Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier
, David Niven
2/4
I enjoy watching movies made 70 years ago for several reasons. The only one I can actually articulate at the present is that I'm unfamiliar with most of the actors, and therefore don't feel laboured at knowing who is playing whom, or to make excuses for their bad behaviour, or in some cases, their bad acting. Of course, I still have my preferences for actors (Gene Kelly and Jimmy Stewart), but I'm more aware of the character than the actor, which really, is what it should be.
Wuthering Heights is some pretty good use of some recurring scenery. I enjoyed watching the actors, I thought they did a marvelous job. I even enjoyed some of the costumes, everyone looked dignified, as I assume they're all supposed to. Unfortunately, this was my first Laurence Olivier movie. I say unfortunately because this plot either didn't translate well into screenplay or wasn't very good to begin with.
Wuthering Heights is, of course, based on the 1847 Emily Bronte novel that several people seem to find romantic. I'm not really sure what they find romantic about it - is it Cathy (Oberon)'s materialism? The part where Heathcliff (Olivier) finally smacks Cathy? Or is it the part where he marries another woman to make Cathy jealous, then ignores the poor thing (his wife, not Cathy) despite the fact that she truly loves him and wants him to be happy? Most people spend the movie worrying about poor Cathy. No one seems to care about poor Heathcliff and then poor Isabella (Geraldine Fitzgerald). They let Cathy's jerk of a brother do whatever he wants - gambling and drinking.
And here be spoilers:
The movie starts out with Mr. Earnshaw bringing home Heathcliff, an orphan. Heathcliff and Cathy are in love from the very start. Heathcliff is bullied by Cathy's brother from the begining. They grow up a little. Cathy has become a materialistic girl obsessed with society, Heathcliff still has her love and loves her as well. Cathy's brother is still a bully. Cathy and Heathcliff spy on a dance, are chased by dogs, and Cathy is taken care of while Heathcliff is kicked out because he is a dirty stable boy. He vows to come back with a vengence, but that doesn't happen any time soon. The next time he arrives, Cathy has become a girl of status and rejects Heathcliff for a rich boy, then decides she loves Heathcliff again. She does this a second time, but is too late to catch Heathcliff from his downfall. She marries the rich guy, Heathcliff goes to America, gets rich, comes back, is still bullied by Cathy's brother, Cathy refuses to acknowledge any love for Heathcliff, Heathcliff marries Isabella - Edgar (Niven) the rich guy's sister - out of spite. Cathy tries to warn Isabella against marrying Heathcliff, but she insists that he loves her and that she can make him happy. The great piece of acting here is that you know that's what Isabella's thinking and saying, but you also know she's not believing any of it. Heathcliff is a jerk to his wife Isabella. Cathy is dying, but no one wants Heathcliff to know. Heathcliff goes off to see her. Cathy decides to confess her love to him. They kiss. She dies. People mourn poor Cathy.
I'm sorry, does any of that sound romantic to you? Perhaps Heathcliff's determination to win Cathy's heart is romantic, but his insistant ugliness when she doesn't accept him and her insistant materialism when she apparently actually loves Heathcliff is a sad - even if true - version of love. Not everything has to have a Jane Austen ending, but can't someone wind up happy? Can't something turn out right? Is there no sense of justice? Does Cathy, with all her snobbery and stubbornness, really deserve to be loved by someone as caring as Heathcliff? When was it ever her right to turn a sweet man into a careless monster? Why does Isabella marry Heathcliff when she knows he is a hopeless case? For that matter, why does her brother Edgar allow it? Is he afraid that Heathcliff is competition despite that Cathy is so determined to have no feelings for him? Why does Ellen (Flora Robson), Cathy's companion, allow all of this to go on when she knows perfectly well how all parties involved feel? And - I cannot press this enough - why on earth should we feel bad for Cathy?
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