Sexual politics aside, I love how dark this movie is (I'm not familiar with the book.) Olivier is absolutely smoldering, and you can feel Heathcliff devolving into madness in the second half of the movie. Oberon's performance is a tad impetuous, although she isn't helped by the writing, but it comes together in the end through the force of Olivier's scowl.

I had to rewatch this movie after the disaster remake I saw this year. It shows its age, of course, but while this movie omits some things it stays true to the spirit of the source material creating the same dark and almost gothic atmosphere the book does. Olivier's performance is a stand out. One criticism I have is the movie fails to show Cathy's obsession with Heathcliff. You could forgive someone watching this for not realising that Cathy was obsessed with him as well until the end because the middle of the movie came across like she had moved on.