Leave Her to Heaven
Short description
Ellen Berent meets the novelist Richard Harland on a train and the two marry soon after. What begins as a happy union gives way to Ellen's possessive and destructive jealousy, which turns her against anyone she sees as a rival for her husband's attention, including members of both their families. Richard gradually comes to understand the extent of his wife's obsession, and the situation moves toward tragedy.
The film was directed by John M. Stahl, following his 1933 film Only Yesterday, from a screenplay by Jo Swerling and produced by William A. Bacher for 20th Century Fox. Gene Tierney plays Ellen, with Cornel Wilde as Richard, Jeanne Crain as Ellen's adoptive sister Ruth, Vincent Price as the politician Russell Quinton, Mary Philips as Mrs. Berent and Ray Collins as Glen Robie, among a credited cast of thirty. It runs 110 minutes and blends drama, romance and thriller elements.
Released in December 1945, the film holds a rating of 7.6 out of 10 on IMDb from around 17,000 votes and 7.4 out of 10 on TMDB from a smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 8.5 out of 10 from 68 reviews places it somewhat above the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- When filming the scene of Darryl Hickman's bathing in the lake, the water turned out to be so cold that the actor fell ill with pneumonia.
- At the end of the shooting week, on Saturday evening, director John M. Stahl asked Gene Tierney to quickly run through one of the scenes so that cinematographer Leon Shamroy (1901-1974) could pre-visualize how to shoot it and arrange the lighting. The actress performed the scene, and Stahl, disappointed, stated that this was exactly how he had envisioned it, that it was perfect, and that she certainly wouldn't be able to repeat it on camera exactly the same way. He ignored all of Tierney's assurances that this was how she had rehearsed it, and that she could repeat it, and walked away, leaving the actress upset. On Monday morning, as promised, she played the scene perfectly on the very first take.
- In one scene featuring Cornell Wilde (1915-1989) and Gene Tierney (1920-1991), the actor simply couldn't deliver a convincing performance, while Tierney played so flawlessly that after each take, the crew would whistle in encouragement and approval. Eventually, director John M. Stahl (1886-1950) got so tired of it that he told Wilde: "See, everyone else already understands how to act, and it just doesn’t seem to sink in with you."
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
