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Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price, Mary Philips ... see more see more... , Ray Collins , Gene Lockhart , Reed Hadley , Darryl Hickman , Chill Wills , Paul Everton , Olive Blakeney , Addison Richards , Harry Depp , Grant Mitchell , Milton Parsons , Earl Schenck , Hugh Maguire , Betty Hannon , Kay Riley , Audrey Betz , Mae Marsh , Charles Tannen , Jim Farley , Guy Beach

Gene Tierney portrays a beautiful but unstable woman who marries successful novelist Cornel Wilde. Tierney wants to spend all her time with her new husband, but finds it impossible to do so thanks to ... read more read more...his work and the frequent visits of family and friends. When Wilde's crippled younger brother (Darryl Hickman) comes to the couple's summer house to stay, Ms. Tierney indirectly causes the boy to drown. Later, upon discovering that she's pregnant, Tierney deliberately falls down the stairs, choosing to miscarry rather than share her husband's affections with an infant. When it becomes clear that family friend Jeanne Crain is attracted to her husband, Ms. Tierney commits suicide, making her death appear to be murder and framing Crain for the "crime." In court, Ms. Crain is mercilessly grilled by prosecuting attorney Vincent Price, who happens to be Tierney's ex-lover! Filmed in lush Technicolor, Leave Her to Heaven is based on the best-selling novel by Ben Ames Williams. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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82% liked it

3,033 ratings

Critics

100% liked it

18 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 51 min.

Directed by: John M. Stahl

Release Date: December 20, 1945

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DVD Release Date: February 22, 2005

Stats: 229 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (229)

  • brooklynspo
    December 15, 2007
    brooklynspo
    Loved it!
  • flixsterman
    November 17, 2011
    flixsterman
    Gene Tierney's character gets my vote as the most cold-hearted, sociopathic, beautifully packaged villain to ever grace the silver screen. On a scale of pure evil she's right up there with Hannibal Lector and the shark from Jaws.
  • ajv2688
    October 18, 2010
    ajv2688
    This is probably Tierney's best performance ever! If you're a fan you must see this movie.
  • webalina
    August 25, 2010
    webalina
    You think you have a spiteful girlfriend? No you don't. Let Gene Tierney show you how it's done. She beautifully WICKEDLY plays a woman in love with Cornel Wilde and goes to greater and greater lengths to keep him all the herself. And when she thinks she's about to lose him? She ... read moregoes even farther. Nope, even farther than that.

    The rest of the actors -- Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Dwayne Hickman and Vincent Price -- are fine in this film, but it is Tierney who makes it. Several times in the film she goes into this creepy blank-eyed stare that completely weirded me out.

    There are a couple of things about the film I wasn't fond of -- the flashback narration I felt didn't work as well as if the film had been told straight, and I didn't like the closing frames. But the film is well-worth watching, if only for Gene Tierney's performance.
  • groaningbitch
    January 10, 2008
    groaningbitch
    "leave her to heaven" could be considered iconclastic to gene tierney's divine woman image she has flashed in "laura" that also fathoms the depth of her acting scale. and tierney's irresistibly sugary charm is the best asset to blaze the shivering black humor of "leave her to hea... read moreven".

    tierney plays a woman who falls head over heels in love with a writer who resembles her dead father. she obtains his love with her passionate but tactful courtship, then he marries her. afterwards all she schemes is to acquire the absolute intimacy exclusive of others, so she paranoidly resorts to murder and intented miscarriage to gain her little privacy with her hobby, and eventually she could go so far as to her own demise.

    the first half of the flick is delusive with stale backset of a perfect household cozy atmosphere, tweedy wilderness, shimmering moonlight, and also a fair womanly creature awaits the prince charming she yearns for over the cliff. the deceased rot is only foreshadowed with the suggestive paternal fixation of tierney's bereft affections on her passed father. she behaves submissively pleasant with all her flirtatious hints to her beloved man. everything seems like a lyrical dream of ideal romance for anyman made of flesh and blood.

    under the microscope, tierney's true self zooms in, a pathological manipulator whose love is as lethal as arsenic, but horridly coated with honey. she's literarily the pretty poison which lures you to swallow downward your throat insidiously, just like a serpent which crawls nearby then grasp you with her fatal bite clandestinely. her love is devoted but monstrously possessive that leads her to eliminate every possible candidate to distract her husband's focus upon her.

    the electra complex is the main drive in tierney's character, as a daughter, she wants to devour her father's love all by herself, then as a mature woman, she obsessively seeks substitute from another man with similiar appearance. just like a girl who refuses to fledge into genuine mental ripeness but persistents on sheltering in the castle of the perennial paternal tenderness, the ultimate daddy's girl.

    as one proverb in india's buddha textbook, a woman with honey in her mouth usually scatters poison in her heart. "leave her to heaven" shall be the best example. after viewing this flick, abrasive vixen like joan crawford (or bette davis or barbara stanwyck) would seem leastly perilous since danger is written soundly on her face. as a matter of fact, people should respect women with such candid expressiveness. don't you agree??
  • McKittrick
    November 10, 2007
    McKittrick
    Don't be fooled by the sugar coated first half of Leave Her to Heaven: The cute and romantic way the leads meet, Gene Tierney's luminous beauty (quite something in Technicolor), and the way everyone seems SO happy! It's almost cornball. But it's easy not to spot that this partic... read moreular angel cake contains one or two razor blades beneath the sweet icing!
    There is the occasional hint at the wickedness bubbling below the surface - the appearance of Vincent Price, her jealousy, her unnatural fixation with her dead father (not to mention the breathtaking scattering of his ashes), but nothing prepares you for the first jarring cut of those hidden blades.
    Up until the first shocking realisation of Ellen's wickedness I was on her side - after all she only wants to be alone with her man, Richard (Cornel Wilde looking as bland as ever - Technicolor making him a lovely shade of beige!) And her crushed expression when her whole family turn up at their love-nest is so perfect it makes me laugh out loud that Richard can't see it! - they are already sharing with Richard's invalid brother (who says "Gosh!" FAR too much) and Richard's friend (the rather annoying Chill Wills). When the mother admits to Ellen's sister that they shouldn't have come, you think "Hell, yes!" they ARE on their honeymoon!!
    Well she has had enough and resolves to do something about it and when it happens... your jaw hits the floor! (This is a woman who is quite unhinged) Then she does it again and again! She will stop at nothing to stop anyone getting close to her man.
    There are moments of pure cinema here and Tierney captures the moment perfectly - even when she is hidden behind sunglasses her monotone delivery and glacial expression says it all and the scene with the staircase, she knows what to do and her eyes tell you everything you need to know about what she's thinking.
    Gene Tierney is a stunningly beautiful actress and quite often she is dismissed as a serious performer because of this but under the right director she can be electric. Her films with Otto Preminger are a case in point and she is also good in The Ghost and Mrs Muir. This for me though is her finest hour.
    By the end of the film I wonder to myself how bad Ellen really is - yes she does really wicked things - but she is obviously ill and her jealousy of her husband, as it happens, is ultimately justified! And yet no-one does anything to help her! Her mother especially, many times in the film, shows signs of knowing something is amiss.
    You decide - is Ellen Berent a monster or a victim??
  • harrycaul
    November 3, 2007
    harrycaul
    A marvellous film noir which transcends two of the general constraints of the genre by a) eschewing cityscapes for majestic rural locations, chiefly Maine and New Mexico, and b) being shot in glorious Technicolor. The plot is pretty twisted, there's a wonderfully melodramatic co... read moreurt scene climax, and the corny but romantic ending is the icing on the cake. One of the most stunningly photographed films ever made.
  • mjgildea
    November 9, 2006
    mjgildea
    Not the most amazing movie I've ever seen but if nothing else its an instructional film for avoiding psycho girlfriends.
  • thirdway821
    September 21, 2010
    thirdway821
    This genuinely perverse and fascinating film noir, filmed in incredibly rich Technicolor, is the tale of a woman's obsessive desire to possess her husband, exclusive of anyone else in the world. Ellen Berent and her husband, writer Richard Harland, move to his lodge in Maine. In ... read moreorder to be completely alone with him, Ellen makes the handyman go away and stands by as Richard's attention-grabbing, crippled brother drowns in the lake. Pregnant Ellen also purposely miscarries their child. When Ellen's sister Ruth visits, Ellen's paranoia and jealousy catapult her to confess to Richard that she was responsible for the "accidents." Sickened by Ellen's confession, Richard decides to leave her for good. Ellen's next plan of action is quite possibly the ultimate revenge ever carried out by a jilted, crazed lover.

    Overall a little bit slow(not much going) in the plot but starts to pick up speed during the third act and the darkness of Gene Tierney. Great visuals that would please audiences today.
  • littlecharmer1959
    August 8, 2009
    littlecharmer1959
    A glorious technicolored film noir yet with some of the darkest subject matter of the genre. Gene Teirney is just amazing as the cold, possesive villian. The stand out moment in the film is about half way through, involving Teirney's character and her crippled brother-in-law. I w... read moreon't say too much about it incase to spoil it, but the combination of the tranquil, luscious exterior setting and Teirney's expressionless face makes for one of the most sinister scenes in film.

View All Leave Her to Heaven Reviews

Critic Reviews

Lou Lumenick
March 6, 2009
Lou Lumenick, New York Post

Stahl's use of space and the performances in Leave Her to Heaven...suggest he was at least the equal of the much-exalted Sirk as an artist of melodrama. Full Review

Melissa Anderson
March 3, 2009
Melissa Anderson, Village Voice

Tierney's Ellen Berent [is] one of cinema's most chilling psychopaths. Full Review

Anthony Lane
March 2, 2009
Anthony Lane, New Yorker

As for the brother's death, with Ellen looking on coolly in white robe and shades, it remains one of the most perturbing in the history of Hollywood. Full Review

May 30, 2008
Variety

Has emotional power in the jealousy theme but it hasn't been as forcefully interpreted by the leads as it could have been in more histrionically capable hands. Full Review

Dave Kehr
January 1, 2000
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

It may be absurd, and even risible, but its single-minded concentration has its own kind of fascination and power. Full Review

Emanuel Levy
August 16, 2010
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

One of the most intensely cruel and lurid film noir ever made, John Stahl's excessive melodrama features Gene Tierney in an Oscar nominated performances as a cold-blooded murderess. Full Review

Cole Smithey
April 12, 2009
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com

Mental illness never looked so seductive or bit with such a ferocious over-bite as from Gene Tierney's demented character. Full Review

Keith Uhlich
March 4, 2009
Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York

A 'film noir in color' and a masterpiece of post-WWII American cinema. Full Review

Paul Brenner
October 19, 2007
Paul Brenner, Filmcritic.com

Everything is beautiful in Leave Her to Heaven. In fact, too beautiful. Full Review

Dan Callahan
September 18, 2007
Dan Callahan, Slant Magazine

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

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  • In which movie does Gene Tierney get rid of her baby by deliberately throwing herself down the stairs?  Answer »
  • In which film did Gene Tierney kill her unborn child by throwing herself down the stairs?  Answer »
  • Where did Dick love to be in Leave Her To Heaven ?  Answer »
  • Where had Richard been in the beginning of Leave Her To Heaven ?  Answer »
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