Wots wrong with Merle???
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ClassicMovieholic — 12 years ago(November 24, 2013 03:50 PM)
MGM's Pride and Prejudice (totally unfaithful version, don't watch it)
Totally different from what one expects from a Jane Austen, but brilliant in its own wayabsolutely
do
watch it!
The "Gone With The Wind" look was in at the time (had been infiltrating the fashion world even before that movie's release) which may have had something to do with this film's appearing to be set around the time the novel was published, rather than the late eighteenth century when the Cathy and Heathcliff part of the narrative unfolds. Merle Oberon actually looked ravishing in late eighteenth century costumes, as evidenced by
The Scarlet Pimpernel
(1934), in which she looked much more similar to how I envisioned Catherine than in
Wuthering Heights
. All the same, I think Merle looked lovely and did a wonderful job in this. I have read serious criticisms, however, which regard it as one of her most iconic though not one of her best performances.
Olivier lobbied for Leigh to play Cathy, and she was offered the part of Isabella Linton. She turned it down and went on to play Scarlett O'Hara. Obviously a good career move, and perhaps for the best. Vivien and Merle's competing screen presences would have been distracting, and Geraldine Fitzgerald was fantastic in the supporting role. Geraldine was a very accomplished actress, and Isabella is a much more interesting character than she is given credit for (My favorite in the novel, actually).
Vivien would have been wonderful, and she looked the part, but Merle Oberon was one of the best actresses of her generation. Plus, her dark beauty (she was probably of British/Eurasian/Ceylonese/Maori origin) didn't exactly disqualify her in the looks department from playing Emily Bronte's orientalist fantasy of a gothic heroine. -
coolbluegreen — 12 years ago(November 24, 2013 05:42 PM)
Well, if you want to, watch The MGM version of Pride and Prejudice, but I don't think it's good.
Why do you think Vivian Leigh LOOKED the part of Cathy? Cathy's dark eyes are mentioned many times. Vivien Leigh had blue eyes. She was a great actor, but she did not look like Cathy Merle Oberon did.
As for acting talent BOTH were talented. I think Vivien Leigh was more talented, but both were fantastic. It gets a little silly, at that level, to start comparing you can, of course, but it's subjective. Both are beautiful. Both are talented. -
ClassicMovieholic — 12 years ago(November 24, 2013 06:07 PM)
Cathy's dark eyes are mentioned many times. Vivien Leigh had blue eyes
And "Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful," but would you say that Leigh was wrong for the role? I believe the technicolor was also doctored to make here eyes appear greener, but black and white is a magical medium. It can make a bronze dress appear shimmering red (
Jezebel
), and high contrast black and white cinematography can make pale eyes look dark.
I didn't mean to imply that Vivien Leigh looked the part any more than Merle Oberon, nor did I open up the comparison. You're right, it is silly to compare two of the greatest actresses (and beauties) in the greatest era of film acting. But people have and
will
compare, as the theme of this thread illustrates.
I was thinking of a passage in which Mr. Lockwood is observing Catherine's Portrait and comments on a haughty, prideful flare about the nostrils. I have thought that Vivien has this particular flare of the nostrils, which was exhibited perhaps most famously in
Gone With The Wind
, and makes her believable in the part of the not-beautiful Scarlett because this expression captures the spirit of the character so well.
Actually, I do
not
wish Vivien had been cast instead of Merle, but it is an interesting exercise nonetheless to consider the what-ifs. -
ClassicMovieholic — 12 years ago(November 24, 2013 07:00 PM)
Sacrilege that it is, I do actually sometimes wonder how other actresses who were considered might have done in the role. I don't think that anybody else would have brought quite the same iconic quality to Scarlett. But I think some of the others might have been good in some respectsnot
as
good, mind you, but adequate. -
Nflorin19 — 19 years ago(October 14, 2006 02:38 PM)
I am hopeless. Every time I watch the movie I want Heathcliff to wait a minute to hear the end of Cathy's famous rant about finding him common and then professing her love. Damn - couldn't the housekeeper give Heathcliff the heads up? Couldn't he take the time to find an umbrella? That scene is so incredible - so heart wrenching. And - when he goes to her death bed - there is nothing likie it ever in movie history!
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isyfiles — 20 years ago(June 11, 2005 06:18 PM)
I loved Merle in this film.I loved the scene were she is talking about her looking brilliant and I love it when she's at the dance and she pretends she doesn't notice Heathcliff and the part were she went to Heathcliff's house to ask him if it's true that he's going to marry Isabella.I love the entire movie.Merle is brilliant!!!
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ndmur25 — 20 years ago(August 10, 2005 03:59 PM)
Oberon responded to Oliviereveryone did. He was a master craftsman; the greatest actor of his timeperhaps of all time. Merle Oberon looked the part, had enough ability to follow the leader and was a perfect Catherine. Wuthering Heights, the film, while not all of the Bronte novel, captures the essence and is complete in itself. Why argue with perfection? Revel is the ability to partake.
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peterquince — 20 years ago(December 02, 2005 06:18 AM)
I don't see what the fuss was with Oberon. She's funny-looking and her acting is very forced. Vivien Leigh would have been a beauty in the role. Such a better actress, and since she was married to Olivier, I'm sure the two would have had better chemistry. What bothers me most about this film is how we're expected to believe the two are in love. There are hardly any sparks between them, and the love story is lacking (due to the omission of many chapters of the novel). This might have been a monument in filmmaking back in 1939, but it just doesn't hold up well today, in my opinion. I think this film deserves (yet another) remake.
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slywy — 20 years ago(January 07, 2006 11:58 AM)
I don't think Oberon was bad, but the lack of chemistry did affect the movie. Also, her acting is a bit forced in parts. In the scene mentioned, you can count the beats with her eyes sliding; it lacks a certain subtlety that's pretty hard to capture. In the death scene, she tries just a little too hard. Still, it's a great movie for a long, cold evening.
http://www.slywy.com/ -
basford — 20 years ago(January 09, 2006 04:26 AM)
It is true, she was very good in it. She was exactly the picture i had of her in the book. However, Olivier did hate her because he wanted his girlfriend Vivien Leigh to play Cathy. she did have a slight attitude about her but she never had anything against Laurence Olivier. But she did when he was snotty to on the set of Wuthering Heights. He was like this with evryone though
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stupat — 20 years ago(January 20, 2006 08:36 PM)
The death scene with Merle Oberon in Olivier's arms, looking out over the yorkshire moors, is one of the saddest
of any picture I've seen, but even so, Merle Oberon seemed a bit stilted
in her acting. I still loved the film tho.