MFAH Film Series – Olivia de Havilland Centennial Tribute: The Heiress

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents an Olivia de Havilland Centennial Tribute. This summer, the Museum proudly honors legendary actress Olivia de Havilland on the occasion of her 100th birthday on July 1.

The actress personally selected 12 films, including two for which she won Academy Awards and another three that earned her nominations. The tribute features 35mm studio prints, along with digital restorations.

Special thanks to de Havilland and her daughter, Gisele Chulack, who is an Honorary Trustee of the Museum, for their active participation in the planning of this tribute.

About Olivia de Havilland
The daughter of a British  businessman and a choir teacher, de Havilland arrived in California at the age of 3. She made her screen debut in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) and was signed to a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers.

She played romantic heroines paired with many top male stars, but her breakout performance came as Melanie in Gone with the Wind (1939), when Warner Brothers loaned her to David O. Selznick for the role in the MGM film.

After rebelling for better roles at Warner Brothers, de Havilland was suspended and was not released from her contract at the end of her seven-year term. She sued the studio and won in a landmark case that set the limit for a studio-player contract to expire at the end of seven years (including suspensions).

She won Oscars for To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949) and received accolades for her roles in Hold Back the Dawn (1941) and The Snake Pit (1948), becoming one of Hollywood’s leading dramatic actresses.

In the 1950s she moved to France, where she still resides, continuing to take movie roles that appealed to her. Her comedic adventures in Every Frenchman Has One (a liver, not a mistress) recollect her adaptation to life in Paris. Earlier this year, de Havilland accepted, in good humor, the “Oldie of the Year” honor from the satirical British magazine The Oldie.

The Heiress

Directed by William Wyler
1952, USA
B/W, 115 minutes
35mm

Introduced by Joshua Starnes, President of the Houston Film Critics Society.

Based on Henry James’s novel Washington Square, Olivia de Havilland plays Catherine, the plain, reclusive daughter of the wealthy and tyrannical Dr. Sloper (Ralph Richardson).

Montgomery Clift is the handsome and cunning Morris Townsend who courts Catherine, although her father considers him a fortune-seeking scoundrel. They reunite after her father dies, and the film’s final scene is chilling and memorable.

Her powerful, nuanced performance earned de Havilland her second Academy Award.