Wuthering Heights (1939)

Wuthering Heights
Directed by William Wyler
Written by Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht based on the novel by Emily Brontë
1939/USA
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
First viewing/Warner Home Video DVD
#131 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Heathcliff: I cannot live without my life! I cannot die without my soul![/box]

This is a beautiful looking film and Laurence Olivier becomes Heathcliff.

The classic Emily Brontë novel is the story of unfettered passion destroying everything in its wake.  Mr. Earnshaw brings an street urchin he calls Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) into his Yorkshire family home, Wuthering Heights.  The wild child forms a close bond with daughter Cathy (Merle Oberon), who also has a wild and rebellious streak.  He forever earns the enmity of son Hadley. When Earnshaw dies, Hadley makes Heathcliff a stable boy and treats him brutally.  Heathcliff stays on because of his love for Cathy, who, however, has a yearning for finer things.  This yearning draws her to the Linton mansion, where Edgar Linton (David Niven) rapidly falls in love with her.  The remainder of the story focuses on Heathcliff’s revenge on Hadley and the Linton family.  With Flora Robson as housekeeper Ellen, the teller of the tale; an almost unrecognizable Leo G. Carroll as Joseph, the farm man-of-all-trades; Geraldine Fitzgerald as Isabel Linton; and Donald Crisp as a doctor.

I regret that I did not see the film before I had read the novel a couple of times.  If I had, I might have liked the book better.  It is not a favorite of mine and it strikes me as a story in which virtually all the characters verge on insanity.  I find Heathcliff especially cruel and repugnant.

If I had seen the movie, I might have been prepared to accept the novel as a tragic tale of eternal love.  Certainly, Laurence Olivier’s Heathcliff is dreamy, with the perfect undertone of cold violence.  I”m still not to keen on Merle Oberon as an actress but she does look beautiful, which is the main thing required of Cathy.  The movie glances over the worst excesses of Heathcliff’s savagery so that he becomes a more sympathetic sufferer of class injustice.

The story and acting aside, this is an exquisitely shot picture.  The opening, with the driving rain and forbidding moors, is scary and perfect.  The whole thing almost glows.  It definitely qualifies as a must see in my book.

Gregg Toland won the Academy Award for his incandescent black and white cinematography.  Wuthering Heights was nominated for seven other Oscars:  Best Picture; Best Actor; Best Supporting Actress (Fitzgerald); Best Director; Best Screenplay; Best Art Direction; and Best Original Score (Alfred Newman).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igaRpWIoFaw

Clip – Cathy and Heathcliff at the ball