Leave Her to Heaven

USA, 1945. Director John M. Stahl. 105min,

Throughout John M. Stahl’s 1945 noirish melodrama, Gene Tierney’s character Ellen Berent Harland presents a mask of impenetrable beauty. Immaculately groomed and coordinated, her style speaks of wealth and exclusivity. This is echoed in the cinematography’s luxurious Technicolor, which emphasises the impressive vistas of the American landscape. However, beneath this apparently idyllic façade is a dark, psychological story of obsession and violence. Rather than being at one with the natural environments she inhabits, Ellen is alienated and disturbed, with her repressed emotions expressed through the dramatic mise-en-scène and costume.

With Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Vincent Price and Jeanne Crain.
Costumes by Kay Nelson.

Past screenings

If Looks Could Kill – London
Monday 19 May 2008, 18:20 | BFI Southbank, NFT2
Sunday 25 May 2008, 20:40 | BFI Southbank, NFT2
With a talk by guest curators Rebecca Arnold and Adrian Garvey ‘Sometimes the Truth is Wicked: Fashion, Violence and Obsession in Leave Her to Heaven’ on Sunday 25.