Leave Her to Heaven

When you think of film noir you automatically think of a corrupt city, dark streets, lonely men and a femme fatale, shot in black and white. But here we are in sunny California, in the hills, a forest, near and on a lake,  recorded in Technicolor in the forties. Leave her to Heaven is one of  my favourite classic Hollywood films.  Classic Hollywood being : American films made between  1930 - 1950. 

In a film noir, the man is the victim of a  femme fatale. But although Cornel Wilde, anti type casting because he usually played  ''beefy'' roles, now as a novelist, suffers from the acts of jealousy by his wife Helen, Helen is fatal to herself. She is her own victim, but as the title suggests  : she is better off. 

This masterpiece by John M. Stahl, screenplay by Jo Swerling, based on the novel by Ben Ames Williams, tells a tragic course of  love and jealousy, with a superb performance by Gene Tierney.  The stunning photography  by Leon Shamory received an Oscar.


Title sequence

                                                                     

Here is the scene when the young author Richard Harland meets a woman in a train, a relationship seems inevitable. 

Here:  one of the most disturbing scenes in post-war American film history. Helen  doesn’t intervene when Richard’s brother drowns.

                                                                             

Here is  the scene Helen quarrels  with her sister and she confesses what happened on the lake.

Martin Scorsese was involved in getting the film restored.  Martin Scorsese discussed Leave Her to Heaven  at 45th New York Film Festival. He called the film's hyper-realistic colour palette a source of inspiration for New York, New York and The Aviator.

 YouTube

The movie is available on YouTube. Watch it or get a copy on DVD.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More articles that might interest you: 

Leave Her to Heaven (1945): Dead Perfection. Nitrate Diva

Leave Her to Heaven. Reverse shot

Leave Her to Heaven: Noir, or Not?   Shadows and Satin 

Style in Film: Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven.  Classiq

The Classics - Gene Tierney and Leave Her to Heaven.   Boneyabroad

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                                                   
                                                                               

Gene Tierney was a wonderful actress and she worked with Hollywood’s best filmmakers : Fritz Lang, John Ford, Josef von Sternberg,  Rouben Mamoulian,  William A. Wellman, Ernst Lubitsch, Otto Preminger, Henry King, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Mitchell Leisen, Jacques Tourneur, Clarence Brown and Michael Curtiz to name a few.

With difficult events in her personal life, Tierney struggled for years with episodes of manic depression. In 1943, she gave birth to a daughter, Daria, who was deaf and mentally disabled, the result of a fan breaking a rubella quarantine and infecting the pregnant Tierney while she volunteered at the Hollywood Canteen.

In 1953, she suffered problems with concentration, which affected her film appearances. She dropped out of Mogambo, directed by John Ford, and was replaced by Grace Kelly. While playing Anne Scott in The Left Hand of God (1955), opposite Humphrey Bogart, Tierney became ill. Bogart's sister Frances (known as Pat) had suffered from mental illness, so he showed Tierney great sympathy, feeding her lines during the production and encouraging her to seek help.

Tierney consulted a psychiatrist and was admitted to Harkness Pavilion in New York. Later, she went to the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. After some 27 shock treatments, intended to alleviate severe depression, Tierney fled the facility, but was caught and returned. She later became an outspoken opponent of shock treatment therapy, claiming it had destroyed significant portions of her memory.

In late December 1957, Tierney, from her mother's apartment in Manhattan, stepped onto a ledge 14 stories above ground and remained for about 20 minutes in what was considered a suicide attempt. Police were called, and afterwards Tierney's family arranged for her to be admitted to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. The following year, after treatment for depression, she was discharged. Afterwards, she worked as a sales girl in a local dress shop with hopes of integrating back into society, but she was recognized by a customer, resulting in sensational newspaper headlines.

Later in 1958, 20th Century-Fox offered Tierney a lead role in Holiday for Lovers (1959), but the stress upon her proved too great, so only days into production, she dropped out of the film and returned to Menninger for a time.

After an absence from the screen for seven years she made her come back in Advise and Consent ( 1962) by Otto Preminger., who directed her in Laura ( 1944) and Whirlpool (1949).

Wikipedia

Tierney's autobiography, Self-Portrait, in which she candidly discusses her life, career, and mental illness, was published in 1979.

More details here :  Hannah Howe

“Wealth, beauty and fame are transient. When those are gone, little is left except the need to be useful.”