Leave Her to Heaven
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.97 You Save: $8.01 (53%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.49 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Leave Her to Heaven
Movie Review: REEL LOVE
Summary: 5 Stars
Based on one of Ben Ames Williams popular novels in set in Main, John Stahl's noirish LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (Fox) is more about the art of filmmaking than that of acting, according to Darryl Hickman's commentary (the film won a 1945 Oscar© for Leon Shamroy's breathtaking Technicolor cinematography).
Hickman, now a respected acting teacher, plays the handicapped younger brother of Cornel Wilde in this cult film about a successful, handsome writer who impulsively marries a beautiful woman (Gene Tierney) only to become the victim of obsessive love that leads to a series of shocking deaths. (This film was Wilde's first starring role. He was an Olympic fencer who got into the movies coaching actors in sword fighting.) The luminous Jeanne Crain plays Tierney's kindly sister and a slim, young Vincent Price is a Tierney's dumped fiance, a sententious, vindictive prosecuting attorney.
Exploring some of the same emotional terrain as Douglas Sirk's films ("All That Heaven Allows," "Written on the Wind"), this quintessential romance does not presume to present real life in a gritty way. Rather, it's an example of what Hollywood once did best when the studios were run by filmmakers and not executives.
Hickman says director Stahl was borderline sadistic, forcing him to repeat take after take of a grueling waterscene in freezing Bass Lake until he was cramped and exhausted. Stahl never called Hickman by name until producer Darryl F. Zanuck sent a note praising Hickman's acting. Hickman says Stahl was rude to Wilde. And that the much more experienced Tierney was unhelpful and cold to newcomer Wilde and everyone else in the cast.
The terrific commentary is filled with Hickman's numerous, unabashed observations about this film, the movie business, and acting techniques and styles. It raises this already outstanding, glorious-looking film to another level of enjoyment.
Highly recommended.
Movie Review: "I'll never let you go, never!"
Summary: 5 Stars
An example of 1940s romantic melodrama at its best, "Leave Her To Heaven" may seem like an outlandish story but it is a memorable one and certainly one of the most gorgeously photographed Technicolor films ever made (the visual style of the film is similar to Douglas Sirk's 1950s melodramas). The photography by Leon Shamroy (who won a well deserved Oscar for this) features beautiful location settings in New Mexico, Arizona and Bass Lake, California. Gene Tierney, fresh from her most famous role in "Laura" is outrageously gorgeous as the cold and insanely jealous heroine. Jeanne Crain, in one of her first roles, is a tad plastic as the sympathetic half sister and Cornel Wilde is fine as the hapless fly drawn into Tierney's web.
DVD extras include a photo gallery, two Movietone features (one on the Academy Awards and the other on the premiere) and an audio commentary by TIME critic Richard Schickel and actor Darryl Hickman, who played Danny in the film. Schnickel's comments are not particularly interesting but Hickman's recollections of being a child actor and working on the set of "LHTH" are often fascinating. Hickman recalls friendships with fellow child stars Shirley Temple and Roddy McDowell and talks about what difficult lives child actors endured. His comments about the actors he worked with are particularly interesting - Gene Tierney was remote and unkind to both him and co-star Cornel Wilde and director John Stahl doesn't recieve kind remarks either. On the other hand, Hickman remembers Cornel Wilde and Jeanne Crain as kind and easy to work with. Hickman has since become an acting teacher and coach and his comments are often concerned with acting techniques (he is especially unimpressed with Tierney's acting abilities).
Movie Review: Great Hollywood creation - beware the commentary
Summary: 5 Stars
The film is like Serk only better, not quite as self-conscious. Extraordinary technicolor and Gene Tierney is wonderful, a walking goddess until her closeups when you see she is insane. This is Hollywood studio dark fantasy and yes Bunuel must have loved it. If only he'd had this budget. The Amazon blurb is inaccurately dismissive in my opinion.
The commentary, by critic Schickel and the child actor who grew up to be an acting coach, is to be avoided. There are some technical details that are interesting but then they launch into a 1950s Method-adoring attack on Tierney (who was rude to the supporting cast apparently) with 'Bobby' carrying on as if she were a bad student in front of him in class. Whatever she did to get this performance works if you are an audience for it, she is better by miles than Wilde or her critic, who says he didn't like the role because he was physically fit and the role was a cripple - no wonder he doesn't work now. Tierney extended herself in the role and is the major reason it's so good. Though highly artificial in style, the attitudes of the family - refusing to state the obvious - and the dialogue is exactly how an upper-middle-class family of that time thought and spoke and many still do today. Brando in Wilde's role would have destroyed the film. You want a Method lecture read up on Strasberg, but don't let the commentary ruin what is a highly accomplished film. Tierney's entire performance is keyed to one line reading and that is high level stuff apparently beyond the commentators' ability to appreciate. I hope a reissue would include a more thoughtful bonus.
Movie Review: Beautiful Poison...
Summary: 5 Stars
Ellen (Gene Tierney) is a beautiful, intelligent young woman. She is outwardly perfect in every regard. Unfortunately, she is lacking some things internally. Ellen has no conscience. She also lacks compassion, empathy, and a few other human qualities. Ellen lives only to please herself, by any means necessary. Along comes a handsome, successful writer (Cornel Wilde) who catches Ellen's eye. She wants him, but wait, she's already engaged to be married to another man (Vincent Price). No problem! In Ellen's mind, all she needs to do is remove her engagement ring and move on. She'll marry the writer now. This comes as quite a shock to both men involved. This is just the way Ellen thinks and lives her life. No one else matters. They are all mere pawns to help her get her own satisfaction. Sometimes these pawns get in her way, as if they were of some importance. Ellen must find a way to deal w/ such naughty "people". She will have her way, no matter what she must do to achieve it. Her new husband's younger, handicapped brother is in Ellen's way. He won't stop bleeding away her husband's attention. He's needy. What will Ellen do to solve this problem? The answer to this question is the key to her blackened soul. As Cornel Wilde says later, she is a woman who is "capable of anything". LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN is a dark, sinister story, disturbing in it's malevolence. It must have been a genuine shocker in 1945! Gene Tierney plays Ellen so well it's frightening. She captures pure sociopathy in words, gestures, and glances that kill on contact. This is an ageless horror classic...Movie Review: glossy melodrama supreme
Summary: 5 Stars
LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN is Hollywood melodrama at it's glossy, florid best. Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde and Jeanne Crain lead the strong, well-acted cast and the Technicolor photography beautifully enhances and heightens the on-screen drama of the piece.
An encounter in a train bound for New Mexico throws together beautiful Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney) and thoughtful author Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde). Pretty soon, Ellen has Richard wound around her finger and despite the fact that she's already engaged to attorney Russell Quinton (Vincent Price), they get married.
Soon however, Ellen's true nature starts to manifest. She cannot stand anything (or anyone) distracting Richard's love and attention toward her, so she must destroy anything in her path. Only Ellen's mother and sister (Mary Philips and Jeanne Crain) know of the real Ellen, and it's only a matter of time before Richard comes to know her as well...
This remains an engrossing and highly-entertaining movie, chiefly because of Gene Tierney who completely throws herself into the role of monstrous Ellen (not to mention the Technicolor photography which immeasurably adds to her considerable beauty; this is probably her greatest screen appearance). Cornel Wilde (and his charming screen persona) is perfect for the gentle Richard and Jeanne Crain really could pass for Tierney's sister. Darryl Hickman plays Richard's disabled brother Danny. Kay Nelson designed the costumes. Wunderkind Alfred Newman composed one of his most stirring scores.