing Government Girl (1943) on loan to RKO, successfully sued Warner Bros. to terminate her contract without providing the studio an extra six months to make up for her time on suspension.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Emily enters her brother's sickroom and doesn't completely shut its door, a hand and arm very obviously reaches out from outside the room and shuts it.

Quotes:

Charlotte Bronte: I know nothing. I understand nothing. And yet, I have dared to write 200,000 words about life!
[tosses manuscript on floor]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Between Two Worlds: Erich Wolfgang Korngold (2001) (TV)

A rarely seen enjoyable film

Although not historically accurate, this is a very enjoyable romantic view of the Bronte sisters and their devotion to each other and to their drug addicted brother. I am surprised that it has not been shown as often as the overwrought versions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering heights which were made around that time.

The performances are excellent, even more so because they are quietly underplayed for the times. The attention to detail is good, except for the scene where Charlotte returned to find Emily on her deathbed but left the front door wide open! Growing up on the Yorkshire moors about 10 miles away from Haworth, I know that no one would ever leave the door open on a cold stormy night. I kept wanting to shout in Yorkshire dialect "Put t'wood in't hoile!" (Shut the door, in English)

The Bronte sisters have been the subject of vastly more scholarly print than their combined output, but this film skims over the heartbreak and hardship they endured. One has to see the bleakness of the Haworth parsonage and the moors to begin to grasp what it must have been like for them. Death was a constant companion, taking all of them away in their early adulthood. Death from drink, tubercolosis and in Charlotte's case, childbirth, were the norm for those who survived infancy. Their lives were bleak, but their imagination was rich.

Picky picky details aside, this films deserves to be shown more often.