I have seen this film many times and each time draw a new facet from the Catherine - Dr Austin Sloper - Moris Townsend non-love triangle. But it is my opinion after all these years that everybody underrates Catherine. Many children grow up in the shadow of an esteemed parent whose legend reaches near mythical proportions. Certainly that's Catherine's misfortune. While her mother was not a world famous starlet, she was worshiped by Dr Austin Sloper and even rambling air-headed Aunt Pennyman cautions Dr Austin that he has elevated Catherine's mother to near Goddess stature to which no woman dare compare.

Yet in spite of his open wound constantly gnawing at him whenever Catherine cannot ascend to her mother's level, Dr Austin sees himself as a pure rationalist, one who even contrives to control his own death and the security of Catherine's fortune thereafter.

But here's how everyone underrates Catherine: everyone looks at the hard lesson she's dealt without excusing her youthful inexperience and almost no one sees how she's able in the ante-bellum period to be an independent woman, to run a household, give commands to subordinates including the interfering Aunt Pennyman and interact with Maid Moriah (called Maria in the credits but consistently pronounced Moriah in the film) taking charge without talking down to her. Her true voice comes out in the foiled elopement but it is her father's voice: rationality and command.

Her father was waiting in vain for her mother reincarnate.

She is her father's daughter, without the musical talent of her mother or her mother's sociability (then called gaiety in times spoken of.) Catherine even inherited her surgeon father's talent for stitch-work which is put to embroidery.

The costuming and music is fantastic. The love song though composed for this film sounds like a tune from the ante-bellum era.

Seriously, when I was 10 I saw this and said "this is me", and I was right. This is one I never get tired of watching. I am of the opinion it is Wyler's best film and possibly one of the 25 or so greatest American movies of all time. Anyone with me? (You can be against me as well, of course. As Marty Feldman says in "Young Frankenstein," 'Suit yourself. I'm easy.') The story is just electrifying, all because it is so subtle, perhaps, so quiet and reserved in accordance with the period manner. But the depths of pure human viciousness and and cruelty have perhaps never been so incisively displayed. Wyler's camera is at every occasion positioned perfectly, and the production is flawless.

DeHavilland got her second Oscar for this, and most deservedly. She's brilliant, in what is probably the best role of her career. Ralph Richardson was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and was absolutely robbed of the statuette. He is even better than she is, if that's possible. His "Dr. Sloper" is a masterpiece of the acting craft. Forgive me now while I shamelessly spoil the film. I talk in great detail. If you don't want that then do not read on!

DeHavilland plays a girl whose mother died in childbirth, and thus she is the only child to Dr. Sloper (Richardson). Sloper is constantly saying things that say, in socially acceptable 19th century terms, that Catherine is an entirely inadequate consolation prize for the wife that he lost to death. Apparently Catherine's mother was a graceful beauty - at least that is Sloper's memory. Catherine is a rather plain dull girl who spends all of her time embroidering, a habit that requires tenacity and accuracy, not imagination or grace.

But then one night she goes out to a dance and meets Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift). What a handsome devil Clift was when he arrived on the Hollywood scene. And that is exactly what he is, a handsome devil. He woos Catherine and gives her the attention and love she has been denied all of her life. Like a person in a lifeboat dying for water, she laps it up.

Unfair comparison with her mother or not, Sloper sniffs out Townsend's love of the finer things and inability to get them himself in a heartbeat. He tells Catherine that if she marries him, she will be denied his share of her allowance and inheritance, cutting her allowance by two thirds. In the process the doctor unleashes his low esteem of her in a way that she can no longer retain any belief that he has a father's love of her. He has nothing but contempt for the graceless stupid thing he considers her. You can see the change in attitude towards him on DeHaviland's face. Words are not necessary.

Unfortunately, Catherine still believes that Morris loves her, and in their haste to elope she tells him of her father's pulling of the financial rug from underneath their feet. Morris says her father will change his mind. She says with iron resolution, even if he does, she will not. Morris says he will return at midnight with a carriage and they will elope. In the meantime she tells her air headed aunt Lavinia - Hopkins is splendid in this supporting role as she hovers around, by the way - what she has said to Morris. Lavinia's face sinks. Now Catherine sees that even the people who are kind to her have her father's opinion of her. The clock strikes hour after hour until dawn arrives and she realizes Morris is not coming because the money he actually wants to marry is no longer there.

Catherine's father dies, and she inherits her money and the house on Washington Square, although they remained unreconciled. Years pass and she is still unwed although more beautiful, a beauty from knowing who she is and no longer willing to lick the boots of those who might be kind to her. She dresses in fashions that she finds becoming, the opinions of others be damned. A cousin who was marrying at the time she met Morris is leaving with her children after a visit. A servant compliments Catherine's dress and then asks for the day off. Catherine points out that what we would call *** kissing is not necessary for her to ask a favor. I read somewhere where this showed that Catherine had become hard, but I say no. Catherine has learned to trade others' compliments for nothing. She holds her ground. Talk is as cheap as monopoly money and she has learned the hard way.

The silly Lavinia, always the romantic, comes and makes a supplication for Morris -she has always liked him. If people read romance novels in the 19th century she would have been the type to do so. Morris is at the door. He is back and poorer for his adventures. But this time, although I am sure he is still the fortune hunter, something has changed, and he likes what he sees in this confident woman that acted like a dog without a home just a few years before. She says to come back at midnight and they will be wed.

But as Morris returns later and pounds on the door, Catherine coldly dims the lights and marches upstairs to bed. Morris is a ghost of the suitor that never really was, and she is having none of it.

Yes, this is a film! For all of us "forever alones" who are only wanted for our favors but not our company Catherine is my hero! Three cheers! And forgive the detailed synopsis that I call a review, but I really couldn't let you know what it feels to be like her without talking about the entire plot.