Wuthering Heights (1939)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

William Wyler

Writers:

Charles MacArthur (screenplay) and
Ben Hecht (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

7 April 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

A Story of Vengeful Thwarted Love

Plot:

The story of unfortunate lovers Heathcliff and Cathy who, despite a deep affection for one another,...

Plot Keywords:

Moors | Dog Bite | Blizzard | Housekeeper | Period Piece

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 wins & 7 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. Nov. 15

2:15 PM

TCM

Cast

Merle Oberon	...	Cathy
Laurence Olivier	...	Heathcliff
David Niven	...	Edgar
Flora Robson	...	Ellen
Donald Crisp	...	Dr. Kenneth
Geraldine Fitzgerald	...	Isabella
Hugh Williams	...	Hindley
Leo G. Carroll	...	Joseph
Miles Mander	...	Lockwood
Cecil Kellaway	...	Earnshaw
Cecil Humphreys	...	Judge Linton
Sarita Wooton	...	Cathy - as a Child (as Sarita Wooten)
Rex Downing	...	Heathcliff - as a Child
Douglas Scott	...	Hindley - as a Child

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Australia:PG | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 (1955) | UK:U | USA:Approved (certificate #5104) | Germany:6

Filming Locations:

Janss Conejo Ranch, Thousand Oaks, California, USA

Company:

Samuel Goldwyn Company, The

Trivia:

The film was not a big financial success when first released. It had to be re-released years later to earn a profit.

Goofs:

Continuity: Near the end of the deathbed scene, Cathy has her arms around Heathcliff's neck, and takes them away. When the camera angle changes, her arms are around his neck again.

Quotes:

Hindley: If she's run off with that gypsy scum, let her run. Let her run through storm and Hell. They're birds of a feather and the Devil can take them both. Now, get me a bottle.

Movie Connections:

Featured in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions (2002) (TV)

Soundtrack:

The Wedding March

Heathcliff And Kathy

Before I wrote this review I talked to someone else who also had done a review of this film here. Young Heathcliff is brought to the Yorkshire moors by Cecil Kellaway who was the father of Merle Oberon and Hugh Williams. He seemed to be dropped into the Earnshaw family without any rhyme or reason. Kellaway finds the scruffy kid on the streets of Liverpool and brings him back to the family estate in Yorkshire. I asked if in fact Emily Bronte wrote more of this than what we saw. The answer was no. That in itself was curious because the version we see here was quite condensed from the original story.

Still enough of Wuthering Heights survives on the screen to tell Emily Bronte's tale of lost love that cannot be because of class distinction. Merle Oberon is a beautiful and fetching Kathy who grows up with scruffy young Heathcliff and she becomes his soul-mate. Yet class being what it was and to some extent still is, she can't and/or won't marry him. He's just the stable-boy, and her brother is jealous of him and his presence.

One piece of snobbery becomes too much and Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff leaves as he promised for good to make fame and fortune. That was a common theme in English literature, used by Dickens among others as well as Emily Bronte here. It was an indirect attack on the class system of Europe, let alone the United Kingdom. The opportunities are in the new world and the colonies.

Olivier comes back, but the love and tender feelings he did possess for Oberon are replaced by a brooding vengeance seeking man. He successfully humbles the people that snubbed him, but at a terrible cost to his psyche.

Laurence Oliver came back to America after a previous visit to Hollywood where he didn't set the world on fire. His trip was almost an afterthought, his wife Vivien Leigh was to be Scarlett O'Hara, so he signed to do Wuthering Heights at the same time under Sam Goldwyn with William Wyler directing.

Though he may have been inpatient with William Wyler's deliberate style of movie-making, he credited Wyler with being the first director who really taught him the difference between acting for the stage and for the screen. Olivier got the first of his Oscar nominations for Best Actor and he was up for that award with Clark Gable for Gone With the Wind, James Stewart for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Mickey Rooney for Babes in Arms. They all went down to Robert Donat in Goodbye Mr. Chips.

Wuthering Heights took one Oscar home, best black and white cinematography for Gregg Toland. Geraldine Fitzgerald got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress as the woman on the neighboring estate who develops a Statue of Liberty size torch for Olivier who can't see her for beans, but marries her anyway in some twisted act of revenge against her brother, played by David Niven, who married Oberon. Oscar nominations went to the film for Best Picture and to William Wyler for Best Director and several other technical nominations went to the film as well.

David Niven liked working with Olivier, Oberon and the rest, but he hated his part of Edgar Linton. He felt it had no depth to him, but it was a typical David Niven part, full of surface charm and little else.

Over 60 years later Wuthering Heights is still a film for lovers of all ages. We all hope in the next world that Olivier and Oberon have a better life and start on an equal plane.