A writer meets a woman on a train and a whirlwind romance soon leads to marriage, but things turn sour when he realizes her intense jealousy may be responsible for a series of tragic events.
Trashy melodrama has never been realized on the screen with such boldness, or lead by a femme fatale so deliriously demented. The filmmaker, John M. Stahl, is far from a household name, but this is a hugely influential work, and two of Stahl's earlier films (Imitation Of Life and Magnificent Obsession) were both remade by revered stylist Douglas Sirk in the 1950's. The psychosexual elements found here, though hiding just beneath the surface, are surprisingly lurid and certainly tested the limits of the censors in 1940's Hollywood.
Gene Tierney, one of the most beautiful and captivating faces to ever grace the silver screen, turns in what is without a doubt her finest work as a disturbed woman with serious "daddy" issues, and is joined by Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Ray Collins, and horror film icon Vincent Price.
Leave Her to Heaven is often referred to as one of the rare "Technicolor film noirs", and the Academy Award-winning photography by Leon Shamroy is perhaps the film's greatest legacy, using color as a tool to invert the implied peace of the mostly rustic locations, as well as underscoring the highly-charged emotions at play. A score by veteran composer Alfred Newman is also very effective to these same ends.
The screenplay was adapted by Jo Swerling, who was also responsible for several 1930's screwball comedy and romance classics, uncredited work on Gone WIth The Wind, and the scripts for It's A Wonderful Life, Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat, and Guys & Dolls.
Leave Her to Heaven also received Oscar nominations for its Sound, Art Direction, and Tierney's lead performance.
Film runs 110 minutes.
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