The film revolves around a novelist who meets a socialite during a train ride to New Mexico where they fall in love and get married until he brings in his teenaged, polio-stricken brother and her family into their lives as the woman becomes possessive to great extremes. It is a film about obsession and the idea of love where this man falls for love with a woman he meets on a train as she is reading one of his books as they both realize they are guests for an acquaintance of theirs where they would fall in love and marry only for the marriage to become troubled. Jo Swerling’s screenplay is filled with some witty and stylish dialogue that plays into the sense of attraction between the novelist Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) and the socialite Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney) upon their first meeting on the train. Yet, the story is told in reflective manner where Harland’s lawyer Glen Robie (Ray Collins) meets with Harland who had served a two-year prison sentence as he tells the story to people in this remote lake in Maine about what happened to Harland.
Robie was the one who invited Harland to his ranch in New Mexico where he also invited Ellen, her mother (Mary Philips), and her cousin/adopted sister Ruth (Jeanne Crain) as Harland gets to know the family as well as learn about Ellen and her attachment to her late father where she spread his ashes on a desert plateau. Although Ellen is engaged to an attorney in Russell Quinton (Vincent Price) who is running for district attorney. Ellen falls for Harland as they agreed to get married which would upset Quinton as Harland takes Ellen to Warm Springs, Georgia to meet his younger brother Danny (Daryl Hickman). At first, Ellen is warm in having Danny around until they moved to Harland’s remote lake house in Maine where Ellen is unhappy with not having Harland being around much due to his work while him inviting Mrs. Berent and Ruth to the home only made Ellen more possessive towards Harland. It would lead to some dark moments where Harland would temporarily live with the Berent family in Bar Harbor, Maine where Harland becomes close to Ruth though not in a romantic relationship despite Ellen’s paranoia.
John M. Stahl’s direction is stylish for the way he creates a film that has this tone that feels romantic, yet the opening scene reveals that something dark is ahead once Robie tells the story of what happened to Harland as he rows on a canoe all alone in the lake. Shot on various locations in Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and parts of California, Stahl uses the locations to play into the journey that Ellen and Harland would go through during their courtship and eventual marriage. While there are some wide shots of the locations including the scenes at the lake where Harland has his remote lake house. There is a sense of romanticism in the way Stahl presents the scenes with Ellen and Harland in the film’s first act through the medium shots and close-ups in how they interact with one another. Stahl would also create these gorgeous compositions that also add to the dramatic tension once the story goes to Harland’s home as it is this idyllic place, but it also marks this change in Ellen’s behavior where its tone starts to darken.
Stahl also plays into this sense of dramatic tension and suspense in the way Ellen yearns to be with Harland who starts to get disconnected with her. Even where he begins to question a lot of things including her relationship with her father. It is also when he starts to befriend Ruth where Stahl knows where to place the actors in a frame as well as these small moments that would add to this ferocity in Ellen over wanting Harland for herself. Given that the film was made during the period of the Hays Code which prevented certain things that American filmmakers could not do. Stahl does know how to create something that is shocking by not showing anything but rather through sound or in a wide shot. The film’s third act is about the aftermath of this event and how it would impact Harland and Ellen’s marriage with revelations on the latter that would prove to be disturbing to not just Harland but also Ruth who also questions her sister’s motives as well as questions into what happened with their father. Overall, Stahl crafts a haunting yet exhilarating film about a woman’s possessive behavior towards her new husband.
Cinematographer Leon Shamroy, along with Technicolor specialist Natalie Kalmus, does phenomenal work with the film’s colorful cinematography as the daytime exteriors in the deserts and lake are gorgeous in the details in the coloring with the interior and unique lighting that play into the drama and suspense. Editor James B. Clark does excellent work with the editing where it is straightforward in terms of its rhythm in playing up to the suspense and melodrama. Art directors Maurice Ransford and Lyle Wheeler, along with set decorator Thomas Little, do brilliant work with the look of Robie’s ranch in New Mexico, the lake house that Harland owns, and the beachside home that the Berents have in its interiors as well as the train where Harland meets Ellen. Costume designer Kay Nelson does amazing work with the costumes in the stylish clothes and dresses that Ellen wears as it plays into her personality as well as this idea of a woman of immense beauty but with a dark and dangerous persona from within.
Makeup artist Ben Nye does wonderful work in the way Ellen looks in wanting to be this goddess of sorts that is a direct contrast to the naturalistic look of Ruth. The special photographic effects by Fred Sersen are terrific for some of the film’s minimal special effects in a few set-dressing pieces for the scenes on the beach and a few bits in the desert. The sound work of Roger Heman Sr. and E. Clayton Ward is superb in the sparse sound in the way a location sounds or how things can be heard in another room as it adds to the drama. The film’s music by Alfred Newman, with orchestral arrangements by Edward B. Powell, is incredible for its orchestral music score that has arrangements that play into the suspenseful moments of the film with its usage of heavy percussions as well as the swelling of strings with themes that add to the sense of melodrama in the film.
The film’s marvelous ensemble cast feature some notable small roles from Jim Farley as the train conductor, Olive Blakeney as Robie’s wife, Reed Hadley as Danny’s doctor, Gene Lockhart as the Berent family doctor, and Chill Wills as Harland’s family friend Leick Thome whom Danny is often fond of though Ellen finds his presence to be distracting. Mary Philips is terrific as Ellen’s mother who laments over Ellen’s feelings for her father hoping Harland would be a good influence on her only to cope with the chaos over Ellen as she becomes more concerned towards Harland. Ray Collins is superb as Glen Robie as the man who would bring Harland and Ellen over to his ranch as he was also the former’s lawyer where he tells the story to locals in Maine over what happened with him and Ellen. Daryl Hickman is fantastic as Harland’s younger brother Danny who is partially paralyzed due to polio as he is fond of Ellen while also hoping to return to Maine to continue his growing progress unaware of Ellen’s growing disdain towards him.
Vincent Price is excellent as Russell Quinton as Ellen’s former fiancé who is shocked by the end of their abrupt engagement only to appear much later in the film during a trial that would put Harland into some serious trouble. Jeanne Crain is amazing as Ellen’s adopted sister Ruth as a young woman who has a love for nature and gardening as she becomes troubled by Ellen’s behavior while getting closer to Harland in their love for nature. Cornel Wilde is brilliant as Richard Harland as a novelist who falls for Ellen as he becomes smitten by her only to later be troubled by her behavior and possessiveness where he tries to sort out her behavior and motive. Finally, there’s Gene Tierney in a magnificent performance as Ellen Berent as a woman who is smitten by Harland because he looked like her late father while is hoping to have him all to herself. It is a performance that is filled with this sense of exotic beauty but there is this cold interior about her that is also monstrous in the way she becomes possessive towards Harland to some great extremes as it is truly a performance for the ages.
Leave Her to Heaven is a tremendous film by John M. Stahl that features a spectacular leading performance from Gene Tierney. Along with its supporting cast, ravishing visuals, a haunting music score, beautiful locations, and a rapturous story about love and obsession. It is a film that is an unconventional noir melodrama that also knows how to shock while also exploring a woman’s troubled obsession towards her husband. In the end, Leave Her to Heaven is an outstanding film by John M. Stahl.
© thevoid99 2024
It's a dandy film, and one that I find as a great example of the noir style, despite it not being black-and-white.
ReplyDeleteIt's also a film that sounds like it should be a romance, so the actual plot is a bit of a shock.
Gene Tierney is absolutely aces in this.
It is indeed and I found it to be quite shocking in what happens in the film. This is film noir at its finest. It would've been interesting to see it in black-and-white but the Technicolor added to the suspense and drama. Gene Tierney.... wow! I'd let her do bad things to me. :)
DeleteI've never heard of this one but it sounds really interesting. I like films about writers/novelists and I'm always up for a good noir. Gene Tierney is absolutely stunning, I still need to see her in LAURA as well.
ReplyDeleteThis is a must-see. I first discovered it through a video on YouTube where they used Roxy Music's "Take a Chance with Me" with the film as a back drop. It looked intriguing as I finally saw this and wow...
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