Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Director:

John M. Stahl

Writers:

Jo Swerling (screenplay)
Ben Ames Williams (novel)

Release Date:

20 December 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The sin she committed in the name of love could not be judged by man...or punished by law!

Plot:

A writer meets a young socialite on board a train. The two fall in love and are married soon after, but her obsessive love for him threatens to be the undoing of both them and everyone else around them.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Train | Writer | Lake | Jealousy

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 3 nominations

Cast

Gene Tierney	...	Ellen Berent Harland
Cornel Wilde	...	Richard Harland
Jeanne Crain	...	Ruth Berent
Vincent Price	...	Russell Quinton
Mary Philips	...	Mrs. Berent
Ray Collins	...	Glen Robie
Gene Lockhart	...	Dr. Saunders
Reed Hadley	...	Dr. Mason
Darryl Hickman	...	Danny Harland
Chill Wills	...	Leick Thome
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Guy Beach	...	Sheriff (unconfirmed) (uncredited)
Audrey Betz	...	Cook at Robie's Ranch (uncredited)
Olive Blakeney	...	Mrs. Louise Robie (uncredited)
Ruth Clifford	...	Telephone Operator (uncredited)
Harry Depp	...	Catterson - the Chemist (uncredited)
Paul Everton	...	The Judge (uncredited)
Jim Farley	...	Train Conductor (uncredited)
Betty Hannon	...	Tess Robie (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp	...	Lounge Car Train Passenger (uncredited)
Hugh Maguire	...	Lin Robie (uncredited)
Mae Marsh	...	Fisherwoman (uncredited)
Thomas Martin	...	Court Clerk (uncredited)
Grant Mitchell	...	Carlson (uncredited)
Milton Parsons	...	Medcraft - Mortician (uncredited)
Addison Richards	...	Bedford (uncredited)
Kay Riley	...	Danny's Nurse (uncredited)
Earl Schenck	...	Norton (uncredited)
Charles Tannen	...	Man (uncredited)

Directed by
John M. Stahl

Writing credits
Jo Swerling		(screenplay)
Ben Ames Williams		(novel)

Produced by
William A. Bacher	....	producer
Darryl F. Zanuck	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Alfred Newman

Cinematography by
Leon Shamroy		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
James B. Clark

Art Direction by
Maurice Ransford
Lyle R. Wheeler		(as Lyle Wheeler)

Set Decoration by
Thomas Little
Ernest Lansing		(uncredited)

Costume Design by
Kay Nelson

Makeup Department
Ben Nye	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Sid Bowen	....	unit manager (uncredited)
Raymond A. Klune	....	production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Joseph C. Behm	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Otto Brower	....	second unit director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Roger Heman Sr.	....	sound (as Roger Heman)
E. Clayton Ward	....	sound

Special Effects by
Fred Sersen	....	special photographic effects

Visual Effects by
Sol Halperin	....	transparency projection shots (uncredited)
Edwin Hammeras	....	transparency projection shots (uncredited)
Edward Snyder	....	transparency projection shots (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
E. Truman Joiner	....	key grip (uncredited)
F. Bud Mautino	....	second camera (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Sam Benson	....	wardrobe supervisor (uncredited)
Eugene Joseff	....	costume jeweller (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Lyman Hallowell	....	apprentice editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Edward B. Powell	....	orchestrator
Murray Spivack	....	music mixer (uncredited)

Other crew
Natalie Kalmus	....	technicolor director
Richard Mueller	....	associate technicolor director
Darryl F. Zanuck	....	presenter
Ruth Fox	....	research assistant (uncredited)
Frances C. Richardson	....	research director (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Distributors

• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (1945) (USA) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox Film (1950) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (1952) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release) (black and white)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2010) (Canada) (DVD) (4 film collection)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD) (4 film collection)
• Fox Video (1995) (USA) (VHS)
• Fox Video (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2005) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #11042) | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | UK:U | Canada:PG (video rating) | West Germany:16 | USA:TV-14

Filming Locations:

Bass Lake, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on March 17, 1947 with Gene Tierney and Cornel Wilde reprising their film roles.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Ellen's method of scattering her father's ashes (flinging the urn from side to side during a horseback ride through the desert) would leave both her and the horse covered in her father's remains.

Quotes:

Ellen Berent Harland:I'll never let you go. Never, never, never.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "M*A*S*H: House Arrest (#3.18)" (1975)

Soundtrack:

Deedle Deedle Dum Dum

LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (John M. Stahl, 1945) ***

A Technicolor noir is intrinsically a paradoxical term but this stunningly handsome melodrama – which deservedly copped cinematographer Leon Shamroy a consecutive Academy Award – is probably the most successful example of this anomaly within the prolific genre. Gorgeous Fox starlet Gene Tierney (who also received her sole Oscar-nomination for her efforts here) gives an excellent central performance as the pathologically jealous heroine who ensnares a chance acquaintance on a train (novelist Cornel Wilde) into marriage while summarily dismissing her current fiancée (prospective D.A. Vincent Price) via telegram. Wilde's younger brother (Darryl Hickman) is a cripple and when she finds herself having to take care of him while her hubby writes away in his cabin, she soon takes matters into her own psychotic little hands and lets the boy drown after suffering a cramp brought on by her egging to exercise himself further. The relationship between Tierney and Wilde is never the same again and he finds solace in her kind-hearted, red-headed half-sister (Jeanne Crain) who had earlier suggested that Tierney conceive a child so as to bring Wilde back to her. However, when she realizes their new-found proximity, Tierney deliberately throws herself down a staircase to lose the child. Furthermore, Tierney had had an unhealthy attachment to her late scientist father which turned the relationship with mother into a cool one; taking a trip down the cellar (where father's old mixtures are stored) on the eve of a picnic, she spikes her own food with poison but not before sending off a letter to Price incriminating Crain of her own murder!! Wilde and Crain make a handsome couple but are not overly taxed by their roles; on the other hand, Price makes the most of the juicy opportunity provided by the film's climactic trial sequence in which he grills Crain into declaring her love for Wilde and also contrives to make the latter an accessory to murder (punishable by a short imprisonment) for having withheld Tierney's confessions to him of her own evil deeds! The supporting cast also features a handful of familiar faces: Ray Collins (as Crain's guardian), Chill Wills (as Wilde's manservant) and Gene Lockhart (as the family doctor); director John M. Stahl was the Douglas Sirk of his day and handles the material with consummate skill while composer Alfred Newman lends it a quite remarkable musical backing that was oddly bypassed at the Oscars (although, truth be told, he was already being nominated for two other films that same year)!