Wuthering Heights (1939) [VHS]

Wuthering Heights (1939) [VHS]
by William Wyler

Wuthering Heights (1939) [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: David Niven, Donald Crisp, Flora Robson, Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon
Director: William Wyler
Cinematographer: Gregg Toland
Editor: Daniel Mandell
Producer: Samuel Goldwyn
Writer: Ben Hecht
Writer: Charles MacArthur
Writer: Emily Bront?
Writer: John Huston
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, NTSC, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
Running Time: 104 minutes
Release Date: 1994-12-12
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Hbo Home Video
Studio: Hbo Home Video

VHS Movie Reviews of Wuthering Heights (1939) [VHS]

Movie Review: Wuthering Heights
Summary: 3 Stars

The next time I buy anything from the internet, I will read the product information a little more carefully. The movie I purchased, "Wuthering Heights" was made for Region 2. I'm not sure I know what that means, but apparently my DVD player does not accommodate movies made for Region 2. I can't return the film because the product description clearly states (on a second look)that this video can only be seen on Region 2 DVD players.

Movie Review: not what i wanted
Summary: 1 Stars

the movie was not what i wanted because it did not play in any america dvd. i could not watch it.

Movie Review: WUTHERING HEIGHTS 1939 REGION 2
Summary: 5 Stars

OKAY ... EVERYTHING WAS OKAY ,UNTIL I GOT MY DVD, IT WOULDN'T PLAY ... BECAUSE OF THE REGION 2 ... I DIDN'T KNOW THAT , THERE WAS NOTHING SAY THERE THAT IT WOOD NOT PLAY IN MY DVD PLAYER ... I TRY ALL MY PLAYERS ...BUT NO NOTHING , I LOOK IT UP AGAIN, AND THAT WHEN THE INFORMATION CAME OUT ABOUT TH REGION... I DID E MAIL THE CUSTOMER, BUT ALL HE SAID IS THAT IT WAS POSTED, I COULD OF SENT IT BACK , I HAD TO PAY A RESTOCKING FEED...

SO I ORDER AN OTHER ONE ... AND THAT ON PLAYS IN MY DVD PLAYER ...

O WELL , TO ME ITS LESSON LEARN ....

THANK YOU !

GILBERT ......

Movie Review: Forever Gathering Heather
Summary: 5 Stars

"Maybe if I told you their story, you'd change your mind about the dead coming back. Maybe you'd know as I do, there is a force that brings them back, if their hearts were wild enough in life."

One of the most romantic portraits of tortured but eternal love does not hang in any of the more famous museums around the world. There are no bright colors to distract from its ethereal beauty. Only black and white adorn this painting, yet the shading and images are haunting, filled with love and longing. The canvas is celluloid, the subjects Heathcliff and Cathy, and it is a collaborative effort from director William Wyler, photographer Greg Toland, and musical director Alfred Newman. It is a masterpiece, deeply embedded in the hearts of all who have cast their eyes and hearts upon it. Made in 1939, it is one of the finest films ever made, many still believing it to be the best picture made in the greatest year of motion pictures.

Emily Bronte's beloved classic was brought to life in truncated fashion, yet made so beautifully by Wyler and company, that whatever scriptwriters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur left out, the flavor of Bronte's tale of love and class was not only left in tact, but given a face by the lovely Merle Oberon as Cathy, and Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff. This is love on the moors, a love so encompassing that young and wild hearts appreciate it much too late, years of romantic torture suffered due to vanity and class distictions preceding the final happiness which was always there, had Cathy but seen the light earlier.

It begins when a stranger in a storm seeks shelter at the dark and foreboding Wuthering Heights. It is there he will encounter the tortured Heathcliff and, during the night, Cathy, hearing her call through the wind, and feeling a chilly touch that shakes Heathcliff to his very being. Only then will a story 40 years prior be told him by firelight, until he understands completely how a love that will not die truly exists on the moors of Wuthering Heights. The viewer is transported to a time when Wuthering Heights was alive and beautiful, and full of promise. A man brings home a street urchin and raises him with his two children, Cathy (Sarita Wooten) and Hindley (Douglas Scott), calling him Heathcliff (Rex Downing). Hindley will resent him his whole life, and rub his nose in his poverty. Cathy, however, will fall in love with him along the moors, as they find a romantic place to play and dream. They are kindred souls. It is there, on that rock, that their hearts will be so intertwined that nothing can separate them. But Cathy's youthful vanity is not above these material things.

When their kindly father dies, young and bitter Hindly makes Heathcliff a stable boy, and events are set in motion which will haunt the moors for generations. They grow up, Hindley's (Hugh Williams) resentment of Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) still hanging over he and Cathy, his lowly position like an unreal nightmare compared to their sanctuary on the moor, where their youthful love began. She wants him to run away, but for the wrong reasons, and will not go with him and live in poverty, rich in love only. Her vanity longs for the fine parties and dresses, while her heart is disgusted with her for it. Merle Oberon is wonderful here, giving Cathy an ethereal loveliness, and enough depth that you understand her youthful vanity while at the same time wondering how she could be so foolish and shallow. The same could be said of Oliver, in one of his finest performances. His Heathcliff is tortured by Cathy's refusal to see their love for what it really is, and it shows.

When she gets caught up with Edgar (David Niven), who can give her everything she longs for, but doesn't need, her bitter words to their servant Ellen (Flora Robson) at how degrading it would be to marry Heathcliff, a dirty stable boy, are overheard by him. By the time Cathy realizes she was born to be with Heathcliff, and loves him, he has gone, to claim his fanciful birthright they once dreamed of on the moors. Robson gives a moving performance as she sees how foolish both are being, but cannot make then mature fast enough to avert the romantic suffering they are causing one another. Heathcliff will return with the wealth Cathy desired, but only to seek his revenge, as she has married Edgar. It is here that Olivier shines, the viewer almost with him in spirit, wanting him to rub their noses in it, as he becomes the master of Wuthering Heights. But then his pain becomes too much, and he loses his admiring audience for a time when he marries and destroys Edgar's lovely and adoring sister, Isabella (Geraldine Fitzgerald), out of spite. Once she realizes she could never be in Heathcliff's heart, her fate is set.

Oberon and Olivier are exquisite in the last portion of this film, a romantic longing for that rock on the moors hanging over every beautiful word uttered, and every haunted action taken. You can almost hear Cathy calling from the moors and smell the scent of heather on the wind, hoping the two lovers can somehow find a way to be together once again, their wild hearts beating as one. It is one of the most romantic films ever made. Greg Toland's beautiful photography is matched by Alfred Newman's lovely score and William Wyler's sensitive direction. They would be for naught, however, were it not for Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier, who are and will remain the only Heathcliff and Cathy for most of us, no mater how many times this is remade. It is a tale of romantic love too deep for young hearts to appreciate while it is happening. Great art is not always displayed on a canvas. Sometimes celluloid is used, and this is one of those times. A masterpiece.

Movie Review: Good Condition - Fast Shipping
Summary: 5 Stars

The movie was shipped quickly and was in good condition.
I'd purchase again from this seller.
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Summary of Wuthering Heights (1939) [VHS]

One of the most compelling tragic romances ever captured on film, Wuthering Heights is an exquisite tale of doomed love and miscalculated intentions. Though only half of Emily Bronte's classic tale of Heathcliff and Catherine was filmed by director William Wyler, it lacks for nothing.

The story begins when a Yorkshire gentleman farmer brings home a raggedy gypsy boy, Heathcliff, and raises him as his son. The boy grows to love his stepsister Catherine, with catastrophic results. Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon were perfectly cast as the mismatched lovers, with Olivier brooding and despairing, Oberon ethereal and enchanting. This won cinematographer Gregg Toland a much-deserved Oscar for his haunting and evocative depiction of mid-19th century English moors. (Quite a trick, as this was shot in California!) Though nominated for seven other Oscars, it won none of them, as it was released in 1939, one of the best years in Hollywood history and the same year as Gone with the Wind. Interestingly, the script was written by Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht, best known for their witty 1931 flick, The Front Page. --Rochelle O'Gorman

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