Is it Poe? Is it Lovecraft? Is it Bram Stoker? Is it Hollywood? Definitely the last. Any Lovecraft fan cringes at the much misguided evocation of Arkham, Curwen, and Ward. Probably because of the lack of concern about Lovecraft's estate in the early 1960s, no one came forward to challenge this movie's usurpage of his evocations and names. Pity that such a shabby movie even remotely evokes Lovecraft's work and soils his genius.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Leave Her to Heaven
(1945)
Superb Casting!
16 November 2001
I just read Ben Ames Williams's novel and couldn't from the first page imagine anyone else but Gene Tierney as Ellen. The movie is remarkably faithful to the book, but Ruth played a larger role in the book. No doubt a desire to avoid almost two leading roles led to the rewrite. But few novels and their screen adaptations are so close as these two.
Angel Face
(1952)
Mid-20th Century Obsession
15 November 2001
Just saw this movie for the first time today and don't know why I've not seen it before; we taped it off TCM some time ago. It is haunting, as others have commented. I'm surprised that no one compares it to the admittedly somewhat overblown "Leave Her to Heaven" from 1945: the obsession with possession of those she loves by both Ellen and Diane is remarkable. I wonder if any scholars of women's film history have ventured here.
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