“The Heiress” stars Olivia de Havilland as a young woman named Catherine Slope, daughter of a well-to-do doctor. She has an income of ten thousand a year from her deceased mother’s estate and will get another twenty thousand when her father passes on, and that should attract the eye of many a young man. But Catherine is not pretty, and she’s not graceful or talented, like her mother was. Every day, her father tries to make her be more like her mother, but it’s just not happening, and he despairs that she’ll ever make a proper match. The only thing she can do well is embroider.
When dashing Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift, looking as handsome as I’ve ever seen him) takes an interest in Catherine, she’s over the moon. Not only is he interested in her, but he’s everything she’s ever wanted. She allows herself to be courted and agrees to marry him, but when her father finds out what’s happening, he’s absolutely against it. He knows Morris couldn’t possibly love Catherine – it has to be about money.
When a trip to Europe does nothing to quench Catherine’s love, her father brings her back home and tries to talk some sense into her. He tells her, flat out, how undesirable she is, how awkward and mousey, how no man in his right mind could ever fall in love with her. He crushes her spirit, and when Morris comes that evening to see her, with plans for their elopement, she begs him to take her far away. She tells him that she’s been disinherited, but she knows he’ll make her happy. He agrees to pick her up at twelve thirty, and she goes off to pack.
And she waits, and waits, and waits. Morris never comes.
Bereft of the man she loves and knowing the contempt her father feels for her, Catherine changes from a soft, innocent girl to a hardened, wiser woman. When fate gives her another chance, she knows exactly what to do with it.
A melodrama in the truest sense of the word, I didn’t care so much for Olivia’s acting at the first part of the film, but she pulls off the ending beautifully. Montgomery makes a very good rake, and I found the conclusion to be very satisfying indeed. Olivia won an Academy Award for this role.
This film was not rated.
Fun side note: Olivia is Joan Fontaine’s older sister.
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