Devotion *** (1946, Olivia de Havilland, Ida Lupino, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet, Arthur Kennedy, Montagu Love, Paul Henreid, Dame May Whitty, Ethel Griffies) – Classic Movie Review 6811

Director Curtis Bernhardt’s 1946 romantic biographical drama of the lives of the Brontës stars Ida Lupino Emily Brontë, Olivia de Havilland as Charlotte Brontë, Nancy Coleman as Anne Brontë, and Arthur Kennedy as Branwell Brontë.

Warner Bros’ richly romantic and not very well thought-through version of the life and loves of the three Brontë sisters at their father the Reverend Brontë (Montagu Love)’s rectory at Haworth is a typically incomprehensible and brainless Hollywooden effort at English literature.  There’s a romantic triangle as Emily and Charlotte Bronte both fall in love with their vicar, the Reverend Arthur Nicholls, and literary rivalry as they both try to get their work published. But all three sisters try to help their tormented, alcoholic artist brother Branwell.

The women’s acting is spirited, and cinematographer Ernest Haller ensures that Victorian Yorkshire looks lovely in black and white, even on re-dressed sets originally built as a Swiss mountain backdrop for The Constant Nymph (1943). But Devotion is all frothy, unreal nonsense, with silly, anachronistic dialogue that really wobbles it.

On the acting front, all is well. Paul Henreid as the vicar, the Reverend Arthur Nicholls, Sydney Greenstreet as William Makepeace Thackeray, Dame May Whitty as Lady Thornton, Ethel Griffies as Aunt Elizabeth Branwell and Kennedy as the Brontë sisters’ brother Bramwell all make their indelible marks. But (rightly) it is Lupino, de Havilland and Coleman’s movie as Emily, Charlotte and Anne.

The kind of film where famous people like Charles Dickens (Reginald Sheffield) and the Duke of Wellington (Brandon Hurst) pop in for cameos, it is easy to dismiss and even despise, yet it is undeniably entertaining in its daft, kitsch way.

It was filmed between 11 November 1942 and mid-February 1943, but it was not released till 1946 and premiered on 5 April 1946 at the Strand Theater in Manhattan.

Keith Winter’s screenplay is based on the story by Theodore Reeves.

Also in the cast are Eily Malyon, Forrester Harvey, Victor Francen, Odette Myrtil, Edmond Breon, Donald Stuart, Billy Bevan, Doris Lloyd, Elspeth Dudgeon, John Meredith, David Thursby, David Clyde, Violet Seton, Hilda Plowright, Edgar Norton, Crauford Kent and Frank Dawson.

Devotion is directed by Curtis Bernhardt, runs 108 minutes, is released by Warner Bros, is scripted by Keith Winter, is shot in black and white by Ernest Haller, is produced by Robert Buckner, is scored by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Leo F Forbstein, and is designed by Robert M Haas and Casey Roberts.

Warner Bros wanted to borrow Joan Fontaine from RKO to play Emily Bronte opposite her real life sister, Olivia de Havilland, but Fontaine preferred to play Jane Eyre (1943) and Warners cast their own player Lupino instead. They gave Lupino top billing as de Havilland had successfully sued them over her long-term contract.

Montagu Love was dead nearly three years by the time the film was released.

The Brontë story was remade in France as Les Soeurs Brontë in 1975.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6811

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