Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a brilliant novel, even though I have never much explored its meaning, which I perhaps wouldn’t like. The 1970 British cinematic version of it, directed by Robert Fuest, is not very faithful to the book and thus doesn’t yield any real meaning. It’s just a romantic period piece whose Heathcliff (Timothy Dalton) is not the vengeful moral monster of the novel but a pretty enigmatic outsider. However, to be sure, he is not a good man and yet at the end the film glorifies him. A mistake.

Still, I don’t regret seeing Heights. It has some lovely actresses and is attractive-looking. Anna Calder-Marshall, a frequent TV actress, is wholly admirable as Cathy Earnshaw. Judy Cornwell is beautifully persuasive as a maid named Nellie. Certain elements in the film make it plainly more interesting than successful.