Fabulous woman's film of he 1940's. Great contrast between the visible tecnicolor and the darkness of the story. May seem a bit over the top now but I love it.

"A fevered yet clinical study of jealousy, Leave Her to Heaven is probably John M. Stahl's best-known film." - Dan Callahan

Marvelous psychodrama, something like a noir Douglas Sirk. One usually doesn't think of color films as noir, especially such gorgeous Technicolor, but the atmosphere is so grim and twisted that it fits. The lake scene is one of the most chilling that I've ever witnessed. Tierney does some of her best work, starting off as a seemingly harmless romantic lead and transforming into a wicked, demented femme fatale. If the film has a major flaw, it's the slow beginning.

944

Fun. Menacing. Pretty to look at. Everything a Film Noir should be.

It's a classic woman's picture dripping in glorious technicolor--only this time the woman isn't the usual insecure neurotic suffering or self-dramatizing: she's a sociopath and a murderer. Gene Tierney has never been lovelier--or so thoroughly evil. Stahl directs with absolute classical. sincerity--no baroque campiness here-and this is adds much to the film's power and effect.

Fine noir although since I don't find Tierney terribly attractive, I had to strain to believe anyone would fall for her so hard for this particular femme fatale. Still, altogether I was rather impressed and my attention never once drifted.

#976

Very, very weak. Slow, dull, boring, plot so empty it echoes.

Dated badly and often silly. A certain famous sequence is nowhere nearly as effective as everybody says it is

Wow--Madame Bovary with a vengeance. The second half proved a lot more absorbing. Goofy touches (Cornel recites to Gene words from the book she's reading; she doesn't realize he wrote it till she notices the back-cover pic; Cornel is spooked because Gene knows so much about him, before he realizes she's read his bio blurb...just how bright is this guy anyway?). At times it looks like something from the 70s--low-key and casual; I think of the airport scenelet in particular.

This definitely needs a couple of viewings to get the most out of Ellen's early suggestions and insinuations. It's actually a lot better when you know what's going to happen; it allows you to better appreciate Tierney's superb performance. On one hand it could be seen as a brilliant psych' thriller, and on the other (much more accurate hand) it could be seen as an hour of dross followed by an hour of suspense. I was lucky enough to see it in two parts.

Gene Tierney makes me swoon, and she's perfect for this type of role, having the ability to be beautiful and menacing simultaneously. At times it feels hokey and the technicolor doesn't always mesh well with the atmosphere but the suspense part of the film builds very well making the film ultimately successful. It'd work a bit better without the bit at the beginning framing it as a flashback.

No-holds-barred melodrama of the old school; what seemed lush production at the time now looks tatty.

899