Wots wrong with Merle???
-
tamarenne — 11 years ago(January 12, 2015 07:41 AM)
Merle was lovely and perfect in Wuthering Heights. As for fashion, her clothes and hair were absolutely perfect early Victorian. Very few actresses could have worked the severe hair styles of that period but she manages it with aplomb. Her acting was wonderful if not in the league of Bette Davis or Vivien Leigh, but she was a fantastic actress nevertheless and deserves to be remembered.
By all accounts, Olivier did heavily push Vivien for the part, to the point that he actively sought Merle Oberon's dismissal. This did not sit well with Merle, who at that time was a bigger star than either Leigh or Olivier. I don't think this was because of any dislike for Merle or her acting, but because he wanted to keep Leigh close by. More to the point, Olivier was still married to Jill Esmond.
In any event, their mutual animosity did not show on screen, and Olivier gives one of his most brilliant performances ever in this movie. As for Merle, she keeps pace with Olivier in every scene, and lights up the screen with a luminous beauty that even Vivien Leigh would find hard to match. If you compare her wardrobe and makeup with say, Greer Garson in (one of my fave movies) Pride and Prejudice, made by the same studio only one year later you'll see the difference. Although I adore both movies and Greer Garson was a great actress, it's evident that Merle's clothing and makeup in Wuthering Heights is 1000 times more accurate than the fantastical late Victorian get-ups (which should have been Regency or even late Georgian) and max factor makeup worn by Greer Garson.