The story of unfortunate lovers Heathcliff and Cathy who, despite a deep affection for one another, are forced by circumstance and prejudice to live their apart. Heathcliff and Cathy first meet as children when her father brings the abandoned boy to live with them. When the old man dies several years later Cathy’s brother, now the master of the estate, turns Heathcliff out forcing him to live with the servants and working as a stable boy. The barrier of class comes between them and she eventually marries a rich neighbor, Mr. Edgar Linton, at which point Heathcliff disappears. He returns several years later, now a rich man but little can be done.
Note: Supposedly this adaptation of the classic Emily Bronte novel moves the setting to the mid-19th-century, around 1839 at the brink of the Victorian era. There seem to be some inaccuracies in the timeline, actually setting much of the action in the 1820s. Bronte’s original story places the action between the 1770s and 1801.
Starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven and William Wyler.