At Southbridge

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LXII, Issue 19, 11 March 1941, Page 5

At Southbridge

"WUTHERING HEIGHTS"

Lovely, titian-haired Merle Oberon has her most important and dramatic role to date in "Wuthering Heights," the great love story which stars her opposite two dapper leading men—Laurence Olivier and David Niven, which will be seen at Southbridge Talkies on Saturday. She is cast as Cathy, 'hot-tempered, devil-may-care Nineteenth Century lass who runs wild over the moors and crags of Yorkshire. Cathy's beauty and vivacity attracts the loves of two men—brooding^ and darksome Heathcliff, and wealthy and socially prominent Edgar Linton. In her youth Cathy turns to Heathcliff in spite of his boorish manners and strange ways—because their love is mingled with the mystery of the moors. But Cathy's love is not strong enough to stand the blows of disappointment. Heathcliff does not fulfil her childish dreams and conquer the world to lay at her feet. Instead, he deteriorates into a lowly stable boy, content to be near her and worship her.

A strange and unhappy climax separates the lovers. Heathcliff disappears and Cathy marries Edgar Linton. But after two years Heathcliff returns, determined on revenge to teach the woman he still loves the ways of pain. Among the many brilliant sets constructed for the picture is one called "Thrushcross Grange," a 19th Century manor house, and one of the largest ever constructed indoors, being eclipsed only by the £25,000 palace of the Kublai Khan built for "Marco Polo" and erected on the same stage. The elaborately brilliant ball given within this house was photographed in three rooms at the same time.