Favorite Story- Wuthering Heights

Favorite Story was KFI Los Angeles’ answer between 1946 and 1949 to the BBC’s Classic Serial: a shorter, more cuddly version, it’s true, but enjoyable nonetheless.  I decided to kick off with an episode from 1948, their version of Wuthering Heights.  I was curious to see how they would distil this quite rambling Victorian dark romance into half an hour.  Certainly it seems clear that they had the 1939 film version in mind (naturally enough, but that one gets my goat because it only tells half the story).  I was curious to hear this version for the reason of pure enjoyment, since I have had a soft spot for Wuthering Heights since I was 14, and because I wanted to see how Americans of 1948 depicted a British classic. 

Interestingly, William Conrad as Heathcliff sounds a lot more like a tough cowpoke than a Liverpudlian ruffian or a RADA graduate.  Nevertheless, I found him a convincing Heathcliff, despite his sounding at odds with my favorite Heathcliffs (Ralph Fiennes and Tom Hardy, amongst them).  Catherine was also quite believable, given that the acting style of radio during the Golden Age was quite given to spoiled, bossy, stuck-up female roles (though both Catherine and Heathcliff maintain a pretty neutral mid-Atlantic accent).  Edgar Linton, as can be imagined, though, has a pretty poncy English accent at that.

As I said, it’s quite a challenge to dissolve hundreds of pages of overlapping layers of narrative into half an hour, but Favorite Story have succeeded by bringing to life key scenes:  Cathy on the moors with Heathcliff, Nelly scolding Cathy, Cathy and Heathcliff watching the Lintons’ party from outside and Cathy being bitten by a dog, Cathy returning to the Heights and embarrassing Heathcliff, Heathcliff hearing her say it would degrade her to marry him, his departure and return, his seduction of Isabella, the fight between Edgar and Heathcliff, and Cathy’s dying speech before Heathcliff, at her burial, cries, “I pray one prayer—I repeat it until my tongue stiffens.  Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living . . .!”

The adaptation makes an interesting summary by having the first scene Cathy telling Nelly that she’s had a dream in which she is dead and lying under the shadow of Gimmerton Kirk.  The scene on the moors is notable for what liberties it takes with Heathcliff’s background and his volubility over telling Cathy that he loves her.  “Tell me you love me with your lips,” says Cathy.  “Tell me with your lips, but not with your words.” Steamy stuff for radio!  

The most dated aspect is the music, which hits all the dramatic highlights with the subtly of a hammer, and the lack of discernible sound effects, which don’t give much verisimilitude.  Overall, though, I found it quite enjoyable and would happily listen to others in the series.