Wuthering Heights (1939 film)

Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American drama romance film directed by William

Wuthering Heights
Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering
Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four
chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The novel was adapted for
the screen by Charles MacArthur, Ben Hecht and John Huston. The film won the
1939 New York Film Critics Award for Best Film. It earned nominations for eight
Academy Awards,[3] including for Best Picture and Best Actor in what many
consider Hollywood's greatest single year. The 1940 Academy Award for Best
Cinematography, black-and-white category, was awarded to Gregg Toland for his
work. Nominated for original score (but losing to The Wizard of Oz) was the prolific
film composer, Alfred Newman, whose poignant "Cathy's Theme" does so much "to
[4]
maintain its life as a masterpiece of romantic filmmaking."

It was largely filmed in Thousand Oaks, California, with scenes shot in Wildwood
Regional Park and at the current site ofCalifornia Lutheran University.[5][6][7]

In 2007, Wuthering Heights was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically,
or aesthetically significant". Theatrical release poster
Directed by William Wyler
Produced by Samuel
Contents Goldwyn
Plot Written by Charles
Omissions from the novel MacArthur
Cast Ben Hecht
Production Based on Wuthering
Reception Heights
Accolades 1847 novel
Miscellaneous by Emily Brontë
Radio adaptations Starring Merle Oberon
References Laurence Olivier
External links David Niven
Geraldine
Fitzgerald
Plot Music by Alfred Newman
A traveller named Lockwood (Miles Mander) is caught in the snow and stays at the Cinematography Gregg Toland
estate of Wuthering Heights, despite the cold behaviour of his aged host, Heathcliff Edited by Daniel Mandell
(Laurence Olivier). Late that night, after being shown into an upstairs room that was
Production Samuel
once a bridal chamber, Lockwood is awakened by a cold draft and finds the window company Goldwyn
shutter flapping back and forth. Just as he is about to close it, he feels an icy hand
Productions
clutching his and sees a woman outside calling, "Heathcliff, let me in! I'm out on the
Distributed by United Artists
moors. It's Cathy!" Lockwood calls Heathcliff and tells him what he saw, whereupon
the enraged Heathcliff throws him out of the room. As soon as Lockwood is gone, Release date March 24, 1939
 Heathcliff frantically calls (Hollywood)[1]
out to Cathy, runs down the April 13, 1939
stairs and out of the house, (USA)
into the snowstorm.
Running time 103 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $624,643[2]
(1989 re-issue)

Ellen, the housekeeper (Flora Robson), tells the amazed Lockwood that he
has seen the ghost of Cathy Earnshaw, Heathcliff's great love, who died
years before. When Lockwood says that he doesn't believe in ghosts, Ellen
tells him that he might if she told him the story of Cathy. And so the main
plot begins as a long flashback.

The plot then flashes back 40 years. As a boy, Heathcliff is found on the
streets by Mr. Earnshaw (Cecil Kellaway), who brings him home to live with
Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) and Cathy
(Merle Oberon) meet on Peniston Crag in his two children, Cathy and Hindley. At first reluctant, Cathy eventually
Wuthering Heights welcomes Heathcliff and they become very close, but Hindley treats him as
an outcast, especially after Mr. Earnshaw dies. About ten years later, the
now-grown Heathcliff and Cathy (Merle Oberon) have fallen in love and are
meeting secretly on Peniston Crag (because of censorship, their relationship in the film is kept strictly platonic in spite of the fact that
they do kiss, while in the novel it is implied that their relationship was romantic). Hindley (Hugh Williams) has become dissolute and
tyrannical and hates Heathcliff. One night, as Cathy and Heathcliff are out together, they hear music and realize that their neighbors,
the Lintons, are giving a party. Cathy and Heathcliff sneak to the Lintons and climb over their garden wall, but the dogs are alerted
and Cathy is injured. Heathcliff is forced to leave Cathy in their care. Enraged that Cathy would be so entranced by the Lintons'
glamor and wealth, he blames them for her injury and curses them.

Months later, Cathy is fully recuperated but still living at the Lintons. Edgar Linton (David Niven) has fallen in love with Cathy and
soon proposes, and after Edgar takes her back to Wuthering Heights, she tells Ellen what has happened. Ellen reminds her about
Heathcliff, but Cathy flippantly remarks that it would degrade her to marry him. Heathcliff overhears and leaves. Cathy realizes that
Heathcliff has overheard, is overcome by guilt and runs out after him into a raging storm. Edgar finds her and nurses her back to
health once again, and soon he and Cathy marry
.

Heathcliff was thought to have disappeared forever but returns two years
later, now wealthy and elegant. He has refined his appearance and manners
in order to both impress and spite Cathy and secretly buys Wuthering
Heights from Hindley, who has become an alcoholic. In order to further spite
Cathy, Heathcliff begins courting Edgar's naive sister, Isabella (Geraldine
Fitzgerald), and eventually marries her. The brokenhearted Cathy soon falls
gravely ill. Heathcliff rushes to her side against the wishes of the now
disillusioned and bitter Isabella, and Cathy dies in Heathclif
f's arms.

The flashback ends and we return to Ellen finishing her story. The family
doctor, Dr. Kenneth (Donald Crisp), bursts in, saying that he (Dr. Kenneth)
Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) at the deathbed
must be mad, having seen Heathcliff in the snow, walking with his arm
of Cathy (Merle Oberon) inWuthering
around a woman. Ellen exclaims, "It was Cathy!" and Dr
. Kenneth says, "No, Heights
I don't know who it was", and tells them that he was then thrown from his
horse. As he drew closer, he found Heathcliff lying in the snow. The woman
had disappeared and there was no sign of her, and only Heathcliff's footprints appeared in the snow, not hers. Lockwood asks, "Is he
dead?", and Dr. Kenneth nods, but Ellen says, "No, not dead, Dr. Kenneth. And not alone. He's with her. They've only just begun to
live."

The last thing seen in the film are the ghosts of Heathcliff and Cathy, walking in the snow, superimposed over a shot of Peniston
Crag.

Omissions from the novel

The film omitted any mention of Cathy's daughter and Heathcliff's son, both of whom play a major role in the last portion of the
book. In the film, neither Heathcliff nor Cathy has any children. Isabella does not leave Heathcliff, or die, unlike in the novel where
she manages to escape him and later passes away
. Instead she remains his troubled, but loyal, wife even when Mr
. Lockwood visits.

Cast
Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff
Merle Oberon as Catherine Earnshaw Linton
David Niven as Edgar Linton
Flora Robson as Ellen Dean
Geraldine Fitzgerald as Isabella Linton
Hugh Williams as Hindley Earnshaw
Donald Crisp as Dr. Kenneth
Leo G. Carroll as Joseph
Miles Mander as Mr. Lockwood - the stranger
Cecil Kellaway as Earnshaw, Cathy's father
Cecil Humphreys as Judge Linton
Sarita Wooton as Cathy – as a Child (as Sarita Wooten)
Rex Downing as Heathcliff – as a Child
Douglas Scott as Hindley – as a Child
Vernon Downing as Giles Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon

Production
The project was initially intended as a vehicle for Merle Oberon, who was under contract with Goldwyn at the time. However, when
Laurence Olivier was cast as Heathcliff, Vivien Leigh wanted to play the lead role alongside her then-lover and future husband.[8]
Studio executives felt the role could not go to an actress who was largely unknown in America, but they did offer Leigh the part of
Isabella Linton. She declined, and Geraldine Fitzgerald was cast. Leigh was cast in Gone with the Wind that same year, for which she
won an Academy Award for Best Actress; Merle Oberon did not receive a nomination for her performance.

There were clashes on the set between actors and the director. Both of the leading players began work on the film miserable at having
to leave their loved ones back in the United Kingdom; Olivier missed his fiancée Vivien Leigh and Oberon had recently fallen in love
with film producer Alexander Korda.[9] Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier also apparently detested each other. Witnesses recall
Oberon scolding Olivier for accidentally spitting on her during a particularly romantic balcony scene. Oberon shouted back to Wyler,
"Tell him to stop spitting at me!" Olivier retorted by shouting, "What's a little spit for Chrissake, between actors? You bloody little
idiot, how dare you speak to me...?" Oberon ran crying from the set after the outburst, and Wyler insisted Olivier apologize to her,
which upset Olivier greatly.[10]

Olivier also found himself becoming increasingly annoyed with William Wyler's exhausting and often uncommunicative style of
film-making. One scene with Olivier was shot 72 times—with each new take called for by Wyler without any actual direction for his
actor; just "again!" Finally, an exasperated Olivier 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."[10] Olivier in later years was more kind in his opinion about Wyler. In both his autobiography and his
book, On Acting, he credits William Wyler with teaching him how to act in films, as opposed to on the stage, 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
[11]
act more subtly - in part by simply wearing him down.

In the final sequence of Wuthering Heights, the spirits of Heathcliff and Cathy are seen walking together hand-in-hand, obviously in
love. This scene is not found in the book and, according to literary critic John Sutherland, was likely the stark opposite of what
Brontë intended the reader to understand. He contends that a contemporary reader would not have seen Cathy's ghost's actions as a
gesture of undying love for Heathcliff but one of towering, protective rage; Cathy haunted Heathcliff to death only to prevent him
from cheating her daughter out of her inheritance.[12] Director Wyler hated the idea of the after-life scene and didn't want to do it but
producer Samuel Goldwyn vetoed him, and the scene was added after primary filming was complete. As Laurence Olivier and Merle
Oberon had already moved on to other projects, doubles had to be used. Goldwyn subsequently claimed, "I made Wuthering Heights,
Wyler only directed it." [13] Goldwyn claimed thatWuthering Heights was his favorite of all his productions.[9] Sutherland writes that
this change to the ending has influenced how students view the novel and especially Cathy, who comes across as more passive and
[12]
accepting of abuse than Brontë may have envisioned.

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. After telling Wyler he didn't know how to 'sob', he had been given a menthol mist substance to help it appear as if
he were crying, which instead had the effect of making "green goo" come out of his nose. Oberon immediately exited the bed after
witnessing it.

Reception
Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times called it "a strong and somber film, poetically written as the novel not always was, sinister
and wild as it was meant to be, far more compact dramatically than Miss Brontë had made it ... It is, unquestionably, one of the most
distinguished pictures of the year, one of the finest ever produced by Mr. Goldwyn, and one you should decide to see."[14] Variety
wrote that the film "retains all of the grim drama of the book," but believed that its "slow pace" would make for "rather dull material
for general audiences."[15] Film Daily reported, "Brilliant screen version of Bronte novel ... William Wyler has given the love story
warm, sympathetic direction, gaining fine performances from his cast."[16] Harrison's Reports noted, "The acting, direction, and
production are all excellent; but the story is so sombre and cheerless, that most persons will leave the theatre depressed."[17] John
Mosher of The New Yorker wrote, "No screen version of 'Wuthering Heights' could ever touch the heart so closely, I am sure, as does
a reading of the printed page; yet the Goldwyn production approximates the quality of the fierce, tempestuous story with a force one
[18]
might never have expected ... Seldom has the tone of a great novel been so faithfully reproduced by the movie people."

t best films of 1939.[19]

Wuthering Heights placed fourth on Film Daily's year-end nationwide poll of 542 critics naming he

American Film Instituteincluded the film as #73 in itsAFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies, and #15 in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions.

Accolades
 Award Category Recipients and nominees Outcome
New York Film Critics
Award for Best Film Wuthering Heights (1939 film) Won
Circle
Best Cinematography, Black
Gregg Toland Won
and White
Best Picture Wuthering Heights (1939 film) Nominated
Best Director William Wyler Nominated
Best Actor Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff Nominated
Academy Award Geraldine Fitzgerald as
Best Supporting Actress Nominated
Isabella Linton
Ben Hecht and Charles
Best Screenplay Nominated
MacArthur
Best Original Score Alfred Newman Nominated
Best Art Direction James Basevi Nominated

Miscellaneous
The Mitchell Camera Corporationselected cinematographer Gregg T
oland and Wuthering Heights to be the first to
use their new Mitchell BNC camera. This camera model would become the studio standard.
Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Robert Newton were considered for the role of Heathcliff.[9]
The novel takes place in the late 18th and early 19th century. However, the film places the action in the mid-19th
century, around the time of the novel's publication. Sarah Berry writes that Samuel Goldwyn deliberately chose to do
this because he thought "Civil War" fashions were more attractive than Regency fashions.[20] Other writers have
claimed that Goldwyn was short on funds and had to recycle costumes from a Civil a Wr drama.
The film is rated G in New Zealand.

Radio adaptations
Wuthering Heights was presented on Philip Morris Playhouse on October 17, 1941. The adaptation starred Raymond Massey and
Sylvia Sidney.[21] It was also presented on Screen Guild Players on February 25, 1946. That adaptation starred Merle Oberon,
Cornell Wilde and Reed Hadley.[22]

References
1. Hanson, Patricia King, ed. (1993).The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United
States: Feature Films, 1931-1940. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 2476.ISBN 0-520-
07908-6.
2. Box Office Information for Wuthering Heights. (http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=wutheringheights89.htm) Box
Office Mojo. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
3. "NY Times: Wuthering Heights" (https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/55636/W
uthering-Heights/awards). The New
York Times. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
4. "Music For The Movies," (1973) by T
ony Thomas, P. 55
5. McKinney, John (2013). HIKE Ventura County. The Trailmaster, Inc. Page 85. ISBN 9780934161534.
6. O’Brien, Tricia (2017). Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village. Arcadia Publishing. Page 24.ISBN 9781439661956.
7. Fleming, E.J. (2010). The Movieland Directory: Nearly 30,000 Addresses of Celebrity Homes, Film Locations and
Historical Sites in the Los Angeles Area, 1900–Present
. McFarland. Page 48.ISBN 9781476604329.
 8. Purse, Marcia (2006-06-18)."Vivien Leigh – Actress" (http://bipolar.about.com/cs/celebs/a/vivienleigh.htm).
About.com. Retrieved 2008-01-11.
9. Dirks, Tim. "Wuthering Heights (1939)"(http://www.filmsite.org/wuth.html). Filmsite.org. Retrieved 2008-01-11.
10. Herman, Jan (1997). A Talent For Trouble: The Life of Hollywood's Most Acclaimed Director
, William Wyler. Da Capo
Press. ISBN 0-306-80798-X.
11. Olivier, by Philip Ziegler, 2013, p. 66`
12. Is Heathcliff a Murderer?: Great Puzzles in Nineteenth-century Literature
. John Sutherland. Oxford University Press,
1996. ISBN 978-0-19-282516-2.
13. Nuggehalli, Nigam. "Wuthering Heights (1939)"(http://www.culturevulture.net/movies/WutheringHeights.htm).
CultureVulture.net. Retrieved 2008-01-11.
14. Nugent, Frank S. (April 14, 1939). "Movie Review - Wuthering Heights" (https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=
9D00E7DA103CE73ABC4C52DFB2668382629EDE) . The New York Times. The New York Times Company.
Retrieved September 21, 2015.
15. "Film Reviews" (https://archive.org/stream/variety133-1939-03#page/n253/mode/2up)
. Variety. New York: Variety,
Inc. March 29, 1939. p. 14.
16. "Reviews" (https://archive.org/stream/filmdaily75wids#page/n675/mode/2up)
. Film Daily. New York: Wid's Films and
Film Folk, Inc.: 9 March 28, 1939.
17. "Wuthering Heights" (https://archive.org/stream/harrisonsreports21harr#page/n69/mode/2up)
. Harrison's Reports.
New York: Harrison's Reports, Inc.: 59 April 15, 1939.
18. Mosher, John (April 15, 1939). "The Current Cinema".The New Yorker. New York: F-R Publishing Corp. p. 99.
19. " "Ten Best" of 1939" (https://archive.org/stream/filmdaily77wids#page/n79/mode/2up)
. Film Daily. New York: Wid's
Films and Film Folk, Inc.: 1 January 12, 1940.
20. Screen Style: Fashion and Femininity in 1930s Hollywood
. Sarah Berry. University of Minnesota Press,
2000.ISBN 978-0-8166-3312-8.
21. "Raymond Massey and Sylvia Sidney in 'Wuthering Heights' " (https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2857939/harrisburg
_telegraph/). Harrisburg Telegraph. October 11, 1941. p.26. Retrieved July 21, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
22. "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 42 (3): 34. Summer 2016.

External links
Wuthering Heights on IMDb
Wuthering Heights at the TCM Movie Database
Wuthering Heights at AllMovie
Wuthering Heights at the American Film Institute Catalog
Wuthering Heights at Rotten Tomatoes
Streaming audio

Wuthering Heights on Lux Radio Theater: September 18, 1939

Wuthering Heights on Lux Radio Theater: November 4, 1940
Wuthering Heights on Ford Theater: April 1, 1949
Wuthering Heights on Screen Directors Playhouse: August 9, 1951

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