Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is a 1939 adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel. A foundling boy, Heathcliff, is brought into the wealthy Earnshaw household, where he grows close to the daughter, Cathy. Her brother resents him and, after the father's death, reduces him to a servant. Cathy's feelings for Heathcliff are genuine, but she chooses to marry the prosperous Edgar Linton, a match that suits her social standing. Heathcliff leaves, returns years later having made his fortune, and finds Cathy married. His devotion turns toward a determination to take revenge on those he holds responsible for his unhappiness.

William Wyler directed the film, the fifth of the twenty-two features listed in his filmography, following Jezebel and preceding The Westerner. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur wrote the screenplay, and Samuel Goldwyn produced it for United Artists. Laurence Olivier plays Heathcliff and Merle Oberon plays Cathy, with David Niven as Edgar Linton, Flora Robson as Ellen Dean, Donald Crisp as Dr. Kenneth and Geraldine Fitzgerald as Isabella Linton, among a credited cast of thirty-one.

Critical response was strong: critics gave it 8.4 out of 10 across twenty-five reviews, a higher figure than the audience scores of 7.5 on IMDb and 7.2 on TMDB. The film runs 104 minutes.