Review of The Heiress (1949) by Paul Z — 10 Sep 2008

William Wyler's knowing and vindicating drama does not impose a lack of forewarning for the sort of film it becomes but naturally builds. It is the tale of a plain, painfully shy woman, in a remarkable performance by Olivia de Havilland deserving of colossal kudos that may well not quite be fully understood till the film's final frame. Ralph Richardson, an actor who teems with wisdom and assured authority, plays her aloof father who makes no concessions in his expressing his dissatisfaction with his daughter. When she meets the enticing Montgomery Clift, whose performance could be argued to be worthy of the same manner of praise as de Havilland's, she is instantly taken by the interest and kindness with which he smothers her, adoration she so urgently craves from her father.

Wyler hits every note with the perfect dynamic in every aspect of the carrying out of this suspicious, slowly swelling, almost living drama, either stylistic or functional. Wyler can be seen through this film, straight into his heart. The reason why his subtle, hidden handling of Augustus Goetz and Henry James's material is without the auto-pilot connection an audience often has with even enormously entertaining films, why The Heiress's every scene virtually speaks to you with passive-aggressive mystery, is because Wyler, in terms of purely emotional familiarity, the thoughts that go through his mind, the personalities with which he can relate, knows the story's themes all too well, and I can see him signing on at the helm of this ruthless work of noninvasive craftsmanship, saying under his breath, "We'll just see whose calls resound unrequited into the shadows of the New York streets.".