Wuthering Heights (1939)

Wuthering Heights (1939) Review

There seem to be many film versions of this classic tragedy by Emily Bronte about mismatched lovers. This 1939 version starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon was nominated for Academy Awards but found itself competing with Gone with the Wind, a problem when a raft of good films are produced in the same year. The story is set in the 19th century on the English moors. The film starts with the arrival of a man at an the estate, seeking shelter for the night during a storm. During the night he hears a woman's voice calling from outside, and reports it Heathcliff, the master of the estate. Heathcliff rushes out into the storm, and then the woman of the manor tells the man the tale.

The story flashes back to the beginning when the original master of the estate brought home a young boy he had found starving as a street waif on the streets of Liverpool, and says he will be called Healthcliff. The boy becomes a friend/companion for the man's daughter Cathy, but is disliked by the man's son. The son, becoming master of the estate on his father's death, eventually drives Heathcliff away and he goes to America and becomes wealthy (but new money which was never really accepted by the English upper class). He returns to exchange places with the son, after buying up his debts, but Cathy has found another man whom she marries. Heathcliff married that man's sister to form a quadrangle because he still loves Cathy. The story ends in tragedy as they can only have the ones they really love in death.

The story is well known, and Olivier and Oberon give outstanding performances as Heathcliff and Cathy.

Wuthering Heights (1939) Overview

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), French ( Mono ), German ( Mono ), Italian ( Mono ), Spanish ( Mono ), Danish ( Subtitles ), Dutch ( Subtitles ), Finnish ( Subtitles ), French ( Subtitles ), Greek ( Subtitles ), Norwegian ( Subtitles ), Swedish ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: William Wyler's Wuthering Heights is one of the earliest screen adaptations of the classic Emily Brontë novel. A traveler named Lockwood (Miles Mander) is caught in the snow and stays at the estate of Wuthering Heights, where the housekeeper, Ellen Dean (Flora Robson), sits down to tell him the story in flashback. In the early 19th century, the original owner of Wuthering Heights, Mr. Earnshaw (Leo G. Carroll), brings home an orphan from Liverpool named Heathcliff (Rex Downing). Though son Hindley Earnshaw despises the boy, daughter Catherine develops a close kinship with Heathcliff that blossoms into love. When Mr. Earnshaw dies, Cathy and Heathcliff grow up together on the Moors and seem destined for happiness, even though Hindley forces Heathcliff to work as a stable boy. When Cathy (Merle Oberon) meets wealthy neighbor Edgar Linton (David Niven), Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) gets jealous and leaves. Cathy marries Edgar, and Heathcliff returns with his own wealth and sophistication. He buys Wuthering Heights from the alcoholic Hindley (Hugh Williams) and marries Edgar's sister, Isabella Linton (Geraldine Fitzgerald), out of spite. Still obsessively in love with each other, Cathy gets deathly ill while Heathcliff grows into a bitter old man. Ellen continues telling Lockwood the story as Dr. Kenneth (Donald Crisp) enters and reveals the fateful ending. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Oscar Academy Awards,

Wuthering Heights (1939) Specifications

One of the most compelling tragic romances ever captured on film, Wuthering Heights is an exquisite tale of doomed love and miscalculated intentions. Though only half of Emily Bronte's classic tale of Heathcliff and Catherine was filmed by director William Wyler, it lacks for nothing.

The story begins when a Yorkshire gentleman farmer brings home a raggedy gypsy boy, Heathcliff, and raises him as his son. The boy grows to love his stepsister Catherine, with catastrophic results. Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon were perfectly cast as the mismatched lovers, with Olivier brooding and despairing, Oberon ethereal and enchanting. This won cinematographer Gregg Toland a much-deserved Oscar for his haunting and evocative depiction of mid-19th century English moors. (Quite a trick, as this was shot in California!) Though nominated for seven other Oscars, it won none of them, as it was released in 1939, one of the best years in Hollywood history and the same year as Gone with the Wind. Interestingly, the script was written by Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht, best known for their witty 1931 flick, The Front Page. --Rochelle O'Gorman

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