The Heiress

A romantic costume drama from the hand of William Wyler. He's a lauded director with quite a few epic films under his belt, but I can't say I've really enjoyed any of them. Classic American cinema really isn't my cup of tea and The Heiress is a perfect illustration of the things I don't like about it.

Catherine is a young, naive girl, looking for a suitable man. When she meets Morris she is smitten with him, but her father is suspicious. Catherine's family is wealthy and he suspects that Morris is more interested in his daughter's money. On the other hand, he can't risk being wrong, ruining his daughter's relationship.

The film is very much dialogue-driven, the romance is cheesy and predictable and the film is at least 30 minutes too long. I will say that I'm not big on costume dramas to begin with, so Wyler was fighting an uphill battle from the start, but even then this was way too clammy and sentimental for my taste.