Wuthering Heights (1939)
Just read the HeathCliffnotes instead
Gather ‘round the fire, ILTBTA readers, for this Tuesday ev’ning we recount the tale of Wuthering Heights. Travel back with us to the 18th century and meet Cathy (wait, her name’s Cathy?) and the bedeviling Heathcliff as they play out their childhood trauma with a messiness that’d make Marie Kondo blush. Nothing can keep these two destined lovers apart, right …?
Previews
What, if anything, did we know about this coming attraction before we watched it?
Ellen: I did a paper in high school comparing and contrasting the works of two of the Brontё sisters, specifically Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. I can reveal to you now that Jane Eyre was one of only two assigned readings in high school that I *gulp* SparkNoted1. The trainwreck of terrible people in Wuthering Heights, however, kept me engaged, but I don’t remember exactly how they’re terrible, so let’s see!
Tyler: Haven’t seen this movie, haven’t read the book, don’t even know the plot … heck, I don’t even know what “wuthering” means.
Plots & Feelings
This one’s pretty self-explanatory.
Short Version (courtesy of IMDb): A servant in the house of Wuthering Heights tells a traveler the unfortunate tale of lovers Cathy and Heathcliff.
Long Version (modified from Wikipedia and formatted to fit your screen):
On a bitter winter’s night in
AlexandriaYorkshire, a weary traveler named Lockwood is caught in the snow and knocks on the door of Wuthering Heights, despite the home’s evident dreariness2. The dogs are barking (but, like, not in a lively way), the house is dusty, and the vibes are rancid. The owner of the house, Heathcliff, reluctantly has his wife make tea and allows the man to stay, putting him in the care of his servant Joseph and housekeeper Ellen. While attempting to sleep in the desolate “bridal chamber,” Lockwood is awoken by a clattering shutter. Going to close it, he thinks he hears and sees a woman out on the moor named Cathy. Lockwood tells Heathcliff, who promptly bolts from the house. Ellen explains he saw the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw and begins the tale.
Forty years earlier, Mr. Earnshaw returns home with a surprise guest: a young boy! He fends off accusations of kidnapping from his friend Dr. Kenneth, explaining that he found the child destitute, couldn’t find any family, and even spent two whole pounds3 trying to determine to whom he belonged. Mr. Earnshaw christens the child Heathcliff4 and introduces him to his children, Hindley and Cathy. To start with, both children are wary at best and rude at worst, but soon enough we cut to Cathy and Heathcliff happily racing horses over the moors. Hindley, however, has not taken to Heathcliff any more than he did at first blush, and he makes his displeasure known by throwing a rock at Heathcliff’s head! Cathy is enraged and starts whacking her brother with her riding crop, while Heathcliff vows to get Hindley back, no matter how long it takes. Cathy and Heathcliff retreat to their “castle” at Penistone Crags and play as king and queen.
“Uh oh, dad’s dead, and Hindley still sucks.” My original notes were sufficient. We jump to ten years later, and what do you know: Hindley is an avid drinker, tyrannical towards Cathy and the servants, and has been making Heathcliff serve as stable boy5. One can conclude he still sucks! Heathcliff and Cathy’s literal and metaphorical escape remains Penistone Crags. They make the motions of devotions, but Cathy can’t quite hide her desire that Heathcliff were rich and they could attend fancy parties, and Heathcliff can’t quite conceal his bitterness that he’s suffered abuse for years just to be near her while she wants more. Speaking of money and status they don’t possess, what’s going on down at the Linton house? 👀
On Cathy’s insistence, the couple sneaks down into the Linton’s estate to peek in at the windows. A lovely party is occurring inside The Grange, but the serenity is shattered when the dogs, Skulder and Flash, are alerted and attack the intruders! Cathy suffers a gnarly leg injury, and while the Lintons tend to her wounds, Heathcliff is treated like a criminal. As he flees, Cathy shouts to him to run away and bring her back the world.
Cathy then spends a pleasant few months with the Lintons being bougie, hanging out with the grown children, Edgar and Isabella. When she finally returns home, she’s somewhat annoyed to see that Heathcliff did not bring her the world, it seems. And unfortunately, Heathcliff notices how frosty she is and is hurt that she was swayed by glitz and glitter. Edgar comes to visit, but Cathy roundly scolds him and kicks him out for saying unkind things about Heathcliff. She runs out to the castle, and she and Heathcliff look at each other.
Tyler: Oh Cathy, she’s just a modern woman who wants to have it all! Is it too much to ask for a bougie lifestyle with her beloved beggar??
A few weeks go by and… Cathy misses being fancy again. She and Edgar have been writing, and Ellen is like “girl, keep this pathetic man waiting forever, why do you like him.” Heathcliff is naturally in the same camp, but unlike Ellen, he does slap Cathy while they’re fighting about it. Edgar arrives, and Heathcliff leaves wordlessly. Edgar proposes, and Cathy says she needs time to think it over. During what she assumes is a private girl chat with Ellen, Cathy flippantly remarks that it would degrade her to marry Heathcliff. Naturally, that’s the only part he overhears, missing the bit where Cathy realizes aloud that she belongs with Heathcliff, money or not. When she learns he overheard, she runs after him into a raging storm. Her search is fruitless, and all she gets is another Linton Rescue & Recuperation Operation. Surprising no one, she and Edgar marry.
Ellen: When she’s actually accepting the proposal, Cathy says, “no one will ever kiss me again but you, no one” and boy it sounds like a threat.
Tyler: Heathcliff is so much the subtext in everything she says that it’s almost just text.
Years pass, and don’t you just hate it when the long-lost love of your life turns up unannounced while you’re working on your embroidery? Me too!! Heathcliff is back, he’s clean, he’s rich! Edgar tells Cathy she doesn’t have to feel weird about inviting Heathcliff into their home, but his courtesy melts away upon finding out that Heathcliff has secretly paid off all of Hindley’s gambling debts and bought Wuthering Heights out from under him! Cathy is also outraged, but Heathcliff remains cool and takes his leave. Isabella is mightily disappointed in them both for being so rude.
The next day, Isabella pretends to have horse troubles for an excuse to stop at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff sees right through ruse, but then he (oh no) begins a ruse of his own. He promises Isabella she won’t be lonely anymore, and this girl melts. She invites him to the next party at The Grange and once there, she’s desperate to dance with him, but he smoothly keeps avoiding her. What he does do is find Cathy and profess his love. Cathy is tempted but isn’t having it, warning him to stay away from Isabella. After the party, she tries to tell Isabella the same thing, but Isabella reads her for filth, rightly deducing why Cathy is so against the match. Edgar figures it out as well when Cathy implores him to “kill him if you have to… just stop the marriage.” Unfortunately for the Linton siblings, Cathy’s accusations about Heathcliff using Isabella were both self-serving and true. Isabella and Heathcliff marry.
Isabella is absolutely miserable. Heathcliff is absolutely miserable. Presumably once Hindley sobers up, he’ll be absolutely miserable. But only our one true drama queen Cathy is so miserable that she’s ~dying~. Isabella foolishly thinks that if Cathy dies, Heathcliff may pay attention to her, but Hindley, whom Heathcliff only seems to keep around to torture him and himself, knows better. Cathy gets word to Heathcliff to come to her bedside, and he hastens to do so. Cathy professes that she loves only him, and at her request, he carries her to the window to see the moors one last time. She dies in his arms. Heathcliff demands that Cathy haunt him until the day he dies.
Ellen: The Wikipedia summary described this as them reconciling and forgiving each other, and while I believe they’ve reconciled for the moment, with these two, I don’t know if true forgiveness could ever be on the table.
Tyler: The two of them are that couple who constantly fight but swear they love each other and are just utterly exhausting to be around.
As Ellen finishes her story6, Dr. Kenneth arrives and tells Ellen and Lockwood that he saw Heathcliff on the moors with a woman, only to find Heathcliff’s corpse alone in the snow. Ellen realizes that he saw the ghosts of Heathcliff and Cathy, who now haunt Penistone Crags together.
Ellen: Everyone pour one out for our girl Isabella, who is still there in Wuthering Heights with this man who hates her.
Intermission
Even though ILTBTA is free, please indulge us further and enjoy this quick “advertisement.”
This installment of ILTBTA is brought to you by … Hindley!
What’s up, nerds?? It’s me, Hindley, the main character ofWuthering Heights! I know you were watching me on screen and thinking: how can I be more like that stud?? Well let me tell you about the joys of online sports betting! I’m talking Draft Kings, prop bets, parlays, FanDuel, and free money from the apps because you’re just so good at it. Don’t believe the haters who say that if you find gambling success you get kicked off. Who are you going to trust: those dweebs, or ya boy Hindleeeeyyyyy!
Current prop bets include:
Number of times my annoying sister Cathy mentions that scoundrel Heathcliff tomorrow: O/U 4.5
Wutheringness of the moors tomorrow: O/U top gust of 114 kph
Likelihood that I pass out before lunchtime: -250
Mention ILTBTA to me, and you’ll receive the opportunity for me to multiply a chunk of your cash with my statistical prowess. Hindley!!!
Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?
Love a good Wikipedia rabbit hole in search of some fun facts? Us too.
Wuthering Heights’ Wikipedia page has some interesting facts and anecdotes that we recommend you read through, but here are a few of our favorites:
Wuthering Heights (the movie) is adapted from Wuthering Heights (the book; duh), the only novel written by English author Emily Brontë. Though this 1939 version is the first (and best-known) spoken adaptation of the novel, there was also a 1920 silent film that was the earliest adaptation, though it is unknown if any prints of it still exist.
Tyler: Or as the movie’s opening credits called her, Emily Bronté.
Ellen: How embarrassing.
While there have been many adaptations across film, TV, radio, opera, and the theatre, my favorite would be the 2015 made-for-TV drama Wuthering High. Currently sporting a 31% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, Wuthering High is exactly what it sounds like and stars (amongst others) Francesca Eastwood (daughter of Clint) and James Caan (who must have owed someone a favor). Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes include: “Horrendously bad and without any redeeming qualities … To say this is an homage to Wuthering Heights is offensive”; “this is basically a non-supernatural Twilight with even worse acting, less substance, and even more cliches”; and “Why is Wuthering Heights so popular?”
Ellen: I’m desperately resisting the urge to watch the pilot as I type.
After being published in 1847, the novel was met with mixed reviews, with one literary critic writing that readers were “shocked and confounded by a tale of unchecked primal passions, replete with savage cruelty and outright barbarism” and another saying “the vivid sexual passion and power of its language and imagery impressed, bewildered and appalled reviewers.”
Following Brontë’s death at the age of 30 (just one year after the book was published), her sister revealed that Emily was in fact the author of Wuthering Heights, which was published under the pen name Ellis Bell. Even then, many refused to believe that a woman was capable of writing a novel with such violence and passion.
Okay back to the movie. Wuthering Heights was directed by William Wyler, who also directed previous ILTBTA topics Funny Girl and Ben-Hur. Wyler’s perfectionist directorial style was often at odds with stars Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier. Wyler shot one scene with Olivier 72 times, with the only direction given to the actor between takes being “I want it better.” To his credit, Wyler was later credited by Olivier for teaching the stage actor how to act in films, as opposed to “ham[ming] it up” to a theatre.
A man who has mastered the air of ~looking~ (Source) Wyler did not always have the last say, though. He was overruled by producer Samuel Goldwyn regarding the final scene of the movie, an after-life depiction that Wyler hated but Goldwyn wanted. Goldwyn later claimed “I made Wuthering Heights, Wyler only directed it.” In a truly hilariously petty move, Goldwyn’s producer credit also appears last in the opening credits, going against the convention of having the director’s name coming last.
Settle the debate: is this dumb or good? (Source) Star Merle Oberon (who played Cathy) was born in British India to a white father and Sri Lankan mother, but hid her Asian heritage to avoid prejudice by claiming to have been born in Australia to two white parents. She is regarded as the first Asian person to receive an Oscar nomination as the first Asian nominee for Best Actress after her nomination for The Dark Angel.
Oscar NomNomNomz
Since we all know a movie is nothing without the food and drink it incorporates.
It’s now time to award the Oscar for Best Snacktor in a Supporting Role7. And the nomnomnominees are:
Some hot cocoa to warm you up by the fire
A glass of brandy … also to warm you up, look it’s cold outside
Yet another bottle of wine from Joseph
And the Oscar goes to … the hot cocoa! Unfortunately, we have thrown the hot cocoa outside in an attempt to melt the giant piles of ice on our block, so Basil will accept this award on its behalf.
Fill In The Blank
How did we really feel about The Academy nominating this?
Ellen: I’d like to try to stop The Academy from entering into a loveless marriage in part for my own selfish reasons. Despite the hubbub we heard about Wyler and Goldwyn fighting it out for creative control, none of what they did particularly stood out to me from a filmmaking perspective. The score and acting both did the bulk of the work for me, as did the source material. To the latter point, from what I remember, this is pretty true to the book, and these people are the woooorst. It’s interesting because Cathy’s main crimes are carelessness with the emotions of others and general shallowness, and those pretty much remain throughout. Heathcliff, meanwhile, begins justifiably mad at the world and somewhat inexplicably in love with Cathy. Upon his return, however, his bitterness and taste for spite have grown in a horrible way, and he’s afflicted with a meanness that Cathy never quite acquires. Regardless, he and Cathy begin inflicting their shared trauma on everyone around them. I don’t love looking at it as a “she made him crazy” narrative, but they certainly don’t make each other better. Are they truly in love? Maybe, but perhaps that’s not a good thing.
Tyler: I’d like to invite The Academy inside from a snowstorm but not necessarily be the nicest host. Wuthering Heights is one of those movies that’s based on source material that’s so well-known that there seems to be a pressure to not veer from the original plot too much, so I find it difficult to disentangle my complaints with the baked-in elements of the movie from the movie as a whole. Yes, Cathy and Heathcliff are two absolutely messy bitches who live for drama (though not in an entertaining way), but I thought the actors did a fine job portraying them. Cathy is a shallow social climber, but we at least see some instances of her internal struggle between her social desires (money, status, comfort) and physical ones (Heathcliff. Just Heathcliff.). And still, by the end of the movie I felt a little underwhelmed at the central love story (I was almost definitely impacted by the trailer for the new adaptation calling it “the greatest love story ever”8 or something along those lines) despite some decent other moviemaking elements (score, cinematography, etc.).
Let The Credits Roll
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Post-Credits Scene
Get a sneak peek at the next ILTBTA installment.
We heard you like Kathryn Bigelow-directed movies set during the War on Terror that Tyler has seen but Ellen hasn’t, so our next movie will be another Kathryn Bigelow-directed movie set during the War on Terror that Tyler has seen but Ellen hasn’t: Zero Dark Thirty. The 2012 drama stars Jessica Chastain as a CIA analyst doggedly hunting down Osama bin Laden. Will watching this and The Hurt Locker in relatively quick succession help Ellen finally distinguish the two? There’s only one way to find out! ZDT is available to stream on Netflix or rented from everywhere else.
Until then, well wuther me heights, happy Valentine’s Day!
Tyler: Aw cute, I also read the SparkNotes for Jane Eyre! (And the CliffsNotes to really cover my bases.)
Sounds like my ex-wife!
Thanks to The Bank of England, that’s about £300 (or over $400) in today’s words on the street!
Shout out to this random person on Quora for explaining the significance of an otherwise random seeming name.
It’s giving Cinderella. It’s giving this season of Bridgerton.
In more ways than one!
Results tabulated and certified by the accountants at Ernst & Yum™.
Ellen: Based on the source material, that assertion is, shall we say, specious. 😅