Wuthering Heights (1939) Director: William Wyler
“Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest so long as I live on! I killed you. Haunt me, then! Haunt your murderer! I know that ghosts have wandered on the Earth. Be with me always. Take any form, drive me mad, only do not leave me in this dark alone where I cannot find you. I cannot live without my life! I cannot die without my soul.”
★★★★☆
Drawn from Emily Brontë’s great 1847 Gothic novel of the same name (her only novel), William Wyler’s 1939 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights only features approximately sixteen of the thirty-four chapters from the book (the first two-thirds or so). The film tells the story of the first generation at Wuthering Heights (omitting the stories of the children of both Healthcliff and Cathy). Starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, Wuthering Heights was nominated for eight Academy Awards.
The story follows a stranger named Lockwood who arrives at the remote estate of Wuthering Heights during a storm. Lately, the home has fallen on dark and hard times. The stranger hears a voice out on the moor echoing ‘Cathy.’ As the manor host named Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) goes running out after the voice, one of the servants explains the whole story to the stranger. Healthcliff was brought home as a vagrant boy one day, and he and Cathy grew up together and eventually fell in love, but when the father of the house died, his drunken son abused Heathcliff. As Cathy grew, she frustratingly rejected Heathcliff in favor of a true gentleman so she could live the life of a lady, all the while Heathcliff worked as a stableboy. One day, Heathcliff ran away only to return years later as a rich man. He then bought Wuthering Heights from the drunken son who squandered his family’s wealth. At the time, Cathy was now married, and Heathcliff married her now sister-in-law, but then Cathy grew deathly ill and Heathcliff ran to embrace her as she died in his arms while they both gazes out at the moors together, remembering their childhood. Her dying words to Heathcliff were that she will wait for him out there. Thus, Heathcliff is tormented by her love. He is sometimes seen with her ghost out on the moor.
The film was shot in Thousand Oaks, California, with scenes at Wildwood Regional Park as well as the current site of California Lutheran University. Alfred Newman has received praise for his score for “Cathy’s Theme.” Of course, with the year being 1939, he lost the Academy Award to The Wizard of Oz. In my view, Wuthering Heights is a wonderful movie, perfectly capturing the atmosphere of its parent Gothic novel. It is a haunting depiction of Brontë’s classic tale.
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Credits:
- Director: William Wyler
- Screenplay by: Charles MacArthur, Ben Hecht, John Huston (uncredited)
- Based on: Wuthering Heights, an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë (credited as Emily Bronté)
- Produced by: Samuel Goldwyn (he later called it one of his favorite productions)
- Starring:
- Merle Oberon…..Catherine Earnshaw Linton
- Laurence Olivier…..Heathcliff
- David Niven…..Edgar Linton
- Flora Robson…..Ellen Dean
- Flora Robson…..Ellen Dean
- Geraldine Fitzgerald…..Isabella Linton
- Hugh Williams…..Hindley Earnshaw
- Cinematography: Gregg Toland
- Edited by: Daniel Mandell
- Music by: Alfred Newman
- Production Company: Samuel Goldwyn Productions
- Distributed by: United Artists