Genius authors Emily and Charlotte Brontë fall in love with their curate as they seek to get their work published.Genius authors Emily and Charlotte Brontë fall in love with their curate as they seek to get their work published.Genius authors Emily and Charlotte Brontë fall in love with their curate as they seek to get their work published.
- Charlotte Brontë
- (as Olivia DeHavilland)
- Lady Thornton
- (as Dame May Whitty)
- Man
- (uncredited)
- Mr. Ames
- (uncredited)
- Sir John Thornton
- (uncredited)
- French Student
- (uncredited)
- Mlle. Blanche
- (uncredited)
- Mr. George Smith
- (uncredited)
- Land Agent
- (uncredited)
- Coachman with Frightened Horses
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWarners initially tried to borrow Joan Fontaine for Emily Brontë so she could play opposite her real-life sister Olivia de Havilland, but when an agreement couldn't be reached, the part was played by Warner contractee Ida Lupino.
- GoofsWhen Emily enters her brother's sickroom and doesn't completely shut its door, a hand and arm very obviously reach out from outside the room and shuts it.
- Quotes
Emily Bronte: All our lives there has been too much left unsaid between us. Loving is the only thing that really matters, Charlotte. It's worthwhile being hurt a bit to find that out. The world has always frightened me a little, so I'm really not afraid to leave it now. Though sometimes, when I hear the wind blowing through the heather, or see the sun go down beyond Wuthering Heights, I think, perhaps, I'd like to stay just a little longer.
- Crazy creditsDame May Whitty's name is spelled incorrectly in the opening credits. It is spelled as follows - "Dame Mae Whitty" - using the spelling the same way that Mae West spelled her name, (with an E, and not a Y). This is a terrible blunder for such a highly respected actress.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Between Two Worlds: Erich Wolfgang Korngold (2005)
In essence, the Bronte sisters led sad, miserable, and short lives - there was nothing romantic about the moors, as much as they seem so in the Bronte books. The sisters enjoyed poor health, their brother was a disgrace, and their father a cold man with a violent temper. Only with the entrance of their aunt into their lives was much attention paid to them. She was a warm woman who saw to their education and gave them structure.
What the Bronte sisters had was imagination, and plenty of it, and they exercised their imaginations with their writings.
"Devotion" is a lovely film with a wonderful performance by Ida Lupino as the tragic Emily. Olivia de Havilland does a good job as Charlotte, shown in the film as selfish and a man magnet. In truth, she was ugly and considered herself so, and while she did develop a crush on Constantin Heger (Victor Francen), the affection doesn't seem to have been returned. All of Charlotte's success happened after Emily's death, not where it does in the film, and the reason the girls left school was not because of their brother's illness, but because of their aunt's death.
The eternally underrated Arthur Kennedy is excellent as Branwell, shown here as only a drunk. Branwell did have several jobs, none of which he kept, had an affair with an older married woman, which was an open scandal, and is suspected of eating opium as well as drinking. However, it is true that Charlotte was angry with him.
Charlotte did marry Nicholls (and died eight months later) but there was no love triangle with Emily. Nor was Nicholls, as in the film, the model for the mysterious, romantic men in Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. The fact that this love triangle is represented as inspiration for the men in their novels in "Devotion" is a good case for Paul Henried being miscast. The movie was made during the war, when there were no men around, and Warner Brothers would never have given a star like Errol Flynn a supporting role. But the role of Nicholls, given his importance in the film, cried out for someone a little more dashing and handsome.
Sydney Greenstreet appears as William Thackery in a small but showy role toward the end of the film.
The film was shelved in 1943 because of a lawsuit filed by Olivia de Havilland against Warner Brothers; in 1946, though she won the suit, the movie was released due to the big success of her film, "To Each His Own" for Paramount.
"Devotion" is worth seeing, but not as a true story of the Bronte sisters.
Details
- Runtime1 hour 47 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1