Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

HeadlinesExotic Boring

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

JohnHowardReid Director: WILLIAM WYLER. Screenplay: Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, based on the 1847 novel by Emily Bronte. Photography: Gregg Toland. Film editor: Daniel Mandell. Art director: James Basevi. Set decorator: Julia Heron. Musical director: Alfred Newman. Costume designer: Omar Kiam. Uncredited additional dialogue: John Huston. Matte painter: W. Percy Day. Assistant director: Walter Mayo. Special character make- up: Blagoe Stephanoff. Technical adviser: Peter Shaw. Sound recording: Paul Neal. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Samuel Goldwyn.Copyright 24 April 1939 by Samuel Goldwyn. Released through United Artists. New York opening at the Rivoli, 13 April 1939. U.S. release: 7 April 1939. U.K. release: May 1939. Australian release: 7 September 1939. 11 reels. 103 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Aristocratic country girl falls in love with her (adopted) brother.NOTES: Academy Award, Black-and-White cinematography (defeating Stagecoach). Also nominated for Best Picture (GWTW), Best Actor, Laurence Olivier (Donat as Mr Chips), Supporting Actress, Geraldine Fitzgerald (Hattie McDaniel in GWTW), Directing (Fleming for GWTW), Screenplay (GWTW), Art Direction (GWTW) Original Music Score (Wizard of Oz).4th in the Film Daily's annual poll of U.S. film critics. Best Motion Picture of 1939 — New York Film Critics.COMMENT: It's hard not to like Wuthering Heights. The idea of willingly submitting to a "great literary classic" is not an attractive one, but the story is so strong, the acting so involving, the atmosphere so fixating and production values so sweeping that Wuthering Heights is a pleasure. In fact, it's a feast of entertainment, a powerful drama that moves at a headlong pace and compels rapt attention from start to finish. Every player is perfectly cast, and Wyler has directed with masterly finesse. The sets and costumes are breathtaking (yet not garishly over-sumptuous), and Toland has lovingly photographed every dynamically pictorial frame. When re-issued worldwide in 1956, the film's powerful compositions were distorted by wide-screen projection. Fortunately, TV has treated the film more kindly. It is still constantly broadcast. In fact the film has proved more popular on television than on its original theatrical release. So enduring has been its popularity that American International Pictures (the king of the "exploitation" movies) attempted a re-make in 1970 with Robert Fuest directing Timothy Dalton and Anna Calder-Marshall. Not surprisingly, this lost every cent of its investors' money. There's also a Luis Bunuel 1953 Mexican version, Abismos de Pasion with Jorge Mistral and Irasema Dilian, and a 1920 British silent with Milton Rosmer and Anne Trevor. TV itself has staged at least seven versions. Don't bother with any of them. The Wyler-Goldwyn 1939 movie is not only the best, it's unbeatable. Merle Oberon never gave a more captivating performance and while Olivier did occasionally equal the power of his present portrayal, he never bettered the intensity of Heathcliff.

jc-osms Wonderful Golden Age Hollywood treatment of Emily Bronte's immortal novel, you know it's going to be good just from the initial titles as names like Laurence Olivier, Flora Robson, William Wyler, Greg Toland and many other greats pass by. The evocation of place is superbly realised so that you never doubt you're in the bleakly beautiful Yorkshire landscape which forms such an evocative background to events as they play out on the screenThe film retains the basic framework of the book with the traveller's dead-of-winter visit to an embittered Heathcliffe's house leading to Flora Robson's maid flash-backing us into the main story of the doomed, tragic love between childhood sweethearts Heathcliffe and Cathy as they push and pull themselves into adulthood, collaterally damaging different members of the neighbouring rich Linton family who fall into their orbit.For me the best acting was actually by Dame Flora Robson as the faithful retainer Mary who wants the best for both of her charges, but who has her loyalties tested in their on-off-on love-hate relationship. She clearly has little time for the cruel, wastrel older brother Linley played effectively by Hugh Williams in a likely pen-portrait of the older Bronte brother Branwell. Olivier takes some time to settle into his role and leave his exaggerated stage mannerisms behind him but eventually succeeds by applying the less-is-more dictum, his dark brooding personality in the end dominating the piece and setting the mark by which all his successors in the role will be rated. I was slightly less impressed with Merle Oberon as Cathy, insofar despite a committed performance, she lacks real beauty in her face and never quite convinces us of her character's magnetic personality. David Niven is surprisingly insipid as the snobbish, besotted Linton in an admittedly underwritten part but Geraldine Chaplin is better as his feisty sister who deliberately subjugates herself to Heathcliffe, content to accept the scraps from his table.The whole however is masterfully directed by director Wyler and wonderfully filmed by camera-man Toland, whose sharp, deep-focus black and white cinematography, both in exterior and interior locations, adds so much to the narrative. It's a good thing when a classic novel gets the film treatment it deserves and that's certainly the case here.

gavin6942 A servant in the house of Wuthering Heights tells a traveler the unfortunate tale of lovers Cathy (Merle Oberon) and Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier).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 maintain its life as a masterpiece of romantic filmmaking." I love Gregg Toland, and William Wyler is quite underrated. He was prolific and had a string of hits, but is rarely recalled today (2015). He was a contemporary and friend of Howard Hawks, but somehow Hawks is now the legend and Wyler is second fiddle. How can this be?

mark.waltz While a lot has been removed from the original Emily Bronte book, what has been transfered into the lavishly beautiful original film version has made it a classic that holds up like very few other films do. Released in the most classic film year ever, this shines above every other film in my book, even more outstanding than the two most remembered films of 1939: "Gone With the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz".Merle Oberon is the "wild, sweet Cathy", a pampered rich girl from the Moors who is loved by many but loves only one. Laurence Olivier is her childhood companion, Heathcliff, a gypsy boy taken in by her late father then tossed to the stables by her cruel older brother. As the years go by, Cathy and Heathcliff's affection turns into love, one that no boundaries can cross. Even when he goes away to America to make his fortune, he's not far from her thoughts. She marries a locally prominent man (Edgar Linton, played with gentility by David Niven) and out of spite, the returning Heathcliff marries Edgar's love-starved sister, Isabelle (Geraldine Fitzgerald in a truly tender performance that is downright tragic). Sick with jealousy and hatred towards what he has done simply to hurt her, Cathy regresses from life, hanging on by a balance.Everything about this film is truly outstanding, from the breathtaking photography and glorious musical score to the art direction, editing and yes, even the screenplay which took simply the choice bits of elements from the original book. William Wyler directs with panache, and every performance is filled with subtleties that can't be denied after repeat viewings. Merle Oberon, sadly overlooked for an Oscar Nomination, gives the greatest performance of her career, showing that beyond being an exotic beauty, she was also highly underrated. Every essence of Cathy is explored, and even in her most spoiled and selfish moments, you can't help but love her. Olivier is perfectly brooding, the aches within him so deep over a love he knows he can't have on earth taking over his own tortured soul. The supporting players are all outstanding, and special honors must go to the wise and winning performance of Flora Robson as Wuthering Heights' long-time housekeeper who seems to die herself as the climax approaches and tragedy has erupted. Hence her return to her original home which has decayed while the Lintons remained bright and elegant. Donald Crisp is wise and compassionate, yet stern, as the local doctor; Hugh Williams straight out of a Dickens novel as the cruel brother who decays along with Wuthering Heights; Leo G. Carroll as the loyal butler; and Cecil Humphreys as the kind man who took the waif Heathcliff in originally.So purists can get off their high horse and simply accept what the writers chose to include for a lengthy film which never seems to be as long as it is. If the classic novels of all time were filmed exactly as written, they would have to be at least 3 hours long, which is why BBC and PBS (and the occasional American networks) eventually did many of them as Mini-Series.