Leave Her to Heaven

First viewed this film in the 1940's and was captured by the great acting of Gene Tierney,(Ellen Berent Harland),"Black Widow",'54, she was very beautiful and at the same time had a dark side to her appearance and acting in this film. Tierney was perfect in her role as a woman who was very possessive of her husband,(Cornel Wilde) Richard Harland, " Star of India",'53. Richard Harland could hardly breath without his wife watching every move he made and especially when he found time to enjoy her sister, while she was confined to a bed because of being pregnant. Vincent Price,(Russell Quinton),"Madhouse",'74 looked very young and played a lawyer and also great admirer of Ellen Harland. There are veteran actors in this film, Gene Lockhart, as a doctor, who gave a great supporting role. After all these years, I never dreamed this film in the Year 2000 would still be a great success and well commented about. Enjoy Generations to Come.

She's wonderfully scary in this role, which I view as a sort of precursor to other "crazy chick" flicks like Play Misty for Me and Fatal Attraction. The primary difference is the crazy woman marries the man she's obsessed with--some could argue for no good reason, as Richard is a rather boring chap who happens to remind Ellen of her father. But she has mommy and sister issues in addition to her daddy issues. So the audience knows she's manipulative and obsessive, but it's interesting to see how long it takes for hubby to realize that he actually married a monster. Although the film suggests Ellen is simply evil, she clearly is a sociopath. This film is worth watching primarily because you have these ho-hum dull folks in Ellen's life who all end up being her victim in one way or another, primarily because none of them wanted to accept that this woman was capable of such heinous acts. Tierney deserved an Oscar nomination for the scene on the water alone. She's brilliant in this role.

No one can watch this without remembering Gene Tierney's searing blue eyes, Jeanne Crain's face of innocence, or Cornel Wilde (lightyears from The Naked Prey) here looking like a photo of Pierre & Gilles come to life. It's 110 minutes of color-time-travel basking in the surreally saturated Technicolor palette of the mid 40's. For those who have been denied the experience of watching the recently restored version with a rapt audience on a big screen as happened April 26, 2008 at San Francisco's Castro Theatre, I can only hope you'll contact a film preservation-minded theater in your area. Though I've watched this film on DVD, nothing prepared me for the impact of the big screen. The closeups alone will take your breath away. Is it melodrama or is it noir?--leave that to Heaven!