Emily Brontë's 1847 Gothic novel about the brooding Heathcliff's passion for Cathy has become one of cinema's most enduring love stories.
Director A. V. Bramble, in a British silent production (1920), first brought Wuthering Heights to the screen; but Samuel Goldwyn's 1939 version, directed by William Wyler and starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, is considered the film classic (and a source of much Hollywood lore, such as Goldwyn's post-production decision to add a new "happy" ending, the now famous scene of the lovers walking together on the crag filmed with unknown actors.) Subsequent refilmings and adaptations—by director Luis Buñuel, as Abismos de Pasion (1954); by Robert Fuest (1970), starring Timothy Dalton; by the BBC (in 1948, 1953, 1962, 1967, and, most notably, by Peter Hammond in 1978); by Jacques Rivette, as Hurlevent (1985); and by Peter Kosminsky, as Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1992), with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche; and by David Skynner, again as Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1998)—con-firm the popularity of Brontë's tale and filmmakers' ongoing fascination with it.
