by Sam Juliano
Heathcliff, it’s me, your Cathy, I’ve come home
I’m so cold, let me into your window
Heathcliff, it’s me, your Cathy, I’ve come home
I’m so cold, let me into your window
-Kate Bush, 1978
Emily Bronte’s wildly-popular Victorian Age novel Wuthering Heights is surely one of the half dozen greatest novels ever written in the English language. It is also one of the most adapted works for television and the screen, with nearly twenty titular interpretations, including a 1920 British version directed by A.V. Bramble that appears to be lost. The most recent adaptation was a visually resplendent 2011 revamping by Andrea Arnold, while the most faithful to its source is undoubtedly the 1978 television series, directed by Peter Hammond,which practically followed the book line by line because of its 255 minute running time. Some of the most famous of the films based on the novel include Luis Bunuel’s Spanish-language Abismos de Pasion, filmed in Mexico, which accurately reflections the original personalities of the characters while largely eschewing narrative fidelity; the stylish and primordial Japanese Onimaru by master Yoshishige Yoshida which features a serpent-like Heathcliff and a story of taboo desires; French maestro Jacques Rivette’s spiritually provocative and beautifully shot. Hurlevelent, which covers the first half of the novel; and a 1992 interpretation by Peter Kominsky and starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche that divided the critics.
Two operas were written on the novel – one an extraordinary work by celebrated American opera composer Carlisle Floyd that was released in 1958 and the other by film maestro Bernard Herrmann, who wrote it in the late 40’s, though it wasn’t actually recorded in its entirety until 1966. The British pop singer Kate Bush, who was just 18 at the time, never wrote a more popular song in her distinguished career than her 1978 “Wuthering Heights” whose plaintive refrain “Heathcliff, it’s me, I’m Cathy…I’ve come home” helped bring the complex romantic novel new life with teenagers, many of whom were motivated to tackle the novel as a result of the Number 1 charts single.
Far and away the most celebrated of all Wuthering Heights adaptations is the 1939 Hollywood version directed by William Wyler, and starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon in the leads. it has consistently held the esteem of film scholars and audiences even though it covers only the first sixteen chapters of the thirty-four that comprise the book. The film ends after Cathy’s death, thereby eliminating the entire second generation. Still, few could deny it captures the spirit, punishing weather and locales of the book impressively. The film’s tapestry appears to have successfully transcribed some of the novel’s themes in visual terms. The manor house is bleak, oppressive and inhibited by stormy emotions including hate and anger, and it is all superbly negotiated by master cinematographer Greg Toland, who opts for stark close-ups, deep-focus and soft-candle lighting in rich contrast black and white. Inspired by the Gothic qualities of the novel, Wyler starts with a salute to The Old Dark House, James Whales 1932 classic, and a pre-eminent Gothic horror film by depicting a raging storm. The setting in the opening scene and for much of the film is the house “Wuthering Heights” on the barren moors in Yorkshire, England during the mid-19th century. A title card with the following words appears just before the opening scene which reads:
…On the Barren Yorkshire moors in England, a hundred years ago, stood a house as bleak and desolate as the wastes around it. Only a stranger lost in a storm would have dared to knock at the door of ‘Wuthering Heights.’…
At the outset Lockwood, who is set to be a new neighbor, arrives during a snowstorm to encounter the dour owner named Heathcliff, his wife Isabella, and the servants who live with him. The visitor asks for a cup of tea and a guide to escort him to Thushcross Grange. Heathcliff refuses, but reluctantly allows his trapped visitor to spend the night in a musty, cow-webbed, long unused bridal chamber. A noisy window shutter subsequently disrupts his sleep and he moves to close it only to feel an icy hand touch his as he hears a voice scream the name “Cathy.” He relates this seemingly supernatural episode to Heathcliff, who suddenly throws Lockwood out of the room, himself calling out to ‘Cathy’ before frantically descending the stairs and dashing out into the menacing blizzard and his certain doom.
This electrifying opening is further accentuated by the the film score’s recurrent “Cathy’s Theme,” the ravishing main coda of an extraordinarily lush and beautiful soundtrack by the great Golden Age composer Alfred Newman. Throughout the film the theme is reprized for some of the most celebrated set pieces like the recurring clandestine romantic appointments at Peniston Crag, a gritstone rock formation that serves as a make-believe castle with a cave-like opening along the shoreline. Newman alternates the tempo and instruments to project mournfulness, exhilaration and romantic bliss that the respective scenes require.
Immediately after Heathcliff’s frantic departure the old woman in the house, Ellen, tells Lockwood the story of Heathcliff and Cathy, which is effect is a long flashback that inhabits the rest of the film, save for the bookend conclusion. Mr. Earnshaw, the original owner of Wuthering Heights, and a man of exceeding kindness and generosity, once brought home an orphan named Heathcliff from Liverpool. Mr. Earnshaw’s daughter Cathy and Heathcliff shortly become inseparable, but Cathy’s disingenuous brother Hindley loathes Heathcliff with a passion, in part because he feels threatened. Mr. Earnshaw dies a short time after, leaving Heathcliff to take orders from the callous and sadistic Hindley. Then Cathy comes to spend some time on the estate of the rich neighbors, the Lintons, one of whose member Edgar wins her affection and sets up a major conflicting within her. Her wild, carefree and undisciplined half is in love with Heathclidd, while her proper and ordered side favors the bland and formal Edgar. Eventually Edgar proposes to Cathy, who seeks advice from Ellen as to whether or not she should accept the proposal. From another room Heathcliff overhears the conversation and leaves the estate before Cathy has a chance to tell him that she has decided to marry him instead of Edgar. Cathy looks for Heathcliff, and Edgar finds her the next morning on Peniston Crag. They marry despite Cathy’s deep seeded dissatisfaction with the union. in the meantime, Hindley, who had inherited his father’s fortune starts to blow through it through drinking and gambling. Heathcliff then returns from America a rich man and buys Wuthering Heights from the desperate Hindley Heathcliff then marries Isabella to enact vengeance with Cathy. Heartbroken, Cathy falls gravely ill. Just before she dies Cathy and Heathcliff once more after he steals his way into her room at Thrushcross Grange, where they pledge their eternal love, and she promises to wait for him in death. In one of the cinema’s most tear-jerking scenes – containing of its most unforgettable monologues, Heathcliff (Lawrence Olivier) carries Cathy (Merle Oberon) for a last panoramic view of the moors at her window and then carries her limp body to the bed, declaring triumphantly in the company of Lindon, Ellen and Dr. Kenneth:
What do they know of Heaven or Hell, Cathy, who know nothing of life? Oh, they’re paying for you, Cathy. I’ll pray one prayer with them. I’ll repeat until my tongue stiffens. 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.
It is precisely this kind of grand theatricality that Olivier always aced, and it was fully consistent with the recalcitrant nature of his character. As the swelling strains of ‘Cathy’s Theme’ signal Heathcliff’s final victory we are transported from the earthy moors to to a place of spiritual resurrection.
At this point of the story – with the flashback complete- the doctor enters and announces that Heathcliff has been found frozen to death on Peniston Crag. In the final scene (inserted at the insistence of Producer Samuel Goldwyn implicitly against director Wyler’s wishes) Heathcliff and Cathy are seen hand in hand, reunited in the hereafter.
Wuthering Heights like it’s source and numerous incarnations on screen, stage, radio and opera house contains some truly unforgettable moments, big dramatic confrontations, deaths, marriages, violent rows, and passionate revelations (Cathy’s “I Am Heathcliff” is the perhaps the most vital line in the film as it compellingly connects with the major theme) yet who can argue with Movie Classics’ esteemed Judy Geater, who stated in her masterful review two years ago for the “William Wyler blogothon” for The Movie Projector, “It seems the most passionate moments in this movie comes when the lovers are apart – yearning for what they have thrown away.”
Wuthering Heights was chosen as the Best Film of 1939 by the New York Film Critics Circle, besting such cinematic gems like the Oscar Best Picture winner Gone with the Wind, Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz, Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Sam Wood’s Goodbye Mr. Chips, John Ford’s Stagecoach and his Drums Along the Mohawk, Lewis Milestone’s Of Mice and Men, Edmund Goulding’s Dark Victory, and Ernst Lubitsch’s Ninotchka among others. Many consider the year as the richest in Hollywood history. Similarly, the year was a treasure trove for lead actors. Olivier received an Oscar nod, pitting him up against James Stewart, Clark Gable, Robert Donat and Mickey Rooney in a race that was won by Donat (Goodbye Mr. Chips). The New York Critics went with Stewart. All in all Wuthering Heights was nomination for eight (8) Oscars, winning for Toland’s black and white photography.
Though William Wyler -one of the greatest of American directors- was a major force in the film’s artistic prominence, it is usually agreed that Producer Goldwyn -whose favorite of all his films this is – had more than a lending hand in the film’s creation. His influence and eye for elegance and design could rightfully be compared with the famous horror specialist Val Lewton, who in the early 40’s produced a series of extraordinary low budget films. It has always been asserted that Lewton had much more to do with the film’s screenplay and set design than the actual directors did. From what I have read and have observed from numerous viewings over the years, I’d have to conclude that Goldwyn and Wyler are about equally responsible for the end results.
The most notable change that celebrated screenwriters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur made in adapting Bronte’s masterpiece -aside of course from the decision to film only the first half of the work as already reported- was to position Heathcliff’s anger almost solely at Cathy for marrying Edgar, which was a sharp departure from the novel, where Heathcliff is mad at society. Heathcliff of course marries Isabella for spite, ignoring the pain he would cause by endorsing a loveless union. In any case I must summarily reject the minority criticisms that (rightly) claim that the book is more complex than the film, which some frame as a “simple” story of star-crossed lovers and retribution. The relationships in the novel are of course complex, and no cinematic adaptation could ever for all sorts of reasons do them full justice. There will always be inevitable simplification. 103 minutes is scant running time to afford comprehensive literary coverage, not even to mention the near-impossibility to negotiate the psychological element. But this is true of all great and classic novels.
The bottom line for film goers should not center around fidelity but rather around craftsmanship. In this sense Wuthering Heights is first-rate. Oliver’s inherently stiff and brooding countenance and glorious delivery all work in his favor, and much must be said of Wyler’s tenacious direction and tutelege of his performance, which included how exactly to revise some stage habits to conform for the camera. Merle Oberon was a fabulous choice to register unearthly beauty and glaring and vulnerable indecisiveness. Geraldine Fitzgerald, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress gives a touching and effective turn as Isabella Linton, the passionate, naive and outgoing Isabella – a woman found herselftrapped in an emotionally abusive marriage to a man who harbored no love for her. David Niven played the bland Edgar Linton superlatively, impressively projecting the quietly loving and privileged nature of this unfortunate character. Flora Robson is excellent as the mournful Ellen, the story’s narrator and Cathy’s maid. Hugh Williams is outstanding as the grown up Hindley, an embittered and dissolute man. Donald Crisp, Leo G. Carroll and Cecil Kellaway all provide classy turns.
This 1939 version of Wuthering Heights, the clear favorite of critics and movie fans, will never fully appeal to the book’s purists and to those who insist on narrative fidelity, but in spirit, mood and raw passion is remains one of the most accomplished romantic films of all-time.
