Leave Her to Heaven [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: John M. Stahl John M. Stahl

Overview

Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney) meets and falls desperately in love with Richard Harland (Cornell Wilde), an author who resembles her late father. Ellen is pathologically possessive of Richard, jealous of anyone who he pays the slightest attention to. In order to be completely alone with him, she convinces him to live in a isolated, but beautiful lakeside home in a spot called "Back of the Moon. " She dismisses the local handyman and then drowns his crippled half-brother Danny (Darryl Hickman). To Richard's delight, Ellen becomes pregnant. Ellen, resentful of the restriction caused by the pregnancy and afraid that she will lose some of Richard's love and attention, causes a miscarriage by throwing herself down the stairs. Ellen also becomes insanely jealous of her foster sister Ruth (Jeanne Crain), who is open and uncomplicated and soon becomes Richard's friend. Finally, Ellen confesses to Richard what she has done. Seeing his horror and revulsion and fearful of losing his love to Ruth, Ellen poisons herself and makes it look as though Ellen and Richard have murdered her. Both are tried, and Ruth is acquitted, but Richard is found guilty of being an accessory to Ellen's murder. Ruth, having come to love him, waits while he serves his prison sentence. Gene Tierney, in an Oscar nominated performance, is fascinating as the ravishing killer making Wilde and Crain seem dull by comparison. Leave Her to Heaven with its beautiful photography remains an exciting and engrossing story of obsessive love and jealousy.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/24/2020
UPC:	0715515242813
Original Release:	1945
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Language:	English
Time:	1:50:00
Sales rank:	8,702

Special Features

New 2k digital restoration by Twentieth Century Fox, the Academy Film Archive, and The Film Foundation, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; New interview with critic Imogen Sara Smith; Trailer; Plus: An essay by novelist Megan Abbott

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Gene Tierney	Ellen Berent Harland
Cornel Wilde	Richard Harland
Vincent Price	Russell Quinton
Jeanne Crain	Ruth Berent
Mary Philips	Mrs. Berent
Ray Collins	Glen Robie
Gene Lockhart	Dr. Saunders
Reed Hadley	Dr. Mason
Darryl Hickman	Danny Harland
Chill Wills	Leick Thorne
Paul Everton	Judge
Olive Blakeney	Mrs. Robie
Addison Richards	Bedford
Harry Depp	Catterson
Grant Mitchell	Carlson
Milton Parsons	Medcraft
Earl Schenck	Norton
Hugh Maguire	Lin Robie
Betty Hannon	Tess Robie
Kay Riley	Nurse
Mae Marsh	Fisherwoman
Audrey Betz	Cook at Robie's Ranch
Guy Beach	Sheriff
James Farley	Conductor,Conductor
Charles Tannen	Man
Alfred Newman	Composer

Technical Credits

Jo Swerling

Ben Ames Williams

John M. Stahl	Director
Jo Swerling	Screenwriter
William A. Bacher	Producer
Fred Sersen	Special Effects
Ben Ames Williams	Screenwriter
Darryl F. Zanuck	Producer
Sol Halperin	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

A Technicolor melodrama infused with film noir pathology, John M. Stahl's Leave Her to Heaven (1945) combines vivid visuals with a coldly passionate performance from Gene Tierney to create a memorable femme fatale. Cornel Wilde's Richard is doomed the moment that Tierney's crimson-lipped Ellen fixes her ice blue stare at him and remarks on his likeness to her beloved, recently deceased father. Stahl suggests the force of that love in Ellen's expressionistic horseback ride to scatter her father's ashes, but the scene in which Ellen impassively puts on her sunglasses and watches Richard's crippled brother drown in an idyllic Maine lake most powerfully communicates her nature. Richard's placid Maine cabin and Ellen's well-appointed family residences may present a surface as beautiful as Tierney's face, but Stahl reveals the obsessive evil lurking beneath. The second-most popular film of 1945, Leave Her to Heaven earned Tierney her sole Best Actress Oscar nomination for her archetypal woman who loves far too much, while Leon Shamroy won the Oscar for his striking color photography of landscapes, deluxe homes and Tierney's red lipstick.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola