Click here for the BBC 1980 version.
Click here for the BBC 1995 dramatization.
Click here for the 2005 movie.

We join the movie just as Lady Catherine de Bourgh has visited Elizabeth, acting bizarrely as Mr Darcy’s ‘ambassador,’ to learn for herself if Elizabeth’s love for him is uninfluenced by his tremendous fortune. Lady Catherine has decided that Lizzy is right for him after all, and Darcy is enthused and emboldened by the news. Outside Longbourn, Lady Catherine leaves in her carriage, instructing Mr Darcy to enter the house.

INT. LONGBOURN – DAY

Darcy enters Longbourn and is met by Mrs Bennet.

DARCY:
How do you do, Mrs Bennet?

MRS BENNET:
Well, this is an honor! First Lady Catherine and now you.

DARCY:
I was travelling with my aunt and I thought I would give myself the pleasure…

ELIZABETH (OFF SCREEN):
Jane!

Elizabeth enters the hall.

ELIZABETH:
Mama, I can’t find Jane anywhere. (Noticing Mr Darcy) Oh!

Mr Darcy bows and walks to her.

DARCY:
How do you do, Miss Elizabeth?

ELIZABETH:
How do you do?

MRS BENNET:
(Interrupting) Jane is somewhere in the garden, I believe.

DARCY:
Oh, Miss Jane. I have a message for her from the Bingleys. (Gesturing to go outside) Should we… should we… see if we could… find her…

ELIZABETH:
Why yes, let’s do that.

DARCY:
(To Mrs Bennet) Would you excuse us?

MRS BENNET:
Very gladly, Mr Darcy.

LONGBOURN GARDEN. INT – DAY

Elizabeth is walking ahead of Mr Darcy. He calls to her.

DARCY:
Miss Bennet. I have a confession to make. I didn’t tell the exact truth, I’m afraid, about the message from the Bingleys.

ELIZABETH:
You mean they didn’t send one?

DARCY:
They didn’t send one for the good reason that Charles Bingley had every intention of bringing it himself.

ELIZABETH:
Himself?

DARCY:
Yes, he came back to Netherfield last night. I was rather expecting to see him here this afternoon.

Darcy looks around and spots Jane in the garden. She is seated as Mr Bingley walks to her. Mr Bingley kisses Jane’s hands. Elizabeth and Darcy watch.

ELIZABETH:
Oh, Mr Darcy, this is your doing.

DARCY:
Shall I tell you who is really responsible for your sister’s happiness? Caroline Bingley?

They walk to a bench.

ELIZABETH:
Miss Bingley?

They sit together.

DARCY:
She sent her brother back by dwelling on all the reasons she should stay away. I only approved a decision that he’d already taken on his own account.

ELIZABETH:
Mr Darcy, there’s something else… I hardly know how to put it into words. What you did for Lydia…

DARCY:
I, but I assure you I did nothing Miss Bennet.

ELIZABETH:
Lady Catherine was not of that opinion.

DARCY:
What? But I never gave her leave to tell you that.

ELIZABETH:
Gave her leave? Do you have to say that Lady Catherine…

DARCY:
I… wanted to know if I would be welcome. She came as my ambassador.

ELIZABETH:
Your ambassador? I never imagined that that was the language of diplomacy.

DARCY:
(Laughs) You know she likes you in spite of the language.

ELIZABETH:
Me?

DARCY:
She really does.

ELIZABETH:
I wish I’d known it. I wouldn’t have been so rude.

DARCY:
But that was what she liked. People flatter her so much, she enjoys an occasional change.

ELIZABETH:
I’m afraid I gave her a good change this afternoon!

DARCY:
She went away delighted. You only confirmed the good opinion she formed of you at Rosings.

ELIZABETH:
I don’t know what to say or think, except that you must allow me to thank you for what you did for Lydia, and if the thanks were known to the rest of my family I should not merely have my own gratitude to express.

DARCY:
If you must thank me, let it be for yourself alone. Whatever I did, I thought only of you.

ELIZABETH:
Oh, Mr Darcy, when I think of how I misjudged you, the horrible things I said, I am so ashamed.

DARCY:
Oh no, it is I who should be ashamed -of my arrogance, my stupid pride, of all except one thing: I am not ashamed of having loved you. Elizabeth, dare I ask you again. Elizabeth, dear beautiful Lizzy…

They kiss.

Mrs Bennet is peering out of the window. Mr Bennet is in the background.

MRS BENNET:
Lord, bless my soul! Mr Bennet, Mr Bennet!

Mr Bennet comes to the window.

MR BENNET:
Miracles will never cease, Mrs Bennet.

MRS BENNET:
Mr Darcy! Who would have believed it? Oh, my sweetest, sweetest Lizzy. What pin money she will have, what jewels, what carriages. Jane’s is nothing to hers, absolutely nothing. Oh, and such a charming man. I do hope he’ll overlooked my having disliked him so much. Oh, dear, dear Mr Darcy, a house in town, ten thousand pounds a year. Of course, poor Jane will only have five. Oh, I wonder if there’s any dish he’s particularly fond of. I’ll go and…

As Mr and Mrs Bennet reach the door, they hear music. Mary is singing.

INT. LONGBOURN DRAWING ROOM – DAY.

Mary is singing and playing the piano, accompanied by a gentleman on the flute. Next to them are Kitty and another gentleman, who stroll through the doors together into the garden.

The eyes of Mary and the flutist meet.

MRS BENNET:
Mr Bennet! Mr Bennet!

MR BENNET:
Well, perhaps it’s lucky we didn’t drown any of them at birth, my dear.

MRS BENNET:
Mr Bennet, you must find out what money they have. Colonel Foster can tell you all about Mr Denny, and Sir William knows all about Mr Witherington. You must go at once, Mr Bennet, this very afternoon. Ah! Three of them married, and the other two just tottering on the brink.

Mrs Bennet closes the door.

So, there we have it. It doesn’t look so much on the page, so don’t forget you can watch the whole movie on our site for free. The highlights for me are (in no particular order):

1. 1. Lizzy and Darcy’s kiss on the bench. Despite his sweet, genteel manner and soft voice, Olivier’s kiss almost takes poor Greer Garson’s head off! It’s a proper man’s kiss from the 1940s, when men were men and men… erm… couldn’t really kiss properly.
2. 2. The wonderful wartime humor, for example Lizzy’s joke about the language of diplomacy, delivered as if for a live music hall audience.
3. 3. The moment in which Darcy ‘notices’ Jane and Mr Bingley. They are in plain view, only a few meters away when he spots them.

What do you think about this ending? It’s surely the least faithful of the major adaptations (unless you want to count Lost in Austen!) but definitely also one of the most fun. It’s a shame that some of the nicest phrases and lines from the novel haven’t been included, or have been altered for the worse, and that some charming scenes are missing, but it’s still a great movie in itself.

Please let me know your thoughts!

Here are My Pride and Prejudice’s all time top 10 pictures of the beautiful, kind and good-natured Jane Bennet.In no particular order and from all the major screen and TV adaptations we have Rosamund Pike (2005), Susannah Harker (1995), Sabina Franklyn (1980), Maureen O’Sullivan(1940) and Morven Christie (lost in Austen).

Jane Austen wrote nothing about the hair color of Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice (although she does have dark eyes), and was similarly silent about Darcy’s, Jane’s and Bingley’s barnetts, so where does this certainty come from?

A decidedly dark Elizabeth Bennet

Casting directors have seen it differently in the past. In the 1940 adaptation, Greer Garson’s Elizabeth has blonde hair, while Jane Bennet (Maureen O’ Sullivan) is a brunette. Also, in the 1980 series, Elizabeth Garvie has light brown hair and, again Jane’s (Sabina Franklin) hair is dark. However, from the 1995 BBC production the hair color has been fixed, as is evident in the 2005 movie and in the TV spin-off Lost in Austen.

Hair color is of course richly symbolic within our culture; blonde shades, like the color white, signify sexual and moral purity. Jane Bennet, for this reason, could never join the Pink Ladies. Also, blondeness – unfortunately for some (including me!) – still hasn’t lost its association with dumbness in our culture. Perhaps binding these together is our association of blondeness with childhood, puberty being the time when hair thickens and becomes darker.

Three Blonde Moments - A most definitely blonde Jane Bennet

Dark hair and features are of course more readily identified with moodiness, mystery and danger. It’s obvious, therefore, why it suits Elizabeth and Darcy’s fiery courtship. Perhaps it’s also considered more masculine. Andrew Davies did describe Elizabeth as something of a tomboy, because of her love of country walks, her very ‘unladylike’ habit of arguing with her superiors, and her willingness to get muddy. He said he thought it might be Jane Austen’s code for saying Elizabeth had lots of sexual energy (there he goes again!)

Tall, dark and handsome Mr Darcy

Dark hair is also symbolic of the generally more complex world of the adult. Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship is contradictory and complicated from the start. They both struggle to contain their emotions. Bingley and Jane’s relationship is far simpler. Theirs is such an innocent courtship that it’s hard to see it as adult at all. Bingley is indecisive and Jane is shy. Both are, of course, childlike traits.

The blonde and boyish Mr Bingley

In fact, it doesn’t take a major stretch of the imagination to see the relationships of Elizabeth and Jane, and Darcy and Bingley, as both containing Parent-Child elements. Elizabeth is both awed and saddened by the naivety of Jane’s worldview. She is like a parent with no way to protect her daughter from the cruelty of the adult world. Likewise, it’s only when Darcy ‘pretty much’ gives his permission for Bingley to marry Jane, that the former finally proposes. His words, therefore, must have carried greater authority than those of a typical friend. Moreover, despite trespassing on his younger friend’s hospitality at Netherfield, he speaks to Bingley with an abruptness that few friends would tolerate.

I’m sure there could be other reasons for the automatic way in which most of us associate Elizabeth and Darcy with dark hair and Jane and Bingley with blondeness, but these are what occurred to me. Did I miss any other hints in the book as to their appearance, or have we just filled in the gaps with our own cultural associations?

Lizzy

Pride and Prejudice 1940 is primarily a wartime comedy, seeped in 1940s glamour and star quality, and only secondarily an adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel. Having written the dystopian novel Brave New World, screenwriter and novelist Aldous Huxley showed that he’s nothing if not versatile with this movie, billed at the time as ‘the gayest comedy of the year.’ The script is so light in tone, and so light on its resemblance to the novel’s storyline and characters, that purists will find it wholly insufferable. Those with a sense of humor or affection for this era of Hollywood, will very quickly fall in love with it.

The movie stars Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson as Mr Darcy and Elizabeth. Olivier is far too soft and likeable from the start, but his screen presence is just magnetic beyond all reason. Huxley even gives him some of Bingley’s lines, which he delivers so sweetly that it’s incomprehensible that Elizabeth doesn’t just leap on him at Netherfield and have done with it! His first proposal to Lizzy is also only very mildly offensive – nothing compared to the insults implicit in the 1980, 1995 and 2005 adaptations.

Most impressively, Greer Garson is equal to Olivier’s legendary presence. While Jane Bennet (Maureen O’Sullivan) is very beautiful, Garson is so stunning that it’s difficult to imagine her being second in beauty to anyone. By the standards of the movie, she is actually quite a faithful Elizabeth. She certainly has all the ‘sweetness’ and ‘archness’ that Jane Austen envisaged, and is wonderfully spirited.

The costumes are completely wrong for Jane Austen, with the movie given an 1840 setting, and the contrived accents are loveable but mildly distracting.* Darcy is pronounced ‘Darsay’ and ‘marry’ has become ‘melly’ for some reason, but you will still cheer when Darsay and Elizabeth finally agree to melly at the end.

Likewise, the wartime dialog and mannerisms make it difficult to suspend your disbelief and immerse yourself fully in the story, but there is still so much to enjoy. Had the 1980 adaptation involved yuppie gentlemen with filofaxea in their hands, discussing their investment portfolios and comparing business cards before all saying ‘ciao,’ it still wouldn’t have dated the piece as obviously. This makes it a kind of period period-drama, which – depending on your point of view – can even add to the fun.

To be clear, though, some of the plot changes are quite shocking, particularly those that involve Lady Catherine de Bourgh. I won’t go over them again here to avoid spoiling the surprise, but you can find the relevant Lady Catherine clip here. When watching the 1940 Pride and Prejudice movie, you may find yourself asking ‘Is nothing sacred?’ a few times, but if you enjoyed ‘Lost in Austen’ or don’t mind a little artistic license then you shouldn’t find anything too unpalatable here.

Your glamorous friend,

Lizzy

For fear of spoiling the surprise if you plan to watch the film someday, I won’t say much more. Below, I’ve included a video snippet of the final scene in which the twist occurs, so don’t watch it if you don’t want to know what happens! One thing is absolutely certain – you’ll NEVER see it coming!