Word: sloper
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...Austin Sloper (Albert Finney), the man whose residence we have entered, is more derailed by his wife's death than delighted by his daughter's birth. Named for her mother, and thus a constant reminder of Dr. Sloper's loss, Catherine (Leigh) grows up with little hope of connecting with her distant, resentful father. Worse, Austin's sister Lavinia (Maggie Smith) fancies herself a surrogate mother but is too uncouth and undisciplined to make of Catherine a sophisticated lady...
...this magnificent creature is my child," laments Dr. Sloper, beholding Catherine in a gaudy, ill-fitting gown before they and Lavinia leave for the requisite period-film Society Ball. Catherine may not be the sharpest needle on the tree, but she can (and does) feel the sad, punishing irony in her father's pronouncements...
...conscious of her lack of "magnificence" that she is instantly suspicious of the attentions of Morris Townsend (Ben Chaplin). Morris has no money and a shady past, but all of New York acknowledges his rare good looks and, even rarer, his lively charm and sense of adventure. Dr. Sloper is so impressed (or is it threatened?) by Morris that he can only explain the young suitor's attentions to Catherine as financial savvy. "He must think she has 80,000 a year," the Doctor says...
Which, of course, she does, but Catherine doesn't question his motives. She wagers all she has on the purity of Morris's love, while Morris himself begins a protracted, ugly rivalry with the skeptical Dr. Sloper. As Morris tells Catherine, "I stake my pride on proving to your father that he is wrong," failing to realize that his intended declaration of love has become a declaration...
...part, Dr. Sloper whisks Catherine off to Europe, primarily to distance Catherine from Morris, but also in pathetic pursuit of Morris's globe-trotting, foreign-bred charm. The tragedy of Washington Square is that, by the end of the film, the only shadow of love that survives is the jealous, passionate admiration that exists between Morris and the doctor. Catherine has been erased from her own romance...