The Heiress premiered in Los Angeles on October 6, 1949, and was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures on December 28, 1949. Although a box office failure, grossing $2.3 million on a $2.6 million budget, the film garnered critical acclaim, with reviewers praising Wyler's direction, its screenplay and the performances of the cast. The film received a leading eight nominations at the 22nd Academy Awards, including for the Best Picture, and won four awards (more than any other film nominated that year): Best Actress (for de Havilland), Best Original Score, composed by Aaron Copland, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design.
In 1996, The Heiress was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[5][6]
Universal Pictures, through its EMKA division, currently handles distribution of the film.
Plot
In 1849 New York City, Catherine Sloper, a plain and shy young woman, lives with her wealthy father, Dr. Austin Sloper, in the prestigious Washington Square. Catherine's mother, who was charming and talented, died early, and quiet Catherine constantly disappoints her father with her lack of social graces. Catherine's widowed Aunt Lavinia Penniman moves in and suggests she help Catherine improve her social skills.
At a ball, Catherine meets Morris Townsend, a handsome and charming, but poor, young man. Morris, encouraged by Aunt Penniman, pursues Catherine ardently, and she quickly falls in love with him. Catherine accepts and blossoms under Morris's courtship, but Dr. Sloper suspects Morris is a fortune hunter only interested in his plain daughter's wealth, and investigations into Morris's family relations confirm Dr. Sloper's poor opinion.
When Morris formally requests Catherine's hand in marriage, Catherine is elated, but Dr. Sloper refuses. Dr. Sloper vows he will disinherit Catherine if she marries Morris without his blessing and arranges to take her on an extended trip to Europe to separate the pair as a 'test'. Catherine is torn by her desire for her father's approval, but is becoming more and more eager to marry Morris regardless and become independent.
Morris convinces Catherine to wait and earn Dr. Sloper's approval during this separation and promises to remain true while she is away. During Catherine and Dr. Sloper's European trip, Morris frequently visits the Sloper home and behaves with proprietary ownership over the property and personal contents of the house.
Dr. Sloper is disappointed his daughter does not gain any sophistication from the trip and remains devoted to Morris. Upon their return home, he reveals his poor opinion of his child at last and cruelly belittles his daughter's lack of intelligence, beauty, and accomplishment, making it clear he views her as impossible to be attractive to a man outside of her inheritance.
Wounded and angry, Catherine becomes determined to prove her father wrong and elope with Morris. Catherine runs to Morris and begs him to arrange their immediate elopement. Certain Morris loves her and wanting to cut free from her father, Catherine tells Morris about her pending disinheritance as they discuss the details of her sneaking out to meet him, and makes it clear they can expect nothing from her father ever again.
Catherine waits with her bags packed, and Aunt Penniman, who helped facilitate the plans, offers to stay with her, but is dismayed that Catherine stupidly revealed there would be no money from her father. Aunt Penniman believes Morris is Catherine's only chance at marriage, and that it would be best if they got married first and then dealt with the aftermath.
As the appointed time comes and passes without Morris's arrival, Catherine realizes that Morris has abandoned her upon learning she will not inherit her father's wealth and brokenly returns to her room.
Shortly afterward, Dr. Sloper reveals he is dying. Because he was initially proud of Catherine for rejecting Morris, Catherine at last gets her revenge on him by denying him the ability to die peacefully. In a bitter argument, Catherine tells him she planned to elope and was rejected and says he has cheated her by denying her even the chance to 'buy' a husband who would pretend to love her. If he leaves her his money, she might waste it on Morris or other fortune hunters. Dr. Sloper dies fretting until his last breath on if he should change his will but ultimately cannot bring himself to disinherit his only child.
Years later, wealthy, independent, and single, Catherine still lives in the Washington Square house with her aunt. Aunt Penniman informs Catherine that Morris has returned from California. Initially reluctant, Catherine eventually agrees to see him. Morris, now destitute, attempts to win Catherine back. Catherine proposes they recreate their failed elopement. When Morris returns to take her away, Catherine refuses to let him in, leaving him pounding helplessly on the door as she turns off the lights and goes to bed.
After seeing The Heiress on Broadway, Olivia de Havilland approached William Wyler about directing her in a screen adaptation of the play.[7] He agreed and encouraged executives at Paramount Pictures to purchase the rights from the playwrights (Ruth and Augustus Goetz) for $250,000 and offer them $10,000 per week to write the screenplay. The couple were asked to make Morris less of a villain than he was in their play and the original novel in deference to the studio's desire to capitalize on Montgomery Clift's reputation as a romantic leading man.[8]
Ralph Richardson reprised the role of Austin Sloper in a London production of the play.[7]
Reception
The Heiress received universal critical acclaim. Bosley Crowther for The New York Times wrote that the film "crackles with allusive life and fire in its tender and agonized telling of an extraordinarily characterful tale" and added Wyler "has given this somewhat austere drama an absorbing intimacy and a warming illusion of nearness that it did not have on the stage. He has brought the full-bodied people very closely and vividly to view, while maintaining the clarity and sharpness of their personalities, their emotions and their styles...The Heiress is one of the handsome, intense and adult dramas of the year."[9]
The Brooklyn Eagle found the film "an intensely satisfying drama that holds a high level of interest throughout, building relentlessly to a moving climax." Praise for the principals lauded de Havilland especially: "the transformation of Catherine Sloper from a pathetically shy girl to a cold, handsome woman" being "handled with finished skill."[10]
The Philadelphia Inquirer praised the Goetzes for a skillful transformation of their stage version, finding it "in almost every way...superior." Prospects of an Academy Award for de Havilland were judged "thoroughly reasonable" as well.[11]
TV Guide rates the film five out of a possible five stars and adds, "This powerful and compelling drama...owes its triumph to the deft hand of director William Wyler and a remarkable lead performance by Olivia de Havilland".[12]
Time Out London calls the film "typically plush, painstaking and cold...highly professional and heartless."[13]
Channel 4 stated "de Havilland's portrayal...is spine-chilling...Clift brings a subtle ambiguity to one of his least interesting roles, and Richardson is also excellent."[14]
Influence
Martin Scorsese has cited The Heiress as a key influence on his 2023 film Killers of the Flower Moon. Specifically, the portrayal of Mollie Kyle and her relationship with her husband Ernest Burkhart drew inspiration from de Havilland's portrayal of Catherine and her relationship with Morris.[15]
William Wyler was a German-born American film director and producer. Known for his work in numerous genres over five decades, he received numerous awards and accolades, including three Academy Awards. He holds the record of twelve nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director. For his oeuvre of work, Wyler was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award.
Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland was a British and American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time. At the time of her death in 2020 at age 104, she was the oldest living and earliest surviving Academy Award winner and was widely considered as being the last surviving major star from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Her younger sister was Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine.
Edward Montgomery Clift was an American actor. A four-time Academy Award nominee, he was known for his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men", according to The New York Times.
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Beatrice Whitney Straight was an American theatre, film and television actress and a member of the prominent Whitney family. She was an Academy Award and Tony Award winner as well as an Emmy Award nominee.
Washington Square is a novel written in 1880 by Henry James about a father's attempts to thwart a romance between his naive daughter and the man he believes wishes to marry her for her money. The novel was adapted into a play, The Heiress, which in turn became an Academy Award-winning film starring Olivia de Havilland in the title role.
Terminal Station is a 1953 romantic drama film directed and produced by Vittorio De Sica and starring Jennifer Jones, Montgomery Clift, and Richard Beymer in his debut role. It tells the story of the love affair between a married American woman and an Italian intellectual. The title refers to the Roma Termini railway station in Rome, where the film takes place. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.
Robert Wyler was a Swiss-American film producer and associate producer. He was the older brother of film director William Wyler and a nephew of Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle.
Suddenly, Last Summer is a 1959 Southern Gothic mystery film based on the 1958 play of the same name by Tennessee Williams. The film was shot in England, Spain and the Balearic Islands. It was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by Sam Spiegel from a screenplay by Gore Vidal and Williams with cinematography by Jack Hildyard and production design by Oliver Messel. The musical score was composed by Buxton Orr, using themes by Malcolm Arnold.
The 7th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film for 1949 films, were held on February 23, 1950.
Washington Square is a 1997 American romantic drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland, and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Albert Finney, Ben Chaplin, Maggie Smith and Judith Ivey. The screenplay by Carol Doyle is based on Henry James' novel of the same name, which was filmed as The Heiress in 1949. The film was a critical success, but a commercial failure.
Devotion is a 1946 American biographical film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Ida Lupino, Paul Henreid, Olivia de Havilland, and Sydney Greenstreet. Based on a story by Theodore Reeves, the film is a highly fictionalized account of the lives of the Brontë sisters. The movie features Montagu Love's last role; he died almost three years before the film's delayed release.
The Heiress is a 1947 play by American playwrights Ruth and Augustus Goetz adapted from the 1880 Henry James novel Washington Square. Two years later, the play was adapted into the film The Heiress starring Olivia de Havilland.
William Wyler was a Swiss-German-American director and producer.
Mira Rostova was a Russian American actress turned acting teacher, best known for her own variation of method acting that she used in coaching Montgomery Clift. Her other students included Armand Assante, Alec Baldwin, Peter Gallagher, Jessica Lange, Zohra Lampert, Jerry Orbach, A.J. Benza and Madonna.
The Screaming Woman is a 1972 American made-for-television horror-thriller film starring Olivia de Havilland and directed by Jack Smight. It is loosely based on a short story by Ray Bradbury with a script written by Merwin Gerard. The film was produced by Universal Television and originally aired as an ABC Movie of the Week on January 29, 1972. It features John Williams's last score for a TV movie.
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Hold 'Em Yale is a 1935 American comedy film directed by Sidney Lanfield and written by Damon Runyon, Paul Gerard Smith, and Eddie Welch. The film stars Patricia Ellis, Cesar Romero, Buster Crabbe, William Frawley, Andy Devine, and George Barbier; it was released on April 27, 1935, by Paramount Pictures.
This filmography lists the film appearances of British-American actress Olivia de Havilland (1916–2020), as well as her television, stage, and radio credits. De Havilland's career spanned fifty-three years, from 1935 to 1988. During that time, she appeared in forty-nine feature films, and was one of the leading movie stars during the golden age of Classical Hollywood. She is best known for her early screen performances in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Gone with the Wind (1939), and her later award-winning performances in To Each His Own (1946), The Snake Pit (1948), and The Heiress (1949). De Havilland made her screen debut in Reinhardt's film adaptation A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1935. She began her career playing demure ingénues opposite popular leading men of that time, including Errol Flynn, with whom she made her breakout film Captain Blood in 1935. They would go on to make seven more feature films together, and became one of Hollywood's most popular romantic on-screen pairings.
Rich Girl is a play by Victoria Stewart, which updates Henry James's 1880 novel Washington Square to the present. (The novel has also been adapted to the 1947 play by Ruth and Augustus Goetz and the classic 1949 film, both entitled The Heiress.)
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