WUTHERING HEIGHTS **

A huge hit in its day, (the New York Film Critics named it the Best Film of 1939), and one of the most beloved of all screen romances, William Wyler's version of "Wuthering Heights" is everything a Grade A Hollywood picture should be but it's just not Bronte. This is the Yorkshire Moors California-style with a hand-picked cast of first-rate actors acting to the best of their abilities but they are not quite the characters Emily Bronte conjured up.

Laurence Olivier is a brooding, sexy Heathcliff, Merle Oberon a surprisingly good Cathy, David Niven is a reasonably dashing Edgar and Geraldine Fitzgerald a fine Isabella and, of course, it looks great, (Gregg Toland won his only Oscar for it). In fact, of its kind, it's almost perfect, (Ben Hecht and Charles McArthur did the adaptation), and perfectly entertaining and of all the versions of the book it's still the one to fall back on and yet it doesn't feel authentic. This is a "Wuthering Heights" for people who haven't read the book and don't want to; Samuel Goldwyn's "Wuthering Heights" rather than Emily Bronte's. Once you get your head around that, there is still a lot to enjoy.