William Wyler always had a way with women and one is referring solely to his screen antics here. His profound understanding of the female psyche or consciousness have been evident numerous times through Bette Davis as Julie Marsden (Jezebel), Greer Garson as Mrs. Miniver (Mrs. Miniver), Audrey Hepburn as Princess Ann (Roman Holiday) and Shirley Maclaine as Martha Dobie (The Children’s Hour).

However, there is hardly any room for doubt that his 1949 drama “The Heiress” emerges as the victor in this regard with a superb character study of a young successor to a large fortune. The period piece deals with this young woman called Catherine Sloper played by Oscar winner Olivia de Havilland, a plain, simpleton, shy yet sweet natured girl to the utter dismay of his aristocratic father. The film focuses on the story of the girl falling in love with a young handsome suitor played by Montgomery Clift and his betrayal.

This apparently clichéd sounding tragedy truly unfolds into a masterpiece of American cinema owing to a number of reasons. Wyler gave this rather ascetic tragedy an enthralling familiarity and an affectionate chimera that allows one to study certain character prototypes more closely than ever possible while realizing the effect of the sharp contrasts between them. The father daughter relationship in the film with the constant mentions of the absent mother renders the film a unique quality as a family drama and the overall notion of the great American family constructed so carefully through all these years.