William Wyler's (1902-1981)

The Heiress

(1949)

The Heiress is the filmed version of a 1947 stage play by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, based on Henry James's (1843-1916) short novel Washington Square (1880). The novel was suggested by an actual event which scandalized New York society, the courting of a plain and middle-aged society heiress by a younger and poorer, though attractive and charming, actor. Although disparaged by its author as a somewhat inferior and immature work, Washington Square has proven to be a novel of enduring popularity. It is one of his shortest novels and lacks the complex syntax which characterizes James's final development. Its accessible style has enabled Washington Square to introduce several generations of readers to his fiction.

The play significantly abridges the book's action, and the film's screenplay further compresses events. The novel is set in New York in the early 1840s. Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Haviland) is a wealthy heiress, though she is also withdrawn and emotionally insecure. On the death of her widowed father, Dr. Austin Sloper (Sir Ralph Richardson), she stands to inherit the residuum of her mother's property, which will yield an annual income of approximately ten thousand dollars (worth over $200,000 today!), with an additional twenty thousand from her father, along with his handsome townhouse on Washington Square, then the most desirable neighborhood in the city. James dwells on some detail the growth of the city northward up Manhattan and the resulting migration of the social classes. Assuming a 3% interest rate, the estate would have been worth around $300,000.00 (six million dollars in today's money.) This inheritance is either in interest-bearing bonds or rent-generating real property. If it had in fact been bonds, Catherine's fortune would probably have been wiped out by Civil War inflation in the 1860s.

Catherine is shy and unsophisticated, and prospective suitors have evaded her throughout her teens and twenties. It seems likely she lacked the self-confidence to pursue any and she is now in her mid-thirties. When she attends a dance at a relative's house, celebrating a cousin's engagement, she is swept off her feet by the handsome young Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), who appears equally enamored of her. Morris begins courting her, encouraged by her Aunt Lavinia (Miriam Hopkins). Initially, Austin is also charmed by Morris, but on some investigation he discovers the young man has already irresponsibly squandered his own inheritance traveling in Europe. Furthermore, Morris has no profession or employment, but is financially dependent on his widowed aunt, who has several small children to support. Morris is more a burden to his aunt than a help.

In discovering the truth about Morris and communicating it to Catherine, Austin reveals his true feelings about his daughter—he sees her as unattractive, undesirable, foolish, and especially vulnerable to an attractive fortune hunter like Morris. In protecting her, Austin exposes Catherine to the full realization of his contempt. Austin repeatedly and humiliatingly compares Catherine to her long-dead mother, who died shortly after Catherine's birth. Austin preserves an idealized memory of Catherine's mother as a lovely young woman. The reader and viewer are left to wonder which Austin wants to protect more, Catherine or her money. Lavinia partly shares Austin's unfavorable assessment of Catherine, but also believes that Morris will treat Catherine well—her view is that Morris's love may not be sincere, but it would still be better than the solitary and unloved life of an old maid.

There is no question that Catherine's love for Morris is sincere. The novel allows us to speculate on Morris's sincerity up to a point, but in relating Morris's internal monologues, James makes it clear about half-way through the book that Morris is truly taking advantage of the innocent and trusting Catherine for material gain and social station. Morris's special contempt is reserved for Lavinia who is clearly a meddlesome idiot in the novel. The character fares better in the film, perhaps due to the charisma of the actress Miriam Hopkins.

James leaves Morris's intentions and moral standing ambiguous for the first half of the book, but the play never verbalizes the inner monologues which testify conclusively against him. This is the most important difference between the novel, on the one hand, and the play and film, on the other. In the play and film Morris's moral status remains ambiguous and unresolved except as far as his choices and actions reveal his character. Because it never becomes clear in the play that Morris is a villain, we can like and sympathize with him. Paramount ensured that Morris appeared in an even more favorable light in the film, because they wanted to enhance Montgomery Clift's box-office appeal.

Austin reveals what he has learned about Morris's financial status and past irresponsibility to Catherine. When she remains devoted to Morris, Austin threatens to disinherit her, though she would still receive her mother's property. It is Morris who rejects the reduced bequest, persuading Catherine to accompany Austin on a European grand tour. This reveals that the Doctor has Morris checkmated. If Morris and Catherine marry while Austin lives, they will lose twenty thousand dollars annual income. Catherine's late appreciation for the depth of her father's contempt makes her desperate to elope when she returns to New York, regardless of the financial consequences. Morris, however, finds it more difficult to give up the two-thirds of the inheritance which Austin controls.

In the novel, Catherine and Morris are briefly reunited many years later, when Morris has become older and less attractive. In the play and the film, this reunion occurs much sooner, before enough time has elapsed to steal Morris's looks. Montgomery Clift's nuanced performance makes it obvious that Morris has been beaten down by fortune.

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The play by Ruth and Augustus Goetz was produced in New York starring Dame Wendy Hiller and Basil Rathbone, and in London with Dame Peggy Ashcroft and Sir Ralph Richardson. Olivia de Haviland saw the New York production and called William Wyler during the intermission asking he arrange for Paramount to buy the screen rights and for him to direct and produce.

Olivia de Haviland played Maid Marian opposite Errol Flynn in Robin Hood (1938 Warners). She played Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939 Selznick). Her enthusiasm for the part of Catherine was instrumental in getting The Heiress filmed. She had an intense, life-long rivalry with her sister Joan Fontaine, who starred in Rebecca (1940 Selznick) and Jane Eyre (1943 Fox).

Montgomery Clift was an up-and-coming star. He would star with Elizabeth Taylor and Shelly Winters in George Stevens' A Place in the Sun (1951 Paramount), based on Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. He was reunited with Taylor in Raintree County (1957 MGM), and she rescued him from a near-fatal car wreck during the production of this film. A late triumph came with the title role in John Huston's Freud (1962 Universal), and Joseph L. Mankiewicz also directed Taylor and Clift together in Suddenly Last Summer (1959 Columbia), from the play by Tennessee Williams.

Sir Ralph Richardson was one of the greatest Shakespearian actors of the twentieth century. One of his first screen roles came in the horror comedy The Ghoul (1933 Gaumont) with Boris Karloff and Ernest Thesiger. He had major roles in William Cameron Menzies's Things to Come (1936 London/United Artists) written by H.G. Welles, David Lean's Breaking the Sound Barrier (1952 London/United Artists), Laurence Olivier's Richard III (1955 London) and David Lean's Doctor Zhivago (1965 MGM).

Miriam Hopkins costarred with Errol Flynn in a series of popular and fondly remembered westerns. She plays Laurence Olivier's unsympathetic wife in Wyler's Carrie (1952 Paramount). The Heiress marked a transition for Hopkins from leading lady to supporting female lead. Her last performance was as the demented jilted bride in the classic Outer Limits episode "Don't Open til Doomsday."

William Wyler directed Dodsworth (1936 Goldwyn), from the novel by Sinclair Lewis and starring Walter Huston and Mary Astor, Mrs. Miniver (1942 Goldwyn) starring Greer Garson and Walter Pigeon, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946 Goldwyn [best picture and director]), from MacKinlay Kantor's verse novel Glory for Me and starring Myrna Loy, Frederic March, and Dana Andrews, Carrie, based on Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, and starring Jennifer Jones, Sir Laurence Olivier, and Miriam Hopkins, the famous western The Big Country (1958 United Artists), from the novel by Donald Hamilton and starring Gregory Peck and Jean Simmons, and the 1959 version of Ben Hur with Charlton Heston. Wyler was one of Holywood's top directors, and in the late 1950s became especially accomplished user of widescreen—The Big Country was filmed in Technirama, Technicolor's widescreen process, and Ben Hur was filmed in Ultra Panavision 70, then called MGM Camera 65. Bette Davis's three best actress nominations were from Wyler films—Jezebel (1938 Warners), The Letter (1940 Warners), and The Little Foxes (1942 Goldwyn). Davis won for Jezebel, designed as a consolation prize for losing the role of Scarlet O'Hara to Vivien Leigh.

Aaron Copland composed the score, which received an Academy Award. Among his other film scores were Of Mice and Men (1939 United Artists) from the novel by John Steinbeck, Our Town (1940 United Artists) by Thornton Wilder, The North Star (1943 Goldwyn) and The Red Pony (1949 Republic), based on the novel by John Steinbeck, starring Robert Mitchum. The French song featured in the score became an Elvis Presley hit. Copland remains America's best-loved and most important composer of classical music.