Wuthering Heights (1998)

Mistreated foundling Heathcliff and his stepsister Catherine fall in love, but when she marries a wealthy man, he becomes obsessed with getting revenge, even well into the next generation.

Director:

David Skynner

Writers:

Emily Brontë (novel), Neil McKay

Stars:

Robert Cavanah, Peter Davison, Orla Brady

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert Cavanah	...	Heathcliff
Peter Davison	...	Joseph Lockwood
Orla Brady	...	Cathy
Tom Georgeson	...	Joseph
Matthew Macfadyen	...	Hareton Earnshaw
Sarah Smart	...	Catherine Linton
Kadie Savage	...	Young Cathy
Ken Kitson	...	Mr. Earnshaw
Kevin Knapman	...	Young Hindley (as Kevin Jones)
Terry Clynes	...	Young Heathcliff
Polly Hemingway	...	Nelly Dean
Ian Shaw	...	Hindley
Catherine Chesire	...	Frances
Flora Montgomery	...	Isabella
David Maybrick	...	Gaddick

Storyline

Gipsy boy Heathcliffe is adopted by a god-fearing landowner in northern England and grows up as the soul-mate of the daughter, Cathy Earnshaw. When father dies, stern son Hindley returns and bans Heathcliffe to the stables; when they spy upon their upper class neighbors, Edgar Linton sends the dogs upon them and chases Heath but starts an affair -love comes only from him- with her. When Hindley's socialite wife Frances dies in childbirth, he is completely embittered, becomes a drunk unable to care for his son Hareton and has to sell Wuthering Hights- to Heathcliffe. After a misunderstanding Cathy marries Linton, Heath retorts by a loveless match with his sister. Even Cathy's death doesn't stop the cycle of spite, grief and harm so it poisons the next generation's lives as well while she keeps haunting Heathcliffe...

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Plot Keywords:

yorkshire | nineteenth century | based on novel | 

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Taglines:

Two hearts that beat as one

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sarah Smart would later go on to play Peter Davison's daughter in At Home with the Braithwaites (2000).

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Connections

Version of Vendaval (1973)

User Reviews

A 'no frills" classic

I turned this on thinking we were going to get the 1992 film version with Ralph Fiennes and Juliet Binoche; instead it was a new low key TV version made for LWT and PBS with a British cast and production crew. `Wuthering Heights' has been filmed at least 10 times in English alone, there is not so much a definite version as one for successive eras, and the various versions each tell us something about the periods in which they were made. This version is not exactly post-modern, but it lacks romantic glamour. It's still a tale of wild, hopeless love but we get more of the pain than of the rapture. We also get the full story, not the truncated tale of the 1939 Hollywood version (a fine movie of its period). Here, Heathcliff and Cathy, doomed lovers, are redeemed by the happiness of their children.

The mostly unknown cast are fine and the locations fitting, though I don't think `Wuthering Heights' itself was meant to be quite so pokey; the Earnshaws were meant to be minor gentry, not peasants. Ghosts are always difficult to film convincingly but these ones are well captured. I'd like to think people will still read the book but the reality is most will just see a film version. It's a powerful story and this is a reasonable `no frills' rendering.

Details

Official Sites:

PBS [United States]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 October 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cumbres borrascosas

Company Credits

Production Co:

London Weekend Television (LWT), WGBH

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1