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Leave Her to Heaven
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Leave Her to Heaven (1945) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.8/10   2,650 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 9% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers:
Jo Swerling (screenplay)
Ben Ames Williams (novel)
Contact:
View company contact information for Leave Her to Heaven on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
20 December 1945 (USA) more
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... more | add synopsis
Awards:
Won Oscar. Another 3 nominations more
NewsDesk:
Leave Her To Heaven Movie Review
 (From MoviesOnline. 4 July 2009, 8:00 PM, PDT)

User Reviews:
Incest through a third party. more (85 total)

Cast

  (in credits order) (verified as complete)

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)
Audrey Betz ... Cook at Robie's Ranch (uncredited)
Olive Blakeney ... Mrs. Louise Robie (uncredited)
Ruth Clifford ... Telephone Operator (uncredited)
Harry Depp ... The chemist (uncredited)
Paul Everton ... The judge (uncredited)
Jim Farley ... Train Conductor (uncredited)
Betty Hannon ... Tess Robie (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp ... Lounge Car Train Passenger (uncredited)
Hugh Maguire ... Lin Robie (uncredited)

Mae Marsh ... Fisherwoman (uncredited)
Grant Mitchell ... Carlson (uncredited)
Milton Parsons ... Medcraft (mortician) (uncredited)
Addison Richards ... Bedford (uncredited)
Kay Riley ... Danny's nurse (uncredited)
Earl Schenck ... Norton (uncredited)
Charles Tannen ... Man (uncredited)
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Directed by
John M. Stahl 
 
Writing credits
Jo Swerling (screenplay)

Ben Ames Williams (novel)

Produced by
William A. Bacher .... producer
Darryl F. Zanuck .... executive producer (uncredited)
 
Original Music by
Alfred Newman 
 
Cinematography by
Leon Shamroy 
 
Film Editing by
James B. Clark 
 
Art Direction by
Maurice Ransford 
Lyle R. Wheeler  (as Lyle Wheeler)
 
Set Decoration by
Thomas Little 
Ernest Lansing (uncredited)
 
Costume Design by
Kay Nelson 
 
Makeup Department
Ben Nye .... makeup artist
 
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Joseph C. Behm .... assistant director (uncredited)
 
Sound Department
Roger Heman Sr. .... sound (as Roger Heman)
E. Clayton Ward .... sound
 
Special Effects by
Fred Sersen .... special photographic effects
 
Camera and Electrical Department
E. Truman Joiner .... key grip (uncredited)
 
Costume and Wardrobe Department
Sam Benson .... wardrobe supervisor (uncredited)
 
Music Department
Edward B. Powell .... orchestrator
 
Other crew
Natalie Kalmus .... technicolor director
Richard Mueller .... associate technicolor director
Darryl F. Zanuck .... presenter
 
Crew verified as complete


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Additional Details

Runtime:
110 min
Country:
Language:
Colour:
Colour (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)
Filming Locations:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The famous (and dramatic) swimming scene that takes place in the lake for Darryl Hickman's character was in water so cold that the young actor caught pneumonia. more
Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Ellen's method of scattering her father's ashes (flinging the urn from side to side during a horseback ride through the desert) would leave both her and the horse covered in her father's remains. more
Quotes:
Ellen Berent Harland: I keep forgetting you can't draw a deep breath without being heard all over the house!
Ellen Berent Harland: Let's change the name of the place from Back Of The Moon to Goldfish Manor.
more
Movie Connections:
Soundtrack:
Deedle Deedle Dum Dum more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
40 out of 54 people found the following review useful.
Incest through a third party., 14 August 2003
Author: dbdumonteil

The melodrama of which Stahl was one of the masters throughout the thirties had muted,probably because the importance of the film noir in the following decade."Leave her to heaven' is as much a film noir as a melodrama.What's particularly puzzling is the color. Like some Lang ,HItchcock or Tourneur works ("secret beyond the door" "spellbound" or "cat people",for instance) ,this is par excellence a Freudian movie.The heroine has never solved her Oedipus complex :she has always been in love with her father -dig the scene when Gene Tierney rides her horse as she throws her father's ashes away. The love she could not make with her father ,she will make it through a third party: a husband who resembles her dad. This could be fine.She loves her husband to the exclusion of all others .But there are others ,and they are all living threats.So these intruders will be enemies.The scene when Tierney sees her family coming through binoculars can be compared to an attack of Indians or bandits when the hero is alone in a remote fort in an adventure film ,as Bertrand Tavernier pointed out in "50 ans de cinéma américain". Had the heroine preserved her intimacy -and how stupid her husband was not to have understood that!-,maybe nothing would have happened.THe color,which might seem irrelevant in a film noir ,is actually necessary because "back of the moon" ,the island in the middle of the lake is a paradise ,soon to become a lost paradise,then a living hell. A probably never better Gene Tierney outshines every other member of the cast ,which is first-rate though.Little by little,we see her become a monster ,and the actress's performance is so convincing (along with a superb script from which a lot of today's writers could draw inspiration) that it gives her horrible crimes an implacable logic.Like in a Greek tragedy. "Leave her to heaven " is by no means "romantic trash" .It's the crowning of Stahl 's career in which he transcends both melodrama and film noir.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Commentary by Schickel + Hickman freakseed
Tierney , Gardner or Hayworth? jim4146
Why did Harland get two years in prison? Turfseer
Where was this filmed? lewis-51
House in New Mexico location? theladysif
Cornel Wilde's reasons for visiting with this family ? viaggio1
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