The Heiress

Wyler's version of Henry James' Washington Square (based on a play adaptation) is typically plush, painstaking and cold. James' heroine, whose young love is thwarted by a grasping fiancé and an equally selfish father, at least turned into a spinster with moral integrity, but Wyler's simply grows into a malevolent old witch. Olivia de Havilland is a millstone round many a film's neck, but she soon leaves off smiling sweetly in this one, clashing swords in deep focus with Richardson (magnificently imperious) and an oily Clift. And Aaron Copland contributes some suitably icy music. It's all highly professional and heartless.