Olivia de Havilland, The Heiress

as CATHERINE SLOPER

WON: Academy Award - Best Actress | New York Film Critics Circle - Best Actress | Golden Globe - Best Actress

And so, after a strenuous two year journey perusing through Oscar's finest of the 1940's, we end the road with William Wyler's The Heiress. I saved this one for last for obvious reasons: film quality notwithstanding, Olivia de Havilland's work in the film is often regarded as the sole saving grace for an embarrassingly desolate slate of Best Actress options in 1949. I was worried that she might not live up to the praise seemingly everyone gives her, and perhaps this might have rang a tiny bit true, but the fact is: The Heiress is a superb film, and its lead actress delivers a superb performance.

I think what was surprising to me was how non-explosive this performance is. In the words of Austin Sloper, de Havilland takes on this role of "an entirely mediocre and defenseless creature with not a shred of poise" in a very vivid manner. de Havilland makes Catherine so lovingly meek, so plain, so awkward and so naive for much of the film, and yet her presence is always impactful. She plays these qualities up in such a studied, thorough manner -- (scenes such as those in which Morris courts her are so humorous) but it didn't resonate with me just how invested I was in Catherine until it came time for that pivotal scene in which she waits for him to come pick her up for their elopement...those expressions of pain rang so deeply to me, and I think that's primarily due to de Havilland's commitment to the character.

I was taken by Catherine's breathless whimsy in Morris, her words singed with guilelessness, a more foolish Melanie Wilkes if you will -- and in retrospect it's such a contrast from the harder, rigid work she had turned just a year prior. The role itself is very much of a slow burn, and following my initial watch I was left with the slightest sense that I may have missed something. Having revisited it, I found additional layers of precision in de Havilland's work, especially in those wherein Catherine has become an embittered matriarch from her original doe-eyed, naive girl. In these scenes, my mind goes to the daggers she stares at Ralph Richardson, that cold, deeper register she uses on those around her, or that complicated display of emotions when Aunt Penniman reintroduces Morris back into Catherine's life (some awesome stuff - as she interacts with Morris she trounces seamlessly through shock to vulnerable insecurity to longing to anger within seconds). In short, this is a really great, calculated performance. The final score I give her shouldn't take away from her work -- I didn't have that sense of utter exhilaration watching de Havilland in this film as I've had with other five statued performances, and instead it was like respectfully watching a very comprehensive piece of work unravel. I may very well bump this one up in the future...but in any case, a really nice end to an otherwise shoddy decade of offerings.