Directed by:
William WylerCinematography:
Leo ToverComposer:
Aaron CoplandCast:
Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins, Vanessa Brown, Ray Collins, Mona Freeman, Betty Linley, Selena Royle, Sam Harris (more)Plots(1)
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, 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. (Criterion)
(more)Cast
![Olivia de Havilland](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/162/882/162882933_2143b1.jpg)
Olivia de Havilland
Japan
Best movies:
Gone with the Wind (1939)
The Heiress (1949)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
![Montgomery Clift](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/000/267/267955_c483a6.jpg)
Montgomery Clift
USA
Best movies:
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
The Search (1948)
The Heiress (1949)
![Ralph Richardson](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/164/653/164653272_360425.jpg)
Ralph Richardson
UK
Best movies:
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
The Heiress (1949)
O Lucky Man! (1973)
![Miriam Hopkins](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/162/844/162844367_685b98.png)
Miriam Hopkins
USA
Best movies:
The Heiress (1949)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
![Vanessa Brown](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/157/812/157812490_17b2c0.jpg)
Vanessa Brown
Austria
Best movies:
The Heiress (1949)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
![Ray Collins](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/049/262/49262654_a525d4.jpg)
Ray Collins
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Heiress (1949)
![Mona Freeman](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/165/454/165454306_2e0063.jpg)
Mona Freeman
USA
Best movies:
The Heiress (1949)
National Velvet (1944)
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Betty Linley
UK
Best movies:
The Heiress (1949)
![Selena Royle](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/030/247/30247453_528b40.jpg)
Selena Royle
USA
Best movies:
The Heiress (1949)
The Harvey Girls (1946)
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Sam Harris
Australia
Best movies:
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Donald Kerr
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Big Country (1958)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Lester Dorr
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
![Jack Chefe](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/159/482/159482546_09841b.jpg)
Jack Chefe
Russian Empire
Best movies:
The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952)
It Started with Eve (1941)
All About Eve (1950)
![Franklyn Farnum](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/159/948/159948620_a1d5f2.jpg)
Franklyn Farnum
USA
Best movies:
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
![Russ Conway](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/160/157/160157177_1d6459.jpg)
Russ Conway
Canada
Best movies:
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
The Heiress (1949)
![Ralph Sanford](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/159/935/159935030_010c41.jpg)
Ralph Sanford
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Big Country (1958)
The Heiress (1949)
![Douglas Spencer](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/160/768/160768733_96fb2d.jpg)
Douglas Spencer
USA
Best movies:
Double Indemnity (1944)
The Heiress (1949)
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
Harry Antrim
USA
Best movies:
Teacher's Pet (1958)
The Heiress (1949)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Louise Lorimer
USA
Best movies:
The Heiress (1949)
The People Against O'Hara (1951)
The Young Philadelphians (1959)
David Thursby
UK
Best movies:
Captains Courageous (1937)
Waterloo Bridge (1940)
The Heiress (1949)