97. Wuthering Heights (1939)

Stars:  Laurence Olivier (Heathcliff), Merle Oberon (Catherine), David Niven (Edgar Linton), Flora Robson (Ellen Dean), Geraldine Fitzgerald (Isabella Linton)

Director:  William Wyler

Awards / Honors

• 1 Oscar Win - Best Cinematography (Black & White - Gone with the Wind won for Color)
• 7 Additional Oscar Nominations - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Laurence Olivier), Best Supporting Actress (Geraldine Fitzgerald), Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Art Direction, Best Orginal Score
• #73 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list (1998)
• #15 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions list (2002)
• 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".

Genre:  Romantic Drama

Running Time:  1 Hour, 43 Minutes

Format:  DVD (not yet available on Blu-ray -- see below)

Odyssey Rating:  3 Stars (John - 3 Stars, Beth - 3 Stars)

John's Take

If you are wondering why this is not a very long post, it is because, once again I staging a little protest in hopes that I can actually get Beth to create a post on a blog that was, in fact, her idea to start with.  I choose to do this now because: 

1. She liked this movie a little more than I did, so it makes sense she would have something to say about it.
2. Perhaps now that we are actually married, she will take a little time away from all of the other social networking sites she spends time on and actually contribute to “our” blog because I ask her too.  Ultimately, I do not hold out much hope, but one can always dream….

One thing, I will mention, however, was the difficulty that I had actually tracking a copy of this film down.  It wasn’t available on Netflix – it is listed on the site, but only with the “Save” option indicating that it isn’t currently available.  It wasn’t available at our local Blockbuster.  Best Buy didn’t have a copy of it either. Ultimately, I had to track down a non-regionalized copy on Amazon.com that was intended for the South Korean market (the packaging is a mix of English and Korean, and Korean is the sub-title option).  Not sure why it was so difficult to track down.  Usually that indicates some sort of “repackaging” deal, such as an “anniversary” or upcoming conversion to Blu-ray, is going to be announced soon.  However, since the next major anniversary for this film is still four years away (75th), and there is no mention on websites such as Blu-ray.com concerning a Blu-ray release, I am left sort of confused.

If anyone happens to know more about why this movie is currently “not available”, please leave a post and let me know.

Oh… and I give Wuthering Heights a rating of 3 Stars.

John

BETH'S TAKE:

I think I am a little late with "My Take" on this film...John posted his thoughts in August 2010...it's now January 2011...Sorry sweetie..better late than never though right?? LOL

John's right, I did like this movie alot. I wanted Heathcliff and Catherine to get together so badly. He truly loved her..and she loved him...but he was just never going to be good enough for her in her mind. She married Edgar for the wrong reasons...it was so "Gone With The Wind-ish" for me :). Edgar and Heathcliff deserved better than Catherine..but she have charm about her which drove them both crazy!

Oh and P.S. I wonder if Bill Cosby got his name "Heathcliff" (on the Cosby Show) from this movie...HMMM, not a very common name LOL