Leave Her to Heaven

Film Noir Odyssey

Writer: Jo Swerling

Based on: “Leave Her to Heaven” novel by Ben Ames Williams

Director: John M. Stahl

Cinematographer: Leon Shamroy

Music: Alfred Newman

Cast: Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price, Darryl Hickman

Release: December 19, 1945

Studio: 20^th Century Fox

Awards: Shamroy won the Oscar for Best Cinematography. Tierney was nominated for Best Actress but lost to Joan Crawford in “Mildred Pierce.” It was also nominated for Best Art Direction, Color (lost to “Frenchman’s Creek”) and Best Sound (lost to “The Bells of St. Mary”).

Percent Noir: 50%

This is a much more important film to the noir movement than most give it credit for. In addition to proving that the world of noir can be framed in color just as well as in black and white, “Leave Her to Heaven’s” spectacular box office grosses (it was one of the biggest movies of the decade) helped ensure that noir would continue its relationship with the American public for at least the next few years. The fact that it’s awesome is just icing on the cake.

Gene Tierney is the movie, plain and simple. She might be more remembered for her turn in “Laura,” but this is one of the best performances ever in a film noir, male or female, hero or villain. When she is onscreen, you cannot take your eyes off her, and when she is offscreen you long for her to return. I believe that’s the definition of a movie star.

Tierney plays Ellen, who becomes infatuated with novelist Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) because he reminds her of her recently deceased father. She seduces Richard, tosses aside her current fiancé, attorney Russell Quinton (Vincent Price), and is married to Richard quickly. Though at first she seems like the ideal wife, catering to Richard’s every need and helping Richard’s disabled brother Danny (Darryl Hickman)… it soon becomes apparent that she loves Richard too much. She becomes obsessed with having Richard all to herself and does anything necessary to make that happen. First, she allows Danny to drown, then she aborts her unborn baby by throwing herself down a staircase. Finally, when she suspects that her adopted sister Ruth (Jeanne Crain) and Richard are in love, she commits suicide and, in the process, frames Ruth for murder. As one does.

While the entire movie is filled with great moments, Ellen’s murder of Danny and her self-induced miscarriage are both transcendent. Screenwriter Jo Swerling and director John M. Stahl did not place the drowning in the middle of the night on a fog-filled lake – it takes place on an idyllic day in crisp, beautiful technicolor. Ellen is wearing white, her shockingly red lipstick a beautiful visual contradiction (Tierney’s red lips alone are reason enough for the movie to be in color) and has donned dark sunglasses so that we cannot see her eyes as Danny calls for help, goes under, surfaces and then goes under again, disappearing for good. It’s unnerving and hard to watch, weirdly harder because of the beauty surrounding the characters.

And then there’s the miscarriage scene. The brilliance here is what happens immediately before, with Ellen ensuring her hair and face is in a peak beauty phase. She puts on some perfume, ensures she looks as beautiful as possible and then tosses herself down the stairs savagely. Wow.

Stahl smartly seems to let Tierney just let loose in certain scenes and allow stillness to take over in others. Tierney makes some very interesting acting choices that linger in your mind long after the film ends. Take the moment where Richard is accusing Ellen of killing his brother and Tierney’s face is contorted into shock and misunderstanding and then, in a fraction of a second, her face goes entirely calm as she admits “Yes.” 99% of other actresses would have turned the switch into a “moment,” but here the briefness of the emotional change is what gives us impact.

Wilde is passable but not memorable as Richard, hitting all the marks he needs to but not really bringing much else. Just imagine what someone like Joel McCrea could have done with the role. It’s quite funny that Crain plays Ellen’s adopted sister, because she looks one heck of a lot like Tierney, and she is likewise fine, though she rises to the occasion for her big scene confronting Tierney about her wickedness.

Aside from Tierney, the main standout is Vincent Price, who takes what could have been a thankless role and invests it with more life and vigor than you could have ever expected. He takes over as the main presence of the movie after Ellen dies, and thank God for that, or the last half hour of the film would have been quite a slog. There’s something amazing about his court scenes, specifically the way he cross-examines Wilde and Crain. Their characters answer his question and, a mico-second after they finish speaking, Price is already asking the next. It’s a shockingly invasive way to question someone, and really works to build tension for the audience.

Swerling’s screenplay is about as good as screenplays come, taking the time needed to really delve into the characters while also fascinating the viewer from moment one. Look at the very unconventional way Ellen and Richard get engaged. Or Ellen explaining her dream of Richard drowning. Or how he both exploits and undercuts the awkwardness of falling in love with a woman who says you remind her of her dead father. It’s a shame Swerling isn’t as well remembered as several of his contemporaries – his work writing Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat” and uncredited polishes on “Gone With the Wind” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” are testament to his greatness.

Director Stahl’s approach to the material is to be standard in the macro so he can get away with the savageness of the small scenes. He uses chapter cuts between scenes and films everything is bright technicolor glory to trick the audience into thinking this is a high-brow weepie melodrama, when… well… it’s really not. Because of these things, he can get away with the drowning scene or the miscarriage scene because the audience isn’t expecting that kind of material. I somehow have never seen any of Stahl’s other films (he directed the original versions of “Magnificent Obsession” and “Imitation of Life”), but I wish he had done more noir, because the performances he gets from Tierney and Price (both of whom are noir favorites) are career bests for both. And before you start arguing about Price’s work in Roger Corman’s Poe films or his amazing stuff in “His Kind of Woman,” I’ll ask you to watch him here again.

I’m surprised “Leave Her to Heaven” has never been remade – with all the crazy female stalker movies that seem to come out twice a year, this is a plum role for a star that has a great pedigree behind it. Whatever the case, “Leave Her to Heaven” is one of my favorite films noir, and that drowning scene is one of the best murders in the history of film.

Score: *****