This week, I thought I’d watch yet another old movie, but this time I wanted to watch a movie that wasn’t as popular as other movies. The Heiress fit the bill. It’s certainly not one of Montgomery Clift’s best films. Olivia de Havilland stars in this picture about a woman in the mid 19th century who is about to inherit a lot of money and a home. She’s sheltered and doesn’t have a lot of confidence. Her friends, mostly her father’s age, want to marry her off, but with a man of good standing. She meets Morris, a man of questionable standing and though she’s told not to fall for him, she does. He’s… he’s not a great guy, but he’s not bad. I never really got the hint that Clift’s character was a fortune hunter insomuch as he seemed more like a man struck with a nasty case of wanderlust. I think he loved de Havilland, but he had a strange way to show it.
Olivia de Havilland plays the dowdy woman well, but it seemed tired in this picture. Not like she was trying to act that way, but more like she’d phoned it in. There was almost no chemistry between de Havilland and Clift. I don’t think he enjoyed his role in the film, but it was a paycheck.
If you want a picture that shows a woman who is socially awkward, abused emotionally by her father and ignored by the social set…then this might be a film for you. If you want to root for the underdog and are willing to put up with an ending you can, yet can’t see coming…then this might be the film for you.
Megan Slayer and Wendi Zwaduk 