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1939, Authors, Black & White Movies, Books, Cathy, Classic Novels, Classics, Emily Bronte, Gothic, Gothic Romances, Heathcliff, Laurence Olivier, Love, Merle Oberon, Novels, Old Hollywood, Old Movies, Reviews, Romance, The Bromte Sisters, Vintage, Vintage Movies, Vivien Leigh, William Wyler, Wuthering Heights
This particular version of Wuthering Heights was made in 1939, directed by William Wyler and starred Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon.
It follows the classic gothic romance of Heathcliff and Cathy through their first meeting until their end.
I was pleased with the performances by all of the actors and was very happy that Heathcliff got to do his whole monologue on his love for Cathy and his fear of being separated from her in death.
There is a lot of history connected with this movie, one of stories being that Laurence Olivier, while saying that shooting this movie was terrible he learned how to act in movies because of this film. He previously acted in a lot of theater.
He also disliked Merle Oberon a great deal and initially accepted the role because his wife Vivien Leigh was to play Cathy but she was later replaced which incidentally also happened during the filming of his other movie Pride and Prejudice.
Vivien convinced him to continue with the movie and she went on to shoot Gone With The Wind which was a dream role for her.
I liked the beginning scenes with Cathy and Heathcliff and the jealous anger of Cathy when it came to Heathcliff’s manipulation of Isabella Linton. It was spot on for me.
However, a few things were changed as there were no children included in this version and Isabella was living with Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights, still hoping that he would grow to love her.
I liked it a lot better than another version that I’ve seen so I was pleased but I wasn’t in love with it. This movie launched Olivier’s career in America and was an enjoyable film in itself but I am torn between rating it from three to four stars.
It didn’t blow me away but it was filled with good performances from the actors, in my opinion.
What would you rate it?