Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Credits: Director: John M. Stahl Producer: William A. Bacher Screenwriter: Jo Swerling Based on the Novel by: Ben Ames Williams Cinematography: Leon Shamroy Editor: James B. Clark Composer: Alfred Newman Production Designer: Lyle Wheeler and Maurice Ransfor

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

Key Terms/Concepts/Figures to Study this Week:

Iconography, femme fatale, Laura Mulvey, male gaze, genre vs. movement, genre vs. style, visual motifs, tight vs. loose framing, Technicolor, neo-noir, male spectator vs. female spectator

Interesting Facts:

The title of the film (and novel on which it is based) is from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act I, Scene V: "...leave her to heaven, and to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, to prick and sting her."

Leave her to Heaven was nominated for three Oscars (Best Cinematography, Best Actress, Best Art Direction). It won the Oscar for Best Cinematography.

Critical Commentary

“Film noir gives us one of the few periods in film in which women are active, not static symbols, are intelligent and powerful, if destructively so, and derive power, not weakness, from their sexuality.” —Janey Place,  “Women in Film Noir.” In Women in Film Noir, ed. E. Ann Kaplan London: BFI, 1998.

“The premise and style of Leave Her to Heaven is pure melodrama, and it was directed by one of the great practitioners in the genre, John M. Stahl. Stahl, an old hand from the silent era, also directed the original versions of Imitation of Life and Magnificent Obsession, both later remade by Douglas Sirk. Yet this movie has a darker tone that feels right at home amid that other popular genre of the 1940s, film noir.” —Richard Schickel, Review of Leave Her to Heaven. http://www.rottentomatoes.com

 “Leave Her To Heaven can be called a costume drama, because the artistic direction makes it so. Like a group of peasants called in to be extras, the cast is always in its Sunday best, in contradiction with everyday reality. Whether he's at his typewriter in the blazing poolside heat of New Mexico or on the veranda of his cabin in Maine, Richard Harland is dressed formally. Outside the movies, Gene Tierney was a model, so of course she looks great in the endless series of avant fashion gear. . . The beautiful settings demand statues, not people. . .” —Lawrence Russell, Review of Leave Her to Heaven. http://www.rottentomatoes.com

“The most immediate impact in a historical context was in the quality of violence displayed in so many postwar dramas that came to be recognized as films noirs. The sadism that satisfied a number of sociopaths, or the amorality of an Ellen Berent’s vacant responses to the pain of dying and manslaughter in Leave Her to Heaven implied something new at the time; namely, that violence can be disturbingly recognizable, a perversion arising from the rupture of psychological balance that both subdues and unleashes it.” —Frances Dickos, Street with No Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir. Univ. of Kentucky Press, 2002.

Discussion Questions

1. Shot in Technicolor and set amidst gorgeous natural scenery, Leave Her to Heaven seems to have very little in common with most classical films noirs. And yet, many critics have labeled it as such. Why do you think this is? What elements does Leave her to Heaven have in common with Double Indemnity? Based on your viewing of Double Indemnity and clips from various noir films like Murder, My Sweet, Kiss Me Deadly, and Touch of Evil, do you think Leave Her to Heaven should be classified as a film noir? If so, why? If not, why not?
2. Comment on Ellen Berent as a femme fatale. Femme fatales typically possess two traits: ruthlessness and an overpowering beauty/sexuality. In what ways does Ellen possess both these traits? How does the camera film Ellen? How do the men in the film respond to her? How would you describe Gene Tierney’s beauty and sexuality?
3. Please compare Phyllis Dietrichson and Ellen Berent as femme fatales. What characteristics do they have in common? What are the important differences between them?
4. One of the brilliant aspects of Leave Her to Heaven are the early, subtle suggestions that the relationship between Ellen and Richard is destined to go wrong. What are some of these suggestions? For your answer, you might consider the multiple references made early in the film to Ellen’s father, the scene where Ellen scatters her father’s ashes, the scene between Ellen and Richard at the pool, and the scene where Ellen’s former fiancée comes to visit.
5. A number of critics have remarked on how the film’s cinematographer uses certain colors—specifically blues, greens, and oranges—to give the film a sinister look. Can you think of examples of this color pattern?
6. Throughout Leave her to Heaven, a tension exists between the beauty of the natural settings and interior sets and the sinister thoughts and actions of Ellen Berent. Single out one scene in which this tension is particularly evident for analysis.
7. The history of the Berent family remains quite obscure and mysterious throughout the film. Why do you think we are provided with such few details about the family? What are we to surmise of Mr. and Mrs. Berent’s relationship? Of Ellen’s relationship with her father? Of Ruth’s relationship with Mrs. Berent and with Ellen?
8. Janey Place makes the following observation about film noir’s “good girls,” such as Ellen Berent’s cousin and adopted sister Ruth: “. . . these women offer the possibility of social integration for the alienated, lost man into the stable world of secure values, roles, and identities. She gives love and understanding, asks very little in return, and is generally visually passive and static. Often, in order to offer this alternative to the nightmare world of film noir, she is linked to the pastoral environment of open spaces, light, and safety characterized by even, flat, high-key lighting.” Respond to this observation, using the character of Ruth Berent as your focus.
9. Although Leave Her to Heaven ostensibly provides us with a happy ending, some elements of that ending also seem questionable. How might we read the ending of the film as less happy than it seems upon first consideration?