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Wuthering Heights (1939 film)

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For the novel, see Wuthering Heights.

Wuthering Heights
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Directed by	William Wyler
Produced by	Samuel Goldwyn
Written by	Emily Brontë (novel) Charles MacArthur Ben Hecht
Starring	Merle Oberon Laurence Olivier David Niven Flora Robson Donald Crisp Geraldine Fitzgerald Hugh Williams
Music by	Alfred Newman
Cinematography	Gregg Toland
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	13 April, 1939
Running time	103 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
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Wuthering Heights is a 1939 film, directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the celebrated novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, although the film only depicts sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters. The novel was adapted for the screen by Charles MacArthur, Ben Hecht and John Huston. Some consider it to be the best film version of Brontë's novel ever made (although it omits almost the entire second half of the book), and was the film responsible for making Laurence Olivier a Hollywood star. The film earned nominations for eight Academy Awards, including the awards for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best cinematography, which Gregg Toland won for his work on the film.

Tagline: I am torn with Desire... tortured by hate!

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".

1 Main cast
2 Awards and nominations
- 2.1 Won
- 2.2 Nominated
3 Omissions From the Novel
4 Trivia
5 References
6 External links

Main cast

Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff
Merle Oberon as Catherine Earnshaw Linton
David Niven as Edgar Linton
Flora Robson as Ellen Dean
Donald Crisp as Dr. Kenneth
Geraldine Fitzgerald as Isabella Linton
Leo G. Carroll as Joseph Earnshaw.

Awards and nominations

Won

1939: NYFCC Award for Best Picture of the Year
1939: Academy Award for Best Cinematography (in a black-and-white film; Gone With the Wind won in the same year for its color cinematography)

Nominated

1939: Academy Award for Best Actor (Laurence Olivier)
1939: Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Geraldine Fitzgerald)
1939: Academy Award for Best Art Direction
1939: Academy Award for Best Director
1939: Academy Award for Best Original Score
1939: Academy Award for Best Picture
1939: Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay

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 have any children.

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

In the final sequence of Wuthering Heights, the spirits of Heathcliff and Cathy are seen walking together. This was added after filming was complete. As Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon had already moved on to other projects, doubles had to be used.
Wyler hated the idea of the after-life scene, and didn't want to do it but Samuel Goldwyn vetoed him. Goldwyn subsequently claimed, "I made Wuthering Heights, Wyler only directed it."
The Mitchell Camera Corporation selected cinematographer Gregg Toland and Wuthering Heights to be the first to use their new Mitchell BNC camera. This camera model would become the studio standard.
Vivien Leigh wanted to play the lead role, alongside her then lover and future husband Laurence Olivier, but studio executives decided the role should go to Merle Oberon. They later offered Leigh the part of Isabelle Linton, but she declined, and Geraldine Fitzgerald was cast. Leigh's next project, Gone with the Wind, that same year, won her an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier apparently detested each other. Legend has it that when William Wyler yelled "Cut!" after a particularly romantic balcony scene, Oberon shouted back to her director about Laurence: "Tell him to stop spitting at me!" Olivier retorted by shouting, "What's spit, for God's sake, between actors, you bloody little idiot?"
Samuel Goldwyn claimed that this film is his favorite of all his productions. ^[1]
Laurence Olivier found himself becoming increasingly annoyed with William Wyler's exhausting style of film-making. After countless takes of one scene, he 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."
Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks and Robert Newton were considered for the role of Heathcliff. ^[2]
Both of the leading players began work on the film miserable at having to leave their loved ones back in the United Kingdom. Olivier was missing his fiancée Vivien Leigh and Oberon had recently fallen in love with film producer Alexander Korda. ^[3]
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. He had been given a substance to help it appear as if he were crying, which instead had the effect of making "green goo" come out of his nose.
In both his autobiography and his book On Acting, Laurence Olivier 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 act more subtly.

References

External links

• • e

Films directed by William Wyler

The Crook Buster (1925) • The Gunless Bad Man (1926) • Ridin' for Love (1926) • The Fire Barrier (1926) • Don't Shoot (1926) • The Pinnacle Rider (1926) • Martin of the Mounted (1926) • Lazy Lightning (1926) • The Stolen Ranch (1926) • The Two Fister (1927) • Kelcy Gets His Man (1927) • Tenderfoot Courage (1927) • The Silent Partner (1927) • Blazing Days (1927) • Shooting Straight (1927) • Galloping Justice (1927) • The Haunted Homestead (1927) • Hard Fists (1927) • The Lone Star (1927) • The Home Trail (1927) • Gun Justice (1927) • The Phantom Outlaw (1927) • The Square Shooter (1927) • The Horse Trader (1927) • Daze of the West (1927) • The Border Cavalier (1927) • Desert Dust (1927) • Thunder Riders (1928) • Anybody Here Seen Kelly? (1928) • The Shakedown (1929) • The Love Trap (1929) • Hell's Heroes (1930) • The Storm (1930) • A House Divided (1931) • Tom Brown of Culver (1932) • Her First Mate (1933) • Counsellor at Law (1933) • Glamour (1934) • The Good Fairy (1935) • The Gay Deception (1935) • Barbary Coast (1935) • These Three (1936) • Dodsworth (1936) • Come and Get It (1936) • Dead End (1937) • Jezebel (1938) • Wuthering Heights (1939) • The Westerner (1940) • The Letter (1940) • The Little Foxes (1941) • Mrs. Miniver (1942) • (1944) • The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) • Thunderbolt! (1947 film)Thunderbolt (1947) • The Heiress (1949) • Detective Story (1951) • Carrie (1952) • Roman Holiday (1953) • The Desperate Hours (1955) • Friendly Persuasion (1956) • The Big Country (1958) • Ben-Hur (1959) • The Children's Hour (1961) • The Collector (1965) • How to Steal a Million (1966) • Funny Girl (1968) • The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970)