Sloper so dislikes Morris and so desperately wishes to exert control over Catherine, he threatens to disinherit his daughter if she marries him. Catherine can’t believe Morris’ intensions are anything but honorable and that his fervor isn’t born from love, so of course her father’s blunt assessment that there could be no other reason for Morris’ attentions hurts her deeply.ĭr. Sloper is suspicious of Morris’ intentions, believing him to be a grasping social climber and mercenary who seeks to take advantage of the vulnerable Catherine and become the eventual lord of her lucrative manor. Catherine strikes Morris’ fancy at an elegant party and instantly falls for him like a naïve schoolgirl. Sloper’s prejudiced eyes.especially not Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), a dapper dandy of questionable lineage. No one, though, is good enough for Catherine, at least not in Dr. Sloper’s widowed, flighty sister, Lavinia (Miriam Hopkins), a hopeless romantic whose sole mission seems to be getting Catherine married off to an appropriate suitor. The two live a sheltered existence in a lavish townhouse on New York City’s tony Washington Square along with Dr. Sloper resents Catherine because she indirectly caused his beloved wife’s death, and as a result, he quietly yet systematically crushes her self-esteem at every turn. Though he never says it outright, it's clear Dr. Some say silence is golden, but here it’s an insidious cancer that nearly sucks the life out of a privileged yet repressed woman who’s cruelly manipulated by the two men she loves most.Ĭatherine suffers from painful shyness and a lack of confidence that are fueled by her domineering and disdainful father who ceaselessly compares her to her far more beautiful, outgoing, and socially adept mother, who died giving birth to her. Austin Sloper (Ralph Richardson) is all but deafening. Not until the movie’s final moments does anyone raise their voice, but the internal shouting that emanates from the repressed soul of Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland) and her frosty, bitter, yet always decorous father Dr. Like a sheet of thin ice, they're so cold and brittle they can snap at a moment’s notice, splintering and shattering because of a cutting remark or perceived betrayal. The Heiress is an explosive drama built on dysfunctional relationships that seethe with underlying, unspoken tension. The Heiress, brilliantly adapted from both James’ novel Washington Square and a 1947 stage play modeled after it, is one of his finest films, and it only gets better with subsequent viewings.ĭon’t let its quiet presentation, languorous pacing, and stiff depiction of New York City society in 1850 fool you. Whether helming a topical domestic drama like The Best Years of Our Lives, a sprawling western like The Big Country, a lavish musical biopic like Funny Girl, or a bombastic Biblical epic like Ben-Hur, Wyler always favors interpersonal conflict over cinematic sweep and style, and his pictures remain all the better because of that perspective. ![]() Few authors explore the internal psyches of their tortured subjects in as much tedious detail as Henry James, and few directors possess the talent to depict such delicate yet complex nuances of character better than William Wyler. Capturing such internal strife and subtly conveying its devastating effects is challenging enough on paper, but even more daunting on film, where the slightest misstep can irrevocably alter the mood of an entire production. We’ve all felt it - some far more than others - and its crippling effects can be oh-so-difficult to overcome. The ache of loneliness and insecurity can be worse than any physical pain.
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