# "The Heiress", 1949



## Guest (Oct 7, 2017)

I just watched this film tonight and it had been many years since I'd seen it last. I know the book by Henry James ("*Washington Square*") very well. The film is based on that novel and it stars Olivia de Havilland (she's still alive and living in Paris at the ripe old age of 101!). Also Montgomery Clift as Morris Townsend and Ralph Richardson as Dr. Sloper, the father of Catherine Sloper. The score was composed by Aaron Copland and the film was directed by William Wyler. It was beautifully photographed by Leo Tover, whose work I'm not very familiar with.

The reason I write about this film is threefold; firstly, it's a fairly good adaptation of James's original novel and convincingly portrayed by the main actors. Secondly, the music is quite lovely and gives a poignancy to the film without having it descend into melodrama or bathos, which could quite easily have happened given its subject matter.

But thirdly, it is the direction of William Wyler. His cinematographer has etched images in black and white which tell of parental abuse, betrayal, cruelty, avarice and despair through subtle use of mise-en-scene. This is all the deft hand of Wyler; a consumate storyteller who was yet to make "Roman Holiday", "Friendly Persuasion" and "The Big Country". From lingering close-ups, chiarascuro lighting, the use of mirrors and deep focus, longer takes which allow the actors to develop the scenes and the drama every bit as skilfully as a set of dynamic markings in music, you can tell this film has been directed by a master. Judicious placement of actors and cameras mean that several things can take place in the one scene. It sounds obvious, but a less virtuosic director would not have achieved what Wyler has; a depth, yet economy of means, to tell his dark little story. You kept waiting for the cliches (well, there is just one) but they don't materialize - thank goodness. De Havilland gives a stunning performance as the unloved and awkward ingenue who turns into a cruel and lonely replica of her contemptuous father. The ending of the film, with the desperate knocking on the door of Catherine Sloper's house by her fortune-hunting suitor, with her turning away to climb the stairs, has got to be one of the great endings in cinema.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Before it was a film (but after it was a novel) "The Heiress" was a stage play. I saw a wonderful Broadway revival about 20 years ago in which Cherry Jones gave one of the greatest performances I've seen. She deservedly won the Tony, and it really launched her career.

It was revived more recently with Jessica Chastain, but that production (which I did not see) was not well received.


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## Guest (Oct 7, 2017)

jegreenwood said:


> Before it was a film (but after it was a novel) "The Heiress" was a stage play. I saw a wonderful Broadway revival about 20 years ago in which Cherry Jones gave one of the greatest performances I've seen. She deservedly won the Tony, and it really launched her career.
> 
> It was revived more recently with Jessica Chastain, but that production (which I did not see) was not well received.


Yes, I knew that it was a play. I think the book is really a novella too, as it is so short. I think it has been filmed a few times but for the reasons I outlined I think the Wyler is absolutely the best. Going right back to "Jezebel" that director really had the idea; most of his films have strong female characters! His total masterpiece, of course, is "The Best Years of Our Lives" - one of a handful of greatest films of all times. Powerful women in the frame - again. Think Dorothy McGuire (Friendly Persuasion), Carroll Baker and Jean Simmons (A Big Country), Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday), Myrna Loy (Best Years of Our Lives), Olivia de Havilland and Miriam Hopkins (The Heiress) Bette Davis (Jezebel), Merle Oberon (Wuthering Heights), Greer Garson (Mrs. Miniver). He was used to exploiting the relationships between powerful women and their men (fathers, lovers, husbands). Except in "Ben Hur"!!! That was a relationship between 2 powerful men.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

Music was by Aaron Copland -- he won an Academy Award for his score.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I've always loved this film. A great OP! :tiphat:


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## Guest (Oct 7, 2017)

Ingélou said:


> I've always loved this film. A great OP! :tiphat:


Film and film history is a passion of mine. As one retired English teacher to another, my thanks!


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