I enjoyed the book Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Brontë in 1847, and both movies, Wuthering Heights, directed in 1939 by William Wyler, and Los Abismos de Pasion, directed in 1954 by Luis Buñuel. It was my first time to read the book. It did take me a little while to get into the book; but, after I finally got into it, I really liked it and could not believe how evil two people could be. The book, in my opinion, made Heathcliff and Catherine both seem more evil towards each other than the movies did. Buñuel's movie comes closer to what Brontë depicted than did Wyler's movie.
The book went into more in depth with the schemes and plots that they hatched and carried out against each other. The book made them both look and seem so deserving of their actions towards each other. When Catherine flaunts herself in front of Heathcliff, she is showing him that she is with someone else. In the movie, one can tell that she is watching him with every move; and, as soon as he disappears out of her sight, she runs off to find him.
In the first movie the emotions by the actors were so overly dramatic it was almost fake. The characters in the book are also very dramatic. In the movie one just saw how much emotion they had together. In the book one can picture that, but it just does not have the same effect. Catherine, as played by Merle Oberon as an adult, was shown as the evil, manipulative person that she was, but she was far worse in the book. In the movie Catherine seemed to be a little bit more loving toward Heathcliff even though she still did horrible things. Heathcliff, as depicted by Laurence Olivier as a grown-up, had much more tact in the movie than was shown in the book and was not quite the heartless monster that Brontë depicted.
The second movie was my favorite out of both the movies. Even though it was in Spanish, I could read along easily with the subtitles; and, in knowing a little Spanish, I could pick up on what was going on. I think they had wonderful actors. I think this movie was more effective in presenting the evil characters as Brontë had depicted them. Catalina (Irasema Dilian) and Alejandro (Jorge Mistral) showed emotions in a more believable way.
I really enjoyed all three versions, and they all brought something new to the story of Wuthering Heights each time. They all had their different touches that made them each unique.