Wuthering Hollywood/Bollywood

A couple of Wuthering Heights films are reviewed today:

First, this review of William Wyler's Wuthering Heights (1939) published on Dennis Grune's blog. He doesn't seem very thrilled by the film qualities:

Little of the complexity of the original, not to mention fierce feminism, survives in Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s literal-minded screenplay or in the staging, for all the brilliant play with mirrors that Wyler marshals in his elegant mise-en-scène to suggest various aspects and kinds of inwardness: the inwardness borne of selfconsciousness—not only the kind afflicting sensitive souls, but the deeper, more general kind that resulted from the objectification of humanity wrought by evolutionist study of the origin of the human species; the inwardness of the frustrated or vengeful mind obsessing on the past; the inwardness of interior battles waged between the opposing sides of human ambivalence; and the inwardness of family, where a boy and girl more or less raised as brother and sister must contend with the hint of incest that shadows their romantic journey together and, when each marries someone else, apart. (...)
Samuel Goldwyn produced the film only to give Merle Oberon, the most glamorous star under contract to him, the role of Catherine Earnshaw, whose heart the gypsy orphan, whom her compassionate father takes in to live with them, wins. Oberon, though strikingly lovely in her peculiar sort of way, is clueless in the part; (...)

Laurence Olivier plays Heathcliff, the sensitive “wild child” grown up bitter and frustrated—his humanity thwarted, as it were—from Hindley Earnshaw’s jealous mistreatment of him and, above all, from having his Cathy only in mind and spirit. (...) [I]n his hands Heathcliff becomes the “outcast” inside all men. Here is our built-in “other” tempting us to the flood of interior conflict. Heathcliff is, as Brontë meant for him to be, a Gothic male presence poised on the verge of a new formulation, the alienated and self-alienated man of the twentieth century-to-come. (...) (Read more)

From Hollywood to Bollywood, because if some weeks ago we published a review of Bollywood's take on Jane Eyre (Sangdil), now Jon Knapp has published on the Brontë List a review of Dil Diya Dard Liya (1966), a sort of Hindi Wuthering Heights. He has kindly given us permision to reproduce it here:

"Dil Diya Dard Liya" is a 1966 Indian film which is loosely based on Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. A very inexpensive DVD version is easily available over the internet. (...)

So starting with some simple basics: "Dil Diya Dard Liya" is a Hindi language Bollywood musical, that is filmed in color with English subtitles. Big star Dilip Kumar (who also played the Rochester role in "Sangdil") is cast in the "Heathcliff" role (Shankar), and beautiful Waheeda Rehman is "Cathy" (Rupa). Both are well cast, fine actors, and superstars of this cinema era... It is they who must hold this production together when other elements try to pull it apart by shear centripetal force. The setting is contemporary 1960's India, large palaces or manor houses, and beautiful and extensive ancient ruins serving as Emily's windswept moors. All the elements of Bollywood are contained within: Color, melodrama, action, comedy, song, and dance. And like the film version of WH with Lawrence Olivier, the story ends with the first generation of characters (only this time...happily!!!... remember, this is Bollywood).

As best as I can determine this film was only a semi-success in its own time and place (whose audience might very well not have had any inkling to compare it to Wuthering Heights). All the ratings I could find were mediocre, with the movie's music being rated somewhat more successfully. Box office earnings were not up to expectation either; it having a relatively expensive price tag for its production. (....)

As with the film "Sangdil" (1950's Hindi Jane Eyre), one has a continuous wonder and surprise as to how the screen writers can adapt Wuthering Heights, Emily's dark and gothic masterpiece, into an upscale Indian morality play with song, dance, and occasional comedy. The cultural transformation of Jane Eyre suffers far less than does Wuthering Heights because (just my biased opinion here) the principle characters of JE can be portrayed directly as they are...heroes in black and white, flawed at times, but morally redeemable. Yet with a Wuthering Heights adaptation (something I correctly predicted before viewing this Indian version) there could never be a presentable and acceptable direct retelling of the novel's deep psychological dissection of human nature. Like some of EB's critics of her time, critics of this film would have found it way too "coarse" and amoral...had it not been substantially altered from the original. Therefore, you will watch a "Cathy" who is forced to live at Thrushcross Grange, who goes so far as to only become engaged to Linton, but is never the self-manufactured and fickle victom found in EB's novel. Heathcliff becomes jaded and cruel, but it is never over-the-top or morally un-redeemable.

While I wholeheartedly recommend that any Bronte fan view "Sangdil", recommending "Dil Diya Dard Liya" is a more dicey proposition; some may greatly appreciate an adventure which leads them bewilderingly a-sea, and far from the moorland heather; others will undoubtedly want to throw popcorn at the screen... with pleasure, or with scorn (although certainly not with the same offense as one would do with the 1934 Jane Eyre).

Some fun notes and observations on this film version:
1. Don't let the first 2 minutes prior to the opening credits send you running from the room!(Cheesy special effects of a ship wreck... which make 1950's Japanese "Sci-Fi" look like Steven Spielberg.)
2. Don't let the plot and dialogue of the protagonists' childhood send you running from the room!(It only lasts 10 more minutes.)
3. Then take an attitude as if you are watching a 1930's Shirley Temple fantasy; ignore the obtrusively placed comedy subplots; fasten your safety-belt and enjoy the mental rollercoaster ride (especially if you are a Bronte buff).
4. If you can't willingly do the previous, then run from the room!
5. Make sure your popcorn bowl is full before the musical selection where "Cathy" is bullied into singing at the 1960's dance party at Thrushcross Grange (all with the appropriate young couples doing thetwist and swing in their tuxes, saris, and short 1960's party dresses)!
6. Have fun watching Earnshaw degenerate... even to the point where he comes down a long staircase into the crowded party room AND SHOOTS THE PRETTY DANCING GIRL ... DEAD... WITH A SHOTGUN !
7. Be alert for the occational and precious dramatic scenes which would do justice to the novel, or any film version of the original story.
8. Get ready for a HAPPY ENDING!
Welcome to Bollywood.

Categories: Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights