Devotion (1946 film)
| Devotion | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Curtis Bernhardt |
| Produced by | Robert Buckner |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Theodore Reeves |
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| Music by | Erich Wolfgang Korngold |
| Cinematography | Ernest Haller |
| Edited by | Rudi Fehr |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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107 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Devotion is a 1946 American biographical film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Ida Lupino, Paul Henreid, Olivia de Havilland, and Sydney Greenstreet. Based on a story by Theodore Reeves, the film is a highly fictionalized account of the lives of the Brontë sisters. The movie features Montagu Love's last role; he died almost three years before the film's delayed release.
The story takes place in the early 1800s, when the Brontë sisters Charlotte and Anne have made the decision to leave their family - their sister Emily, their brother Branwell, their aunt and their vicar father - to take positions as governesses in other families. The two sisters long to break free from their tedious life and get experiences from the outside world, to prepare for their careers as writers.
They have the intention of giving part of their income from the governess positions to their talented brother Branwell, so that he can go to London and study art, to become a great temperamental painter.
One night when Bran is getting drunk at a local tavern, a man named Arthur Nicholls, his father's new curate, arrives. The drunk Bran insists that Arthur accompany him to the vicarage. At first Arthur refuses, believing that it is too late in the evening. When he realizes how drunk Bran has become, he accompanies him to see that he gets home safe and sound.
Emily, who answers the door, mistakes Arthur for one of Bran's drunken friends and treats him with contempt. The next day Bran leaves for London again, and Arthur reappears at the house. He is greeted by the unwelcoming Mr. Brontë, and soon Emily realizes her mistake and she and Arthur become good friends. They go on walks together, and one day Emily shows Arthur a lonely house on a hill, the one that inspired her writing her novel Wuthering Heights.
Time passes and a disillusioned Bran returns home from London. He blames all his sisters for his failure as a painter. Soon after Charlotte and Anne also return home, and at a ball at the neighboring Thornton house, Arthur is struck by Charlotte's beauty and falls in love with her. When Charlotte realizes that Emily is interested in Arthur, she becomes interested in him as well. Later, a drunken Bran disrupts the dance, and Arthur leaves the dance and takes him home.
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