Sunday, April 3, 2011

Leave Her to Heaven, 1945, (Grade D)


plot:   Gene Tierney plays Ellen Berent, a woman who bedazzles writer Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) when the two meet on a train. Their courtship is sweet and swift, leading to a hasty marriage, but sadness displaces the joy when a series of tragedies befalls the couple. Could these horrid events have anything to do with Ellen's burgeoning and all-consuming jealousy?
Director: John M Stahl
Awards; A number of academy awards and nominations
Cast: Gene Tierney; Cornel Wilde; Jeanne Crain: Vincent Price; Gene Lockhart; Darryl Hickman

sez says:  this is one of the most VIVID COLOR movies I've seen--and  it is almost worth watching just to see exactly how wildly weird color can be..but ultimately, it is sort of boring and it distracts from the story.  This same story, done in black and white (or with fewer intense close-ups of red red lips, etc) and with a more subtle touch with the characters--might have been a masterful psychological drama--something akin to Gaslight.   But no such luck. There is never a question about who is crazy--and her craziness is taken over the top -- by both the acting and the color. Tierney was a beautiful woman, overly made-up.  The settings of New Mexico, Maine, Cape Cod are all  displayed in a bright cheap postcard image style. The costumes are fun. And Wilde appears every where (in his canoe, and on the beach, and at a western ranch) wearing a suit and tie and leather shoes...all of which just seemed strange.   

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