After watching both the films based off the 1847 novel of Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontė, I can say with certainty that if I had to the choice to watch either one of them again I would pick Los Abismos de Pasion, which is directed by Luis Buńuel, despite the use of subtitles throughout the whole movie. This 1954 version kept my attention a great deal more than the 1939 version, and I think that it also did a very good job of staying in sync with the story line written by the author.
The actors who played Catalina and Alejandro, Jorge Mistral and Irasema Dilian, were very steamy together and had good on-screen chemistry; they definitely made the love hate relationship between Catalina and Alejandro jump off the screen and make the audience sit up and pay attention. The costumes were very original to the time and setting of the film and also did a good job of contributing to the overall perception of the characters, especially the love. The tone of the film was very heavy with words and feeling not spoken out loud between the characters. I liked that with this film they made sure to go through the storyline of the entire book and hit all of the high points that emphasize Catalina and Alejandro rocky and back-and-forth relationship that is the main focus of the book/novel.
The editing of the scenes I felt was more than appropriate for the kind of film the director was trying to make and show to fans of the novel Wuthering Heights; however, while I do believe that all of the scenes fit together and flowed very well I think that the overall movie could have been shortened in length. And what I mean by shortened in length is that they could have shown more scenes by making others shorter.
Overall I would watch Los Abismos de Pasion again, I feel that it was a soap opera before its time. The movie was full of forbidden feelings and passions, drama with a love triangle and even a plus one to the triangle making it is a square. Los Abismos de Pasion is a very good rendition of Wuthering Heights, and I would recommend it to someone who I knew had read the book.