''Wuthering Heights'' is a

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

Mexican film directed by

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and ...

. Its original Spanish title is ''Abismos de pasión'' ("Abysses of Passion"). In 1931, Buñuel and Pierre Unik wrote a screenplay based on the 1847

Emily Brontë Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly ; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English writer best known for her 1847 novel, ''Wuthering Heights''. She also co-authored a book of poetry with her sisters Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte and Anne Bront� ...

novel ''

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is the only novel by the English author Emily Brontë, initially published in 1847 under her pen name "Ellis Bell". It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the ...

'', but plans to produce the film fell through. Buñuel's producer, Oscar Dancigers, brought the idea back in the 1950s and was able to secure funding. The 1954 film was produced by Dancigers and

Abelardo L. Rodríguez Abelardo Rodríguez Luján, commonly known as Abelardo L. Rodríguez (; 12 May 1889 – 13 February 1967) was a Mexican military officer, businessman and politician who served as Substitute President of Mexico from 1932 to 1934. He completed th ...

. It stars

Irasema Dilián Irasema Dilián (born Eva Irasema Warschalowska; May 27, 1924 – April 16, 1996) was an actress. Born in Brazil to Polish parents, she began her film career in Italy, and appeared in Italian, Spanish and Mexican films. Biography Irasema Dili ...

and

Jorge Mistral Modesto Llosas Rosell (24 November 1920 – 20 April 1972), known professionally as Jorge Mistral, was a Spanish film actor. During the 1940s, he became a star in films produced by CIFESA. In the 1950s, he lived and worked in Mexico and appeare ...

as the

Cathy ''Cathy'' is an American gag-a-day comic strip, drawn by Cathy Guisewite from 1976 until 2010. The comic follows Cathy, a woman who struggles through the "four basic guilt groups" of life: food, love, family, and work. The strip gently pokes fu ...

and Heathcliff characters.

Plot summary

Gone several years, the brooding Alejandro returns to the hacienda of his foster sister, Catalina, whom he loves, to find her married to the wealthy and effete Eduardo. Alejandro hates Eduardo and Catalina's brother Ricardo; now wealthy, and with a lien on the drunken Ricardo's ranch. He longs for Catalina to run away with him. Although she loves him, her decision is complicated by her love of Eduardo, and is pregnant with his child. She wants Alejandro to stay nearby, a soul mate, but he, ruled by instinct and passion, stays only to hurt her. He woos Isabel, Eduardo's impressionable young sister. The passions of impossible love and corrosive hate play out against Mexico's barren high chaparral.

Cast

as Catalina *

as Alejandro *

Lilia Prado Leticia Lilia Amezcua Prado (30 March 1928 – 22 May 2006), known as Lilia Prado, was a Mexican actress and dancer. Noted for her beauty and on-screen sensuality, she was a famous star and sex symbol of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Prado b ...

as Isabel *

Ernesto Alonso Ernesto Alonso (February 28, 1917 – August 7, 2007) was a Mexican producer, director, cinematographer and actor. He was nicknamed "''El Señor Telenovela''" ("Mr. Soap Opera") because most of his work centered on telenovelas known around the wo ...

as Eduardo *

Francisco Reiguera Francisco Reiguera (November 9, 1899 – March 15, 1969) was a Spanish actor who is best known for playing the title role in Orson Welles’ unfinished film version of ''Don Quixote''. He also appeared in the films ''Simon of the Desert'' (19 ...

as José *

Hortensia Santoveña Hortensia Santoveña (17 October 1912 – 11 July 1986) was a Mexican actress best known for her work in the films Eugenia Grandet (1953), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) and Talpa (1956). She was nominated for an Ariel Award for Best Support ...

as María *

Jaime González Quiñones Jaime is a common Spanish and Portuguese male given name for Jacob (name), James (name), Jamie, or Jacques. In Occitania Jacobus became ''Jacome'' and later ''Jacme''. In east Spain, ''Jacme'' became ''Jaime'', in Aragon it became ''Chaime'', and i ...

as Jorge *

Luis Aceves Castañeda Luis Aceves Castañeda (1913–1973) was a Mexican film actor.Paietta, p. 141. Selected filmography * '' Juan Charrasqueado'' (1948) * '' Philip of Jesus'' (1949) * '' Red Rain'' (1950) * '' Maria Islands'' (1951) * ''A Place Near Heaven'' (19 ...

as Ricardo

Reception

On the

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, 80% of critic's reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. In 1983,

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

film critic

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...

called it "an almost magical example of how an artist of genius can take someone else's classic work and shape it to fit his own temperament without really violating it.". In 2002,

Slant Slant can refer to: Bias *Bias or other non- objectivity in journalism, politics, academia or other fields Technical * Slant range, in telecommunications, the line-of-sight distance between two points which are not at the same level * Slant ...

writer Ed Gonzalez called it better than William Wyler's critically acclaimed 1939 adaption, saying "Unlike William Wyler’s inferior 1939 film adaptation, Luis Buñuel’s ''Abismos de Pasión'' is more than a literate extrapolation of Emily Bronte’s gothic masterpiece Wuthering Heights,". In 1988,

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. The ''Reader'' has been ...

critic

Jonathan Rosenbaum Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for '' The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has contributed to ...

gave a mixed review, stating that it "discards the original novel’s framing strategy of telling the story from the viewpoint of two outsiders", which he calls a "regrettable elision", though he also says that "Buñuel’s low-budget

melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...

has a certain gothic ferocity that’s missing in the other versions".

References

External links

* 1954 films 1954 romantic drama films 1950s Mexican films 1950s Spanish-language films Films based on Wuthering Heights Films directed by Luis Buñuel Mexican black-and-white films Mexican romantic drama films Spanish-language romantic drama films {{1950s-drama-film-stub