Jane Eyre (1943). Bernard Herrmann

Small, plain and poor, Jane Eyre (Joan Fontaine) comes to Thornfield Hall as governess to the young ward of Edward Rochester (Orson Welles). Denied love all her life, Jane can't help but be attracted to the intelligent, vibrant, energetic Mr. Rochester, a man twice her age. But just when Mr. Rochester seems to be returning the attention, he invites the beautiful and wealthy Blanche Ingram (Hillary Brooke) and her party to stay at his estate. Meanwhile, the secret of Thornfield Hall could ruin all their chances for happiness.

Bernard Herrmann was a great Anglophile. He loved English furniture and English antiques, he loved English music and English literature, and toward the end of his life he fell in love with an Englishwoman and married her. He was particularly drawn to the books of the Bronte sisters (he would devote much of his non-film composing energies to writing and trying to stage his opera of Wuthering Heights), and so the opportunity to score a film adaptation of Jane Eyre could not be passed up. Orson Welles, who was signed to play the part of the brooding Mr Rochester in the Twentieth Cenury Fox production, recommended Herrmann to producer Darryl Zanuck.