Wednesday, July 14, 2021
The Heiress
- Commentary: I enjoyed this movie so much the first time around I watched it again, this afternoon (7/23/2021)! It's an interesting and curious story about a daughter who, even after his death, can't get out from underneath the restrictive hand of her father. It's my first movie under the category "father-daughter-dynamics". Seems odd that I haven't noticed any others to which that label applies, so I'll have to check through and see if I just didn't notice this with any other obvious possibilities.
This movie features a sweet, retiring "older" single daughter who feels so protected in her father's all-encompassing care that she doesn't realize until some years later in her life, well after her father's death, that the dynamics between her and her father have warped her for any semblance of enjoyable male-female relations. In addition, her first, and last, suitor is the smoothest and most dastardly of cads, but this is something she doesn't realize until it is too late, emotionally, for her to even consider pursuing any sexual bond. Her aunt, as well, doesn't help. She is a widow who so idealizes her one marriage that she is completely blind to what the audience sees developing almost immediately. In this blindness she offers her niece, Catherine, who is completely untutored in romantic relationships, such cockamamie advice that this smart, but, unfortunately, naive, niece of hers is simply locked in a web of well-meant but treacherous deceit. And don't even get me started on her father! Fathers, and aunts, and cads, oh my!
Very well acted. Very well written. Her change of character seemed sadly inevitable as I watched it happen, but her life and her reactions are fleshed out so well that, by the end, I did't feel pity for her but simply acknowledged her personal resolve. Yes, dear reader, I was surprised by my final reaction.
Update 8/10/21: I just obtained the 1997 remake of this film, or, rather, a re-filming of this story, Washington Square. At this precise moment I have not viewed it, yet, but I will be doing so tonight. I may, or may not, have comments to add, here, about the correspondences (or lack, thereof) between these two films. Stay tuned.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Olivia de Havilland Catherine Sloper Ralph Richardson Dr. Austin Sloper Miriam Hopkins Lavinia Penniman Montgomery Clift Morris Townsend Vanessa Brown Maria Betty Linley Mrs. Montgomery Ray Collins Jefferson Almond Mona Freeman Marian Almond Selena Royle Elizabeth Almond Paul Lees Arthur Townsend Harry Antrim Mr. Abeel Russ Conway Quintus
Here is the Wikipedia write-up for this movie.
Release Date: 1949
Directed by William Wyler.
Labels: character-study, Criterion2, dramaD, father-daughter-dynamics, miriam-hopkins, romance4
