THE HEIRESS<\/em><\/strong>: William Wyler directs Olivia de Havilland and Montgomery Clift in a tale based on Henry James\u2019s Washington Square<\/em>. Vaguely spoilerous but nothing specific, below.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d ever seen de Havilland in anything before. [eta: Oh hilarious\u2013apparently I\u2019ve forgotten Gone With the Wind<\/em> and\u2013perhaps even less forgivable\u2013Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte<\/em>!] She was fantastic. A performing kitten with a cobra inside.<\/p>\n 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?<\/em> notes (sans rat\u2013this 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.<\/p>\n It\u2019s odd to call a movie \u201csuspenseful\u201d when you accurately call all its plot points; and yet that\u2019s how this felt. I liked this b&w;, old-school confection much more than I would\u2019ve expected based on the first half-hour.<\/p>\n 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 <\/em>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.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE HEIRESS: William Wyler directs Olivia de Havilland and Montgomery Clift in a tale based on Henry James\u2019s Washington Square. Vaguely spoilerous but nothing specific, below. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d ever seen de Havilland in anything before. [eta: Oh hilarious\u2013apparently I\u2019ve forgotten Gone With the Wind and\u2013perhaps even less forgivable\u2013Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte!] She was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n