MovieChat Forums > The Heiress (1949) Discussion > Why does females like this film better t...

Why does females like this film better than males?

posted 13 years ago by GoddamUnvoicedAbbot
9 replies | jump to latest

First of all it's a great film. I liked it a lot. But I noticed in IMDb's voting breakdown that females like this movie better than males. Why? Is it simply because the main character is a woman? Or are the situations in the movie more realistic to females than males?

Antiparanoia is the eerie feeling that nothing is connected to anything else

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Night488 13 years ago

Maybe women relate better to this movie. Perhaps some male voters felt like the movie doesn't paint men in a very good light.

[–] catbookss 10 years ago

Perhaps some male voters felt like the movie doesn't paint men in a very good light.

I think that's undoubtedly the main reason: the two male leads are painted in a very unsympathetic light. No heroes to identify with. Who wants to identify with Morris or Dr. Sloan?

Also, while de Havilland was a beautiful woman, her looks were very much downplayed in this film, so there wasn't any glamorous woman to look at to help offset the two uninspiring male leads.

[–] Forlorn_Rage 8 years ago

I think that's undoubtedly the main reason: the two male leads are painted in a very unsympathetic light. No heroes to identify with. Who wants to identify with Morris or Dr. Sloan?

Funny you say that. I can see that viewpoint with a movie like Thelma and Louise, but I had the opposite view of The Heiress. If anything, I was amazed by how marvelously complex everyone is.

Hell, even after Morris was proven to be an unworthy cad, everytime I see the first half of the movie before Morris runs off, I very badly want things to work out for him and Catherine because Montgomery is so dashing and his scenes with Olivia de Havilland can rival any other romantic film scenes (especially the scene in the rain).

No one comes out looking great in this movie, even Catherine, who, while sympathetic, becomes just as unyielding and hardened as her father was with her.

[–] liscarkat (18596) 4 years ago

The film presents two men in an unflattering light, not all men. I'm a straight male of Dr. Sloper's approximate age and I'm a great fan of this excellent movie. In my youth and young manhood I was emotionally crapped upon by more than one shallow woman, so I'm aware these things work both ways. "The Heiress" is a universal story about human relationships. It is not necessary to be the same sex as the put-upon protagonist to appreciate and relate to the movie.

[–] Jason_Radley 12 years ago

Feminists love this film. They can write lessons about it in film class.

[–] Prof_Lostiswitz 12 years ago

Maybee bekoz dey kan spel rite.

[–] simba-18 8 years ago

I think because most women at one time in their lives have been deserted by a man at least once.

[–] liscarkat (18596) 4 years ago

Many, possibly even most, men have been emotionally abused, used, and dumped by a woman at least once. It's a universal experience.