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Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
20 December 1945 (USA)
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Tagline:
Hers was the deadliest of the seven sins.
Plot:
Writer Richard Harland unhesitatingly marries lovely Ellen Berent. He soon finds his life blighted when...
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Awards:
Won Oscar.
Another 3 nominations
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NewsDesk:
User Comments:
Striking melodrama
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Cast
(Complete credited cast) | Gene Tierney | ... | Ellen Berent Harland |
 | Cornel Wilde | ... | Richard Harland |
 | Jeanne Crain | ... | Ruth Berent |
 | Vincent Price | ... | Russell Quinton |
| Mary Philips | ... | Mrs. Berent |
| Ray Collins | ... | Glen Robie |
 | Gene Lockhart | ... | Dr. Saunders |
| Reed Hadley | ... | Dr. Mason |
| Darryl Hickman | ... | Danny Harland |
| Chill Wills | ... | Leick Thome |
| rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
| Guy Beach | ... | Sheriff (unconfirmed) |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
110 min
Country:
Language:
Colour:
Colour (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)
Certification:
Singapore:PG |
South Korea:12 |
UK:U |
Canada:PG (video rating) |
Argentina:16 |
Australia:PG |
Finland:K-16 |
Sweden:15 |
USA:Approved (PCA #11042)
Filming Locations:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The original choice for the role of Ellen was Rita Hayworth, who turned it down
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Goofs:
Factual errors: There is no legal way that Cornel Wilde's character Richard Harland could have been sentenced as an accomplice after the fact, for the crimes his wife had committed. Under the law he couldn't testify against his spouse, and was not under legal obligation to report on her.
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Quotes:
Ellen Berent Harland:
I'll never let you go. Never, never, never.
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Movie Connections:
Featured in "Private Screenings: Child Stars" (2006)
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Soundtrack:
Chickens in the Garden
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FAQ
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This is the kind of film you have to watch understanding the time in which it was made. Talking pictures were only just under twenty years old and people did not realize that film required techniques different from the stage. Two of the leads (Tierney and Price) were both stage actors and were taught to play in the large style that was part of the time and was what audiences expected, as were the grand emotional gestures in the plot of this picture and others, and the ever-present music.
Stage productions at that time mostly all had incidental music, specially written for them (one example is Paul Bowles' score for the Broadway stage production of "The Glass Menagerie"), performed live, in the theater.
This film has a particularly effective score by Alfred Newman, though loud and melodramatic by today's standards, using an ostinato timpani figure, a kind of throbbing heartbeat, and the musical intervallic motive of the descending augmented fourth, the "tritone", which in the middle ages was called the "Devil in Music", to express the darker side of the lead character's motives and persona.
So we should be careful in watching films like this, to understand the context and try to put ourselves in the place of the audiences of that time. If one does, this is a grand experience, with top-notch performances, cinematography, writing and music. Stretch your mind and heart to fit the big emotions and seemingly impossible plot turns, imagine yourself watching this in a huge theater, with hundreds if not thousands of others, on a huge screen, with a very powerful sound system, and suddenly it works.
Of course, this is a vehicle for a "star" actress, and Tierney rises to the occasion admirably, holding your attention in every scene she's in, by her beauty and her sheer magnetism on the screen. On the DVD commentary for it, the actor who appeared opposite Tierney as the young boy Danny belittles her "technical" acting approach (that is, working from the outside in, rather than using the inner-directed "Method" developed around that time in America by Lee Strasberg, taking and often misunderstanding and misinterpreting techniques developed in Russia by Constantin Stanislavsky) and he says that, in scenes, she gave nothing to the actor (himself) playing opposite her.
Well, first, that's the character she's playing, icy cold, with a "flat affect", as written. As a relatively inexperienced film actress, she was possibly one of those actors who cannot get out of character between shots or while resting on a shoot. In retrospect we know of her serious mental problems which manifested later, and perhaps this role was just too close for comfort!
Considering that, watching her playing from this distance, I think she does very well, always present in the scene and listening, with only a very few moments of self-conscious posing. I think Mr Hickman has an ax to grind here; in fact, he does, and he goes as far as to advertise his own teaching practice and book about acting!
Let's face it, when we think of this picture and others like it, after all, we remember Tierney, her beauty, her strong screen presence and her vulnerability as the character, not his performance, good as it is.