THE HEIRESS: William Wyler directs Olivia de Havilland and Montgomery Clift in a tale based on Henry James’s Washington Square. Vaguely spoilerous but nothing specific, below.

I’m not sure I’d ever seen de Havilland in anything before. [eta: Oh hilarious–apparently I’ve forgotten Gone With the Wind and–perhaps even less forgivable–Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte!] She was fantastic. A performing kitten with a cobra inside.

The tragedy was easily discerned from the beginning, but I was still left guessing as to exactly how it would break forth. The father/daughter parallels and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? notes (sans rat–this is the genteel version!) were much appreciated. Clift was perfectly serviceable, but everyone was outshone by de Havilland, who played at least three different personae and made them all believable faces of the same person.

It’s odd to call a movie “suspenseful” when you accurately call all its plot points; and yet that’s how this felt. I liked this b&w;, old-school confection much more than I would’ve expected based on the first half-hour.

In terms of worldview, it complicated what I initially considered a really silly premise in which the men know more than the women (is that ever true of power imbalances, that the privileged know more than the less-so?), and its assessment of the interaction of money and love is nuanced rather than calculating. (Money is only one of the several factors in the diagnosis.)