The Heiress
Directed with a keen sense of ambiguity by William Wyler, this film based on a hit stage adaptation of Henry James’s Washington Square pivots on a question of motive. When shy, emotionally fragile Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland, in a heartbreaking, Oscar-winning turn), the daughter of a wealthy New York doctor, begins to receive calls from the handsome spendthrift Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), she becomes possessed by the promise of romance. Are his smoldering professions of love sincere, as she believes they are? Or is Catherine’s calculating father (Ralph Richardson) correct in judging Morris a venal fortune seeker? A graceful drawing-room drama boasting Academy Award–winning costume design by Edith Head, The Heiress is also a piercing character study riven by emotional uncertainty and lacerating cruelty, in a triumph of classic Hollywood filmmaking at its most psychologically nuanced.
Special Features
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New conversation between screenwriter Jay Cocks and film critic Farran Smith Nehme
- New program about the film’s costumes featuring costume collector and historian Larry McQueen
- The Costume Designer, a restored 1950 short film featuring costume designer Edith Head
- Appearance by actor Olivia de Havilland on a 1986 episode of The Paul Ryan Show
- Excerpts from a 1973 tribute to director William Wyler on The Merv Griffin Show, featuring Wyler, de Havilland, and actors Bette Davis and Walter Pidgeon
- Wyler’s acceptance speech from the American Film Institute’s 1976 Salute to William Wyler
- Interview with actor Ralph Richardson filmed in 1981 for the documentary Directed by William Wyler
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Pamela Hutchinson
New cover by Danielle Clough
Special Features
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New conversation between screenwriter Jay Cocks and film critic Farran Smith Nehme
- New program about the film’s costumes featuring costume collector and historian Larry McQueen
- The Costume Designer, a restored 1950 short film featuring costume designer Edith Head
- Appearance by actor Olivia de Havilland on a 1986 episode of The Paul Ryan Show
- Excerpts from a 1973 tribute to director William Wyler on The Merv Griffin Show, featuring Wyler, de Havilland, and actors Bette Davis and Walter Pidgeon
- Wyler’s acceptance speech from the American Film Institute’s 1976 Salute to William Wyler
- Interview with actor Ralph Richardson filmed in 1981 for the documentary Directed by William Wyler
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Pamela Hutchinson
New cover by Danielle Clough
Cast
- de Havilland Olivia
- Catherine Sloper
- Montgomery Clift
- Morris Townsend
- Ralph Richardson
- Dr. Austin Sloper
- Miriam Hopkins
- Lavinia Penniman
- Vanessa Brown
- Maria
- Betty Linley
- Mrs. Montgomery
- Ray Collins
- Jefferson Almond
- Mona Freeman
- Marian Almond
- Selena Royle
- Elizabeth Almond
- Paul Lees
- Arthur Townsend
Credits
- Director
- William Wyler
- Produced by
- William Wyler
- Written for the screen by
- Ruth and Augustus Goetz from their play "The Heiress"
- Suggested by the novel "Washington Square" by
- Henry James
- Director of photography
- Leo Tover
- Music by
- Aaron Copland
- Production designed by
- Harry Horner
- Costumes by
- Edith Head
- Art direction
- John Meehan
- Set decoration
- Kuri Emile
- Edited by
- William Hornbeck
- Men’s wardrobe by
- Gile Steele
Trailer for The Heiress
