The Heiress (1949)

The Heiress (1949)

In director William Wyler's great romantic drama - a bleak tale of crushed, heartbroken expectations and incisively-harsh retribution. The theme was the age-old conflict between love and money (represented by social class).

It featured an icy musical score from Aaron Copland. Almost the entire historical melodrama took place on set in the austere Washington Square Victorian house (in New York City's Greenwich Village), reflecting the film's roots on the stage. The story was set in mid-19th century New York City (1850s). The story was "suggested" by Henry James' 1880 novella Washington Square, originally published as a "tragicomedy" serial, and by the 1946 play by Ruth and Augustus Goetz. It was remade as a TV movie in 1961, and also as Washington Square (1997) by director Agnieszka Holland, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh.

The highly-praised film, although not a box-office success, was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Ralph Richardson), and Best B/W Cinematography, and won four Oscars: Best Actress (Olivia de Havilland, with her second Best Actress Oscar), Best B/W Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Dramatic Score, and Best B/W Costume Design.

The title character, the 'heiress' - was a mid-20s, plain, repressed, shy, gawky and virginal Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland). She was the only child and daughter of a wealthy, arrogant, imperiously abusive, respectable and domineering patriarchal physician Dr. Austin Sloper (Ralph Richardson), a widower who idealized his dead wife. He had retained pain, subdued hatred and bitterness toward Catherine - presumably because during her birth, his wife had died. Starved for attention, Catherine lived in the grand house with her father and his widowed sister Aunt Lavinia (Miriam Hopkins), a loving and supportive individual. Catherine had become a spinster after her young, first love toward a handsome, but penniless, mysterious suitor and mercenary, scheming fortune hunter Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift) had been thwarted by her stern, tyrannically-selfish father. She stood up against her father for the first time and planned to elope (although much of her dowry-inheritance was threatened to be taken away), but then she was pitifully jilted by the spooked Townsend who mysteriously disappeared.

Over many years after her tyrannical father died and she had inherited her father's entire fortune, her anger was suppressed and simmering. It surfaced when insincere, ill-fated scoundrel Townsend returned and again asked for Catherine's hand in marriage. He excused his earlier flight, explaining that he left because he didn't want to cause Catherine to become disinherited. With rational, cold, controlled rage, she turned the tables on him in the final, chilling scene (set on a staircase behind her front door).

• the title screens were displayed over embroidered samplers, introducing the setting "A Hundred Years Ago..." (1849) in New York's Washington Square (in Manhattan's neighborhood of Greenwich Village); the square had cobblestone streets and rows of homes surrounding a rectangular park area
• the three main characters were introduced in the opening sequence - the delivery of a package to a lavishly-furnished three-story townhome (# 16) on the square:
  • Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland), a mid-20s, plain, repressed, shy, virginal and gawky 'heiress' daughter
  • Dr. Austin Sloper (Ralph Richardson), a wealthy, arrogant, imperiously abusive, and domineering, widowed, patriarchal physician
  • Lavinia Penniman (Miriam Hopkins), Dr. Sloper's flighty widowed sister still in mourning over the death of her Reverend husband; Catherine's Aunt

• although she preferred her hobby of embroidery at her giant loom in the main living room, and was not adept or comfortable at social gatherings, Catherine was pressured to attend the evening's engagement party; at the event, Dr. Sloper commented to his other sister, Elizabeth Almond (Selena Royle), that Catherine was a homely and plain "unmarriageable" daughter who lacked "social adeptness" and self-esteem - she was essentially a wallflower; the intolerant Sloper bemoaned the fact that she was extremely withdrawn and isolated: ("An entirely mediocre and defenseless creature with not a shred of poise"), while also romanticizing his wife out of proportion: ("You've idealized that poor dead woman beyond all recognition")

• however, at the party, Catherine met the handsome, dashing and charming bon vivant Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift) who had just returned from Europe; they danced twice together to a waltz; afterwards sitting in a gazebo together, he told her that he had decided to remain in New York - undoubtedly on account of her; she was no doubt flattered and impressed by him
• Catherine was awakened to love by the seductive, skillfully manipulative, and ardent attention of young scheming fortune hunter Morris Townsend - a penniless, mysterious and very forward mercenary suitor
• later, as Morris kept visiting Catherine - who was absent three times, Aunt Lavinia was excited about Catherine's prospects: "He has come a-courting"; he had sent her flowers, and when he finally met up with Catherine at her house, he charmed her by playing on Mrs. Sloper's spinet in the parlor, and singing (in French) "Plaisir D'Amour," (The Joys of Love), a late-18th century song; he courted and exploited the desperate, love-starved needs of the sheltered, awkward Catherine; Morris appealed to her own insecurities when he revealed: "Miss Sloper, I have fallen in love with you"

• a few days later, Morris was invited to dine with the Slopers, when he divulged that he was unemployed, not engaged in studies, and was "merely idling" in Paris, where he had used up his small inheritance; he admitted that he had few aspirations, and was "fit for very little"; he would remain in New York, where he was living with his widowed sister Mrs. Elizabeth Montgomery (Betty Linley), while tutoring his five nieces and nephews
• the shrewd Dr. Sloper was immediately suspicious of the unworthy fortune hunter Townsend, and deduced that his interest in Catherine was entirely mercenary (due to her large inheritance) because of his lack of employment; he told Lavinia:
  • "Wouldn't the position of a husband to a defenseless young girl with a large fortune suit him to perfection?...Suspicion? It's a diagnosis, my dear"
• after dinner, alone and in the drawing room, Morris told Catherine:
  • "You could do anything for one whom you love. My dearest girl, you must believe how much I care for you. You're everything I've ever yearned for in a woman... (He kissed her and then proposed) Oh, Catherine, will you marry me?"
• she accepted his offer of matrimony without hesitation; he gleefully told her: "You make me very happy"; when asked if she loved him, she responded favorably ("I love you"), and they kissed again; he promised: "I will cherish you forever," and she buried her head in his shoulder - overwhelmed; but he remained worried about her father's feelings: ("It's from the fact of your having money that our difficulties may come"), but for the moment, he had seductively persuaded her to try and sway her father's prejudiced suspicions against him as a "mercenary"; she was urged to promise to not change her mind, no matter what her father said: "If your father's against me, you will be faithful no matter what comes"
• later that evening when her father arrived home, Catherine blurted out: "I am engaged to be married"; his reaction was one of stunned silence at first: ("You do right to tell me....You have gone fast"); however, he agreed to meet Morris the following morning at 11:00 when he was planning to ask for her hand in marriage; he pledged: "I shall be as fair and honest with him as he is with you"
• in the early morning of the next day, Dr. Sloper met with Morris' sister Elizabeth, and learned that Morris was not financially secure, productive and helpful to her - a widow with children; he had frittered away a small inheritance in Europe; he continued to suspect that Morris did not truly love Catherine and that his homely, easily embarrassed and very shy daughter had been duped; Dr. Sloper knew that Catherine was an "immensely rich" heiress, currently inheriting 10,000ドル a year after her mother's death, and potentially inheriting another 20,000ドル a year after her father's death; he also worried about Morris' past wasteful and profligate spending, and how he would end up being only self-interested, as he had been in Europe: ("He gratified his every wish...Tell me she is not a victim of his selfishness")
• Dr. Sloper made his mind up -- he planned to forbid the marriage, and he informed his two sisters, Lavinia and Elizabeth Almond (Selena Royle) of his decision: "He's worthless...The man's a fortune hunter. All he's interested in is her money," although he didn't plan to tell Catherine outright; Catherine begged her father to praise her a little: ("It will not be immodest in you to praise me a little") before she fled upstairs when Morris arrived at 11:00 am; Lavinia cautioned that Catherine was truly in love: "You will kill her if you deny her this marriage"

• during his conversation with Townsend about the hasty marriage, Dr. Sloper hinted at his determination to halt their plans, due to Townsend's apparent "weakness" as a penniless "mercenary" without a profession: ("A man who offers nothing in return?"); he charged that Townsend would "squander her money," the same way he had spent all of his own money; Catherine, who was awaiting word, heard the end of their quarreling from the nearby stairway, and ran down the stairs in an attempt to intervene
• Dr. Sloper told Catherine of his decision - that he disapproved of her marriage due to Morris' character: "He's a selfish idler" who did not truly love her; Catherine attempted to defend Morris and steadfastly insisted: "I love him. I have promised to marry him, to stay by him no matter what comes"; he turned toward Morris to denounce him - "You are beneath contempt"; she repeated her vow: "I think we shall marry quite soon"; her father turned away: "Then it is no further concern of mine"
• the couple realized that they were unable to marry without her father's approval, and agreed that the nuptials would be postponed for six months (during which time Catherine would travel to Europe with her father, to hopefully forget); at the dock, Morris appeared and was granted a few moments onboard to wish Catherine a bon voyage, with a small gift - a hand-warmer; however, the two returned early when Dr. Sloper realized Catherine hadn't given up on loving Morris - she had "not yielded one inch" - and the trip no longer had to be prolonged
• once they arrived home, Dr. Sloper noticed that Townsend had frequently visited (or trespassed) into the Sloper household (to visit with Lavinia) to drink the Sloper brandy and smoke cigars
• exasperated with his stubborn daughter, Dr. Sloper unmercifully threatened to disinherit her; he angrily, cruelly and disdainfully insulted her for her inferior nature and for her inability to "learn anything"; he coldly claimed that she was dull and unattractive, and that her sole attraction to Morris was her inheritance money: ("Your money... you have nothing else"), and that her only real talent was her neat embroidery:
  • "Catherine, I've tried for months not to be unkind, but now it's time for you to realize the truth....I've known you all my life, and I've yet to see you learn anything. With one exception, my dear. You embroider neatly."

• as a result of her father's derogatory treatment, with Lavinia's help that same evening, Morris privately spoke to Catherine and proposed a plan to elope and marry her the following evening; however, Catherine convinced him to not delay even another day, and he agreed to return at 12:30 am (in just a few hours) and pick her up; then Catherine refused Morris' request to write to her father; she revealed her father's threat of disinheritance (worth 20,000ドル/year), and dashed all hopes of ever inheriting her father's money:
  • "I will not write him....He won't forgive us. I know it. I know it now. I have good reason to....My father doesn't like me...In this one thing, I know I am right...I understood it tonight for the first time in my life...We must never ask him for anything or depend upon him for anything. We must be very happy and expect nothing from him, ever"
• Morris was determined to change her father's mind: ("He's bound to come round"), but Catherine was insistent: ("No, Morris, he will not. But even if he would, I would not"); off-screen, Morris was stunned by her admission; he realized that there was no hope of guaranteeing her full inheritance from her father
• on the night of the couple's elopement plans, Catherine waited at the front drawing room at the window; Lavinia was shocked to find her, learn of her hurried plans, and that she was completely rejecting her father (and disinheriting herself); her controlling father would be disgraced over her impulsive decision to leave without a chaperone and possibly spend the night unwed before being married; Lavinia diplomatically realized that the 'unclever' Catherine had revealed too much and too soon to Morris about a reduced inheritance: "Morris would not want to be the cause of your losing your natural inheritance. He could not see you impoverished"
• in an agonizing scene, Catherine finally realized that she had been jilted; Townsend had vanished after learning from her that her father wouldn't change his mind; however, she cried out - crushed and heartbroken, and also manipulated and fooled:
  • "He must come. He must take me away. He must love me. He must!...Morris will love me, for all those who didn't!"

• she sobbed as the morning dawned, and lugged her heavy suitcases back up the stairs to her room
• having become ill after returning from Europe, Dr. Sloper self-diagnosed himself as having congestive heart failure; a week later, Catherine hadn't heard anything from Morris, who was in California according to Mrs. Montgomery; Catherine's father surmised that her engagement was off, and he said he "admired" and was "deeply proud" of her for it; and then he learned that she had been deserted; Catherine had one final brutal and bitter argument with her despising, logical, unloving and formidable dying father, when he proposed having her do away with the "scoundrel" Morris for ever, who had never loved her and would have ruined her life: ("Catherine, promise me you are done with him"), she answered: "I won't promise"; Dr. Sloper reluctantly proceeded to alter his will, but couldn't go through with it: ("I don't want to disinherit my only child"); Catherine had turned cynical, hardened and cold about her life and future, and seemed to wish for her father's imminent death; shortly later, she refused to come to her father's deathbed
• five years later, Catherine had matured into a more lovely, attractive, self-possessed, strong-willed woman and she had come into her inheritance; her anger had been suppressed and simmered, but then resurfaced when insincere Townsend was reported back in town for a week; she knew that she had been deserted and betrayed by the sweet-tongued charmer, but allowed him to explain himself and his motives by allowing him entry into her house; he had accompanied Lavinia home and was poised at her front door, where she at first refused to see him, but then relented
• Morris told her, unbelievably, that he had left her for her own best interest, in order to keep her from losing her inheritance; Catherine told him that her father had only threatened about her inheritance as a test; she also told Morris that she had forgiven him a long time ago, but remained aloof, even when the beguiling Morris boldly reminded her that they were free to love again and that he needed her love - with a second marriage proposal; she encouraged Townsend to elope with her immediately that evening - as they had planned many years earlier; Morris accepted her proposal for a 9:00 pm getaway, and he promised: "You'll have no regrets"
• after Morris departed with plans to return shortly, Catherine told Aunt Lavinia her real intentions - to seek ultimate revenge; her plot was to avenge and cruelly reject Morris so that he would never return and lie to her again; Catherine has no intention of marrying Morris:
  • "He came back with the same lies, the same silly phrases...He has grown greedier with the years. The first time, he only wanted my money. Now he wants my love, too. Well, he came to the wrong house, and he came twice. I shall see that he never comes a third time....Yes, I can be very cruel. I have been taught by masters."
• in the devastating conclusion, on the night of a second promised marriage proposal in a stunning climactic scene of vengeance, she closed all the curtains and sat calmly in her parlor finishing her embroidery while listening to his arrival, walking up to the locked front door and ringing the bell; Catherine ordered the maid Maria (pronounced "Mariah") (Vanessa Brown) to "bolt the door"
• taking a lighted gas lamp in her hand, the steely-eyed, revenge-purged Catherine coldly walked past the door and up the long, extremely steep flight of stairs in the front hallway, as she listened to returning suitor Morris futilely banging on the outside of the bolted door with the door knocker and frantically calling her name: "Catherine, Catherine, Catherine!"; she turned a curve at the top of the stairs with a slight smile, gaining both perverse and proud satisfaction from jilting him, and triumphantly fulfilling a promise to herself

• the film's 'The End' appeared on the screen before the film faded to the Paramount Pictures logo