Woman and Wife
{{short description|1918 film}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Woman and Wife
| image = Alice-Brady-Woman-and-Wife-1918.jpg
| caption = Madge Evans and Alice Brady in Woman and Wife
| director = Edward José
| writer = Paul West (scenario)
| based_on = {{based on|Jane Eyre|Charlotte Brontë}}
| cinematography = Benjamin Struckman
| editing =
| studio = Select Pictures
| distributor = Select Pictures
| released = {{Film date|1918|01}}
| runtime = 5 reels
| country = United States
| language = Silent (English intertitles)
}}
Woman and Wife is a 1918 American silent drama film directed by Edward Jose and starring Alice Brady. It is based on the 1847 novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. The Select Pictures Corporation produced and distributed the film. The film was also known as The Lifted Cross.{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=17284 |title=Woman and Wife |website=AFI Catalog of Feature Films |publisher=American Film Institute |access-date=2016-09-02}}
The film survives in an incomplete state at the BFI National Film and Television Archive.[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.364/default.html The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Woman and Wife]
Plot
As described in a film magazine,{{cite journal |title=Reviews: Woman and Wife |journal=Exhibitors Herald |volume=6 |issue=7 |page=23 |publisher=Exhibitors Herald Company |location=New York City |date=February 9, 1918 |url=https://archive.org/details/exhibitorsherald06exhi}} Jane Eyre (Brady) is sent to an orphan's home by her domineering aunt, and is expelled from that institution after she slaps the superintendent's face for trying to embrace her. She secures a position in the Rochester home as a governess for their only child. The lonesome Edward Rochester, believing his wife dead, proposes to Jane. His wife's brother appears, bringing along his demented sister, who is Edward's wife. He hides her in a room, and while the household is asleep the demented woman escapes and stabs Edward. Upon his recovery, the wedding proceeds, and at its height Edward's demented wife escapes from her room and interrupts the ceremony. Pursued by servants, she throws herself into a pool and drowns.
Cast
File:Alice Brady in Woman and Wife.jpg
- Alice Brady as Jane Eyre
- Elliott Dexter as Edward Rochester
- Helen Greene as Therese
- Helen Lindroth as Grace Poole
- Victor Benoit as Raoul Daquin
- Leonora Morgan as Valerie Rochester
- Madge Evans{{cite web |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b78bebe9d |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160927183257/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b78bebe9d |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 27, 2016 |title=Woman and Wife |website=BFI Film & TV Database |publisher=British Film Institute |access-date=2016-09-02}}
Reception
Like many American films of the time, Woman and Wife was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors required a cut in Reel 1 of the first scenes of the woman drinking.{{cite journal |title=Official Cut-Outs by the Chicago Board of Censors |journal=Exhibitors Herald |volume=6 |issue=8 |page=29 |publisher=Exhibitors Herald Company |location=New York City |date=February 16, 1918 |url=https://archive.org/stream/exhibitorsherald06exhi#page/n344/mode/1up}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Woman and Wife}}
- {{IMDb title|0009831|Woman and Wife}}
{{Jane Eyre}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woman and Wife}}
Category:American silent feature films
Category:Films based on Jane Eyre
Category:Films directed by Edward José
Category:American black-and-white films
Category:Silent American drama films
Category:Selznick Pictures films
Category:1910s English-language films
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