Wuthering heights 1939 - Torn with desire, tortured by hate!

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IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: William Wyler
Main Cast: Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, David Niven, Flora Robson, Donald Crisp, Geraldine Fitzgerald

"William Wyler's Wuthering Heights is one of the earliest screen adaptations of the classic Emily Brontë novel. Together with Gone With the Wind, Wuthering Heights represents the pinnacle of 1930s Hollywood romanticism. Laurence Olivier's contemptuous treatment of Merle Oberon in the film may have been partly heartfelt: He had wanted the great love of his life, Vivien Leigh, to play Cathy, but producer Samuel Goldwyn didn't see things that way, especially since Gone With the Wind had not yet established Leigh as a star of international magnitude. Though director William Wyler, cinematographer Gregg Toland, and art director James Basevi convincingly re-create the storm-tossed moors of Yorkshire, Wuthering Heights was filmed in California's Conejo Hills with extensive 'exterior' work within studio walls. The last image, of Heathcliffe and Cathy joyously walking hand in hand into the hereafter, is a bit of audience-pleasing idiocy which Wyler was dead set against: Neither he nor stars Olivier and Oberon participated in this scene (the actors were replaced by their stand-ins). Despite this artistic gaffe, Wuthering Heights is a well-nigh perfect example of studio-system moviemaking." - www.allmovie.com

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The Scarlet Pimpernel 1934 - Who was he? What was his strange power?

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025748/
IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: Harold Young
Main Cast: Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey, Nigel Bruce

"This film from director Harold Young is the second big-screen adaptation of Baroness Emmuska Orczy's 1905 novel The Scarlet Pimpernel and is among the screen's most enduring and frequently filmed action/adventure stories, but it is the 1934 version with Leslie Howard in the title role that stands out for most fully re-creating the setting of the French Revolution. Were it not for his role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind this would likely be the performance for which Howard is best remembered. He dominates the film, though not so much that there is not space for several of the supporting actors to shine, most notably Merle Oberon and Raymond Massey. Most of the credit for the film should be given to British producer Alexander Korda, who produced low-budget films with a look and feel that approached the best Hollywood efforts of the 1930s. Of particular note is the cinematography of Harold Rosson and the fast-paced editing of William Hornbeck." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-scarlet-pimpernel-v43093

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The private life of Henry VIII. 1933 - The movie that put British cinema on the map

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024473/
IMDB rating: 7,3

Director: Alexander Korda
Main Cast: Charles Laughton, Robert Donat, Merle Oberon, Wendy Barrie, Elsa Lanchester, Binnie Barnes

"Charles Laughton became an international star by chewing both mutton and scenes in his Oscar-winning turn as King Henry VIII. Alexander Korda's British super-production also put the British cinema on the map, which, until this film, received precious little respect in the international film community. The film, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, details the private life of the famous British monarch.
Laughton's Oscar-winning performance as Henry VIII rises above the stuffy limitations of the period piece to give us a portrait as rounded and exuberant as any on film. Laughton is well-supported by fine actresses as his wives, particularly Wendy Barry as the doomed Jane Seymour and Merle Oberon as the dim but delightful Anne Boleyn. Director Alexander Korda is the chief beneficiary of Laughton's larger-than-life performance, as his conservative helmsmanship fails to provide the film with a distinctly personal stamp. However, the sensual gusto in the scenes of Henry's indulgences is enthusiastically presented, and Korda deserves credit for giving us a very human portrait of this controversial figure. The film also benefits from some insidious dialogue by Arthur Wimperis (based on the story by Lajos Biro) that punctures the pomp of the English costume drama with tongue-in-cheek humor. Particularly entertaining are the exchanges between Henry and his prospective and coquettish wives (and mistresses), while some of the minor characters deliver wickedly insightful social criticism directed more at the state of the world's economy in 1933 than at the film's period." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-private-life-of-henry-viii-v39313

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