This William Wyler production is very likely the best film adaptation of Henry James, with the possible exception of THE INNOCENTS. The screenplay, by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, is based on their stage version of James’s Washington Square, and at first the period settings and clothes may make the movie seem a little heavy and stagey, but then Wyler’s mastery of the psychological nuances can have you drawing deep breaths. It’s a peerless, super-controlled movie, in the same mode as Wyler’s 1952 CARRIE, though more fully sustained. Wyler’s greatness here is that he can hold the elements of the film in his palm without constricting the actors. He frees them. Montgomery Clift is just about perfect as James’s fortune hunter Morris Townsend and Olivia De Havilland does her finest work ever as the heiress Catherine Sloper.