Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

You know, there are a lot of films with the world "heaven" in the title and I would always get Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and Heaven Can Wait (1943) mixed up because they both star Gene Tierney, although as very different characters. Gene Tierney takes the honour of being my first "female crush" - I vividly remember seeing her in Laura (1944) when I was six years old and thinking, "oh my god! how is it possible for a woman to be that beautiful?!" As a child, she was my favorite actress simply because I thought she was pretty and it was only when I was older that I realized, she was actually not that great of an actress. Not compared to say, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, Myrna Loy, or Ingrid Bergman - all of whom had far better range but whom I didn't discover until much later.

For the most part Gene Tierney was given rather stock characters - generally the beautiful and more distinctively, the good damsel in distress whose reputation hangs on integrity and valor of her male costar. This is why it was so refreshing to see her as the psychotic and even, malicious female protagonist in Leave Her to Heaven, for which she was duly nominated for an Academy Award in 1946.

In Leave Her to Heaven, Tierney plays the young, wealthy Ellen Berent who meets the handsome writer Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) by chance on the train. The two immediately fall madly in love with one another and marry soon after. They then move to Maine and take up residence in a small cabin by a lake so Richard can concentrate on writing but what began as a fairy tale quickly turns into a nightmare.


pretty girl asleep on the train


boy is immediately spellbound

talk about glamourous white fur! (even though i'm against fur). notice her white gloves too.

boy strikes up a conversation and follows her off the train


inevitably, boy ends up meeting the girl's family who came to pick her up from the station

amazing mandarin styled dress with an asymmetrically gathered skirt and painted details

boy gets invited back to girl's family ranch. have profound conversations under the night sky. gets married.


see, honey, i am the perfect wife! look at this amazing table of food!

interesting hat. like the gold choker.

so happy!

it's not everyday you see someone being able to pull off salmon colored pants

boy and girl move into a small cabin in the woods so boy can write.


boy introduces girl to his crippled nephew

i want this light blue knitted dress. love the belt detail:

girl tries her best to take care of the nephew

it has now become a life goal of mine to acquire a headboard just like this one with the sailing wheel

nephew joins them up at the cabin. the walls are thin...


boy meets girl's very pretty cousin.


cousin likes to garden a lot. cousin also comes to join them up at the cabin.


did i mention, cousin was very pretty?


hmmm...frenemies.

love the exaggerated vest

girl becomes jealous. so many people diverting her boy's attention.

lovely mandarin styled quilted robe

paranoia sets in.


i see you...

gorgeous lace nightgown with silk chiffon skirt

sometimes i just like to watch you sleep


sleep, my pretty, sleep...


worried

monogram detail

pensive


why are you people looking at me that way?!


brooding


crazy eyes

Gene Tierney gave a wonderfully complex and layered performance as the paranoid obsessive Ellen, seesawing between coming off as outright malicious to just a pitiful psychotic capable of garnering sympathy from the horrified viewer. I highly recommend this film. It's a tad slow but Tierney's performance was so riveting that I barely even noticed. Without spoiling the ending for you, I'd like to move on by showing you some other screencaps of the interior spaces and other random bits.

Below are some images of the seaside cottage that they moved into after they departed from the mountain in the woods. The interior was decked out in various florals and botanticals (wallpaper, sofa, chairs, etc).





My favorite room was the nursery. I love the handpainted mural and the soothing taupe colored walls.


What adorable toys over the mantel!


Here are a few shots of Jeanne Crain as Ellen's cousin Ruth. I first saw Crain in Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) and later noticed her in A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and The Fan (1949). Unfortunately I haven't seen much of her work after 1950.

cute hat




very nice white dress. love the tie waist and the puff in the sleeves.


A few more of Gene Tierney:

love this whimsical hat and the light blue trim on the jacket


nice light blue satin "house slippers."


Do you look this cool when rowing a boat? Probably not. I think she's actually wearing a terry cloth robe because if I remember correctly, she had on a bathing suit underneath.


Alright, that's all, folks! Sorry it took EONS for me to update this blog. I've been tremendously busy.

Posted in: fancy hats,films made in the 1940s,gene tierney,jeanne crain