Gene Tierney gives a remarkable performance as Ellen Berent,one of the most malicious characters ever to grace the screen. The film is "Leave Her To Heaven(1945)",an intriguing character study based on a popular novel by Ben Ames Williams.The story begins when Ellen meets author,Richard Harland(Cornel Wilde)on a train. They quickly become well-acquainted and start to fall in love when he visits her in her New Mexican home.It's evident that Ellen's mother and sister(Jeanne Crain)feel she's extremely clinging to people she loves.However,they believe this is out of the goodness of her soul.Ellen's mother even says the memorable line,"There's nothing wrong with Ellen;she just loves too much." Unfortunately,this turns out to be not such a commendable trait. Ellen and Richard quickly get married and move into his summer house, "Back of the Moon." Much to Ellen's dismay,Richard's crippled brother(Daryll Hickman)joins them. Ellen knows her husband wants his family around him and it will never change. However,she wants her husband to herself and will not let anyone stand in her way. John M. Stahl vividly directs this film and uses gorgeous technicolor vistas as a backdrop.While most 40's crime dramas were filmed in black and white,this one is in color,making the story even more chilling.Stahl wanted to convey the message that evil could lurk in beautiful surroundings and in the best of families. The scene where Tierney mercifully watches crippled Hickman drown in a lake,is still one of the most disturbing in American cinema. Gene Tierney gives perhaps her finest performance in the difficult role of a cold and calculating killer.She got an Oscar nomination,but lost out to Joan Crawford's performance as a self-sacrificing mother in "Mildred Pierce." Cornel Wilde is extremely effective as the caring husband,who loves his wife,but isn't too fond of her. Vincent Price has a fascinating supporting role as Tierney's ex-lover and later prosecutor for Wilde. Daryll Hickman is memorable as the innocent victim of one of Tierney's violent acts. The film is similar in symbolic tone to Alfred Hitchcock's classic,"Shadow of a Doubt(1943)",where he used small-town America as a backdrop for the story of murderer on the run. This is another thriller I highly recommend. I give "Leave Her To Heaven" an 8 1/2 out of 10.
Review of Leave Her to Heaven
