Wuthering Heights (1939)

Written by Charles MacArthur & Ben Hecht

Directed by William Wyler

1998 List Ranking: 73

2007 List Ranking: NA - Removed

Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff

When I watched the list of Best Picture winners starting two years ago, I soon saw two films somewhat close together that both starred Laurence Olivier. I was anxious to see them both, because Olivier is so well-respected in the acting world; in England, the most prestigious theatre award, akin to our Tonys, is named after him. While I enjoyed his role in 1940’s Rebecca, I found his Hamlet, from 1948, to be an extreme letdown (from many angles, but his performance was one of them). In fact, Hamlet actually garnered the worst grade of the whole list. So, I was hoping this film would serve as a tie breaker: Would (or could) I classify him as a stellar artist, or do I paint him as, at best, pompous, and at worst, boring?

Cathy (Merle Oberon) and Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier)

The truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle. Olivier clearly likes playing these tortured souls who have a wicked bite to them, and that continues on here. For those of you who don’t know the story (I didn’t), Wuthering Heights focuses on Heathcliff (the man, not the cat, and portrayed by Olivier) and Cathy (Merle Oberon), two childhood friends turned lovers torn from each other by social status and their own awful behavior. I feel like many people consider Heathcliff and Cathy to be one of the great romances of all time, and to those people I say: what is WRONG with you?

Just like Scarlett and Rhett from Gone With the Wind, these are two people that really should just stay far, far away from each other. Yes, there are romantic notions and desperate longings, but these two people do more harm than good, not only to themselves but to everyone around them. Their relationship could be summed up as a vicious codependency, each not being fully satisfied until the other is hurt in some way.

Flora Robson, Merle Oberon, and David Niven

I think it’s easy to pin the blame on Cathy: after all, it’s her desiring for social status and her dogged determination to stay in that mold that spurs many of her choices, choices that hurt Heathcliff. However, Heathcliff is just as guilty. When he realizes that (SPOILER ALERT) Cathy has married the well-to-do Edgar Linton (played with sweetness by David Niven), he goes and not only buys (or essentially steals) the house and land they grew up in (the titular Wuthering Heights), but also seduces and marries Linton’s sister, so that there is no way that Cathy can completely turn him away: doing so would cost her memories, her brother (who, as awful as he is, still lives at Wuthering Heights), and her husband’s sister. These two get a thrill by slowly twisting knives into each other, and it’s really everyone else who gets hurt.

From a filmmaking perspective, the film is adequate. Black and white film doesn’t do the various sweeping shots of the English countryside, and the moors that surround Wuthering Heights, any justice, but the scope is still discernible. The frame story is relatable enough, starting the film with just enough mystery to get the audience’s attention, and it isn’t dwelled on enough at the end to negate anything from the main story. There’s nothing cinematically astounding, but not every film needs to be a trailblazer.

The performances here are generally excellent. As I mentioned, Olivier clearly likes playing dark, brooding, tortured men, so I found much in common between his acting here and in Rebecca. There is something I can’t quite put my finger on about his performances that I don’t like. I described it earlier as being pompous, but I don’t know if that’s quite the right word. It’s something like that though, and it just leaves an odd taste in my mouth. As Cathy, Merle Oberon is much more entertaining to watch, even if her actions are awful. I don’t think I ever found myself not believing in her as a character, and while she still conforms to some of the apparent style of the times (she’s not quite as hand-wringy or flighty as some of these earlier films, but there are a few moments of it), she gives Cathy a sense of realness that I appreciated.

The climatic scene

I do want to talk briefly about the emotional climatic scene in which (SPOILER ALERT…AGAIN) Cathy is dying of…death? I don’t think they ever say exactly what she’s dying of, she’s just dying of the ripe old age of 30-something (as one does in that time, I suppose). Heathcliff sneaks in to visit her, and they go on and on forgiving one another and professing their true love for each other. On paper, it sounds cringeworthy, but on screen, Olivier and Oberon sell the drama enough to make the viewer start to forget that these two are awful for one another and Heathcliff really just needs to let her die in peace. It’s a little over the top, but the pace and the emotions keep the scene above water.

Wuthering Heights is a book that has been on my list of books to read for quite a while, and eventually I’ll get to it. For now, though, I can look at this film and realize that the story is at least intriguing, in a train-wreck-can’t-look-away sense. It’s interesting that I found a lot of parallels between this film and Gone With the Wind, which would ultimately win Best Picture over this film (actually, Wind beat out not only this film, but the last three films on this list as well: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, and The Wizard of Oz. 1939 was an excellent year for film!). Wuthering Heights closes out the 30’s for this list, and next we launch into the decade that gave us WWII.

FINAL GRADE: B-