Review of The Heiress (1949) by Nik B — 08 Nov 2009

Catherine is a nervous girl of respectable means. Her mother is dead, her father, a wealthy doctor. His sister, a widow herself whom the father has asked to stick around to help bring the girl to a marriagable quality. Father is not a bad man per se, but he is certainly disappointed in his awkward daughter and throws about some passive aggressive missives in her directions which keeps her suitably skeptical of her own devices.

Early on, she meets Montgomery Clift as Morris, who is quite cool in that Dylan McKay kind of way. He is also overly intense, always talking very close and very forward. He jumps on the love train right away, which has Catherine careful but she finds him a kindred spirit. When he asks for her hand in marriage, the father is suitable skeptical, sees the poor boy as a fortune seeker and denies the offer. Instead, father takes Catherine to Europe for six months to forget him.

The film works because the audience is playing the same guessing game that the family is. Yes, you want to blieve that love will triumph over all. You also can tell that Catherine is quite plain and ordinary with little poise or refinement to entertain a husband. She is also due to inherit a fortune when her father dies. Will the lovely Morris still come a-calling when he realizes that Catherine has disinherited herself?

In the end, the greatesst conflict comes between Catherine and her father. I don't need to tell you whether or not Catherine and Morris find happiness together, for it really just becomes a matter of a father using money to control the actions, the emotions, the intellects of his daughter. And how that control will play on her future.