Wuthering Heights

Movie · 1939

A classic Hollywood gothic romance adapted from Emily Bronte's novel, sanitized considerably by the era's Hays Code: violence is restrained, romance is passionate but chaste, and the darkest elements of the source material are absent. The film's heaviest ongoing themes are emotional cruelty, obsessive love, and class-based abuse.

Harm to childrenHarm to animalsGraphic violence & goreAbuse & manipulationSubstance abuseRacial & cultural stereotypes

If you’d rather skip

Harm to childrenearly in the filmMild

Young Heathcliff is struck with a rock and treated cruelly by Hindley; establishes the cycle of abuse that drives the plot.

Harm to animalsthe Linton estate party sceneMild

Guard dogs attack Cathy and Heathcliff while they trespass; Cathy suffers a leg bite severe enough to keep her at the Linton home for months.

Substance abuseHindley's time as master of Wuthering HeightsMild

Hindley's alcoholism is shown progressing across the middle and later portions of the film; Heathcliff is seen encouraging it as part of his revenge.

3 more moments are in the full report. See all of them, checked against your own settings, in Little Later.