131. Wuthering Heights (1939)

Directed By William Wyler

Synopsis

It's me Cathy, let me in to your windoooow.

Review

Well it isn't that special a film. It is actually quite run of the mill melodrama. That isn't to say that it is bad, it is a good melodrama but nothing astounding. 1939 has been a pretty good year for films with stuff like La Regle Du Jeu and Gone With The Wind taking the cake. When this film is put next to those giants it pales terribly.

Laurence Olivier is hamming it a bit, as the theatre actor that he was, he would eventually get better but this is one of his first cinema parts and he isn't that astonishing. Much worse than him is Merle Oberon, however, hamming it all the way. David Niven was the more natural of all the main actors.

The plot was based on the very famous book and therefore not a surprise to anyone. The directing is good but uninspired, but a nod should be given to the set and dress design which was great throughout. Probably the best version of Whuthering Heights out there, but that isn't saying much. Get it if you want it from Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia


* In the final sequence of Wuthering Heights, the spirits of Heathcliff and Cathy are seen walking together. This was added after filming was complete. As Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon had already moved on to other projects, doubles had to be used.


* Wyler hated the idea of the after-life scene, and didn't want to do it but Samuel Goldwyn vetoed him. Goldwyn subsequently claimed, "I made Wuthering Heights, Wyler only directed it."


* The Mitchell Camera Corporation selected cinematographer Gregg Toland and Wuthering Heights to be the first to use their new Mitchell BNC camera. This camera model would become the studio standard.


* Vivien Leigh wanted to play the lead role, alongside her then lover and future husband Laurence Olivier, but studio executives decided the role should go to Merle Oberon. They later offered Leigh the part of Isabelle Linton, but she declined, and Geraldine Fitzgerald was cast. Leigh's next project, Gone with the Wind, that same year, won her an Academy Award for Best Actress.


* Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier apparently detested each other. Legend has it that when William Wyler yelled "Cut!" after a particularly romantic scene, Oberon shouted back to her director about Laurence: "Tell him to stop spitting at me!" Olivier retorted by shouting, "What's spit, for God's sake, between actors, you bloody little idiot?"


* Samuel Goldwyn claimed that this film is his favorite of all his productions.


* Laurence Olivier found himself becoming increasingly annoyed with William Wyler's exhausting style of film-making. After countless takes of one scene, he is said to have exclaimed, "For God's sake, I did it sitting down. I did it with a smile. I did it with a smirk. I did it scratching my ear. I did it with my back to the camera. How do you want me to do it?" Wyler's retort was, "I want it better."


* Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks and Robert Newton were considered for the role of Heathcliff.


* Both of the leading players began work on the film miserable at having to leave their loved ones back in the United Kingdom. Olivier was missing his fiancée Vivien Leigh and Oberon had recently fallen in love with film producer Alexander Korda.


* David Niven remembers the filming of Merle Oberon's deathbed scenes (recorded in his bestselling book The Moon's a Balloon) as less than romantic. He had been given a substance to help it appear as if he were crying, which instead had the effect of making "green goo" come out of his nose.


* Laurence Olivier credits William Wyler with teaching him how to act in films, as opposed to acting onstage, and for giving him a new respect for films. Olivier had tended to "ham it up", as if he were playing to the second balcony, but Wyler showed him how to act more subtly

A better version of the film... Wuthering Heights in Semaphore: