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 Gene Tierney plays a "jealous woman" and her work earned her a Best Actress
nomination. Ellen is engaged to a politician but gets Richard (Cornel Wilde)
to marry her after knowing each only a couple of days. Soon Richard learns
from her family that "Ellen's selfish, possessive love has ruined other
people's lives." Richard gets "suspicious" when his brother drowns while with
Ellen and when Ellen has an "accident that kills her unborn child. They say
that Ellen has an "unsatiable devotion." This movie won the Best
Cinematography Academy Award way back in 1945. 1945, 111 minutes, VHS
Cornel Wilde who you remember from his unmemorably bland role in the tough yet
generic crime drama The Big Combo, stars in this Technicolor melodrama about what happens when the really hot
chick you meet one day and marry the next turns out to be one of those dames
that isn't shy about expressing how jealous she can be by doing all sorts of
things a girl of good breeding doesn't usually engage in. Even though Cornel
does little but stand around, make various faces, and models some of those
high-waisted pants that were all the rage with guys named Cornel back in the
forties, the movie, though sluggish at times (how many times do I have to hear
the crippled little brother say stuff like "gosh" and "swell" and did we really
need the scene where the woodsman was singing these stupid songs that reminded
me of dirty limericks, but weren't nearly as interesting because they weren't
dirty?), is held together by the stunning combination of Gene Tierney's looks
and her total lack of conscience. If you're familiar with Gene from her role
in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, you'll be in for a pleasant surprise here, because she manages to pull off
the part of what would have to be one of the silver screen's craziest and
soulless creatures you'll liable to ever see. You'll be amazed at what she'll
do to keep her man all to herself. Crippled brother hanging around too much?
Gone! Unborn baby making life a bit boring? You're outta here! Cute and nice
sister being too goody-goody around the husband for her own goody-goody good?
See you in court on a trumped up murder charge, skank! Tierney's Ellen was
apparently holding the door when they were passing out hearts because she's
probably
the character in the movies that you can find absolutely nothing good or
redeemable
about. Heck, at least with Freddy Krueger, you could chalk up some of his
issues to the way he was conceived (mother was a nun locked in an insane asylum
over the weekend and raped by every patient there). Ellen? Nothing so
dramatic or even hinted at. Well, maybe they did hint at something between her
and her father, but nothing in the movie's story ever really said anything
about him except that Ellen drove him to his death with her obsessive love.
See, Ellen was real close to her pappy. They don't say much more than that,
but maybe you can chalk up her homicidal tendencies to some screwed up
relationship with her father [insert psychobabble here].  So Ellen's father is dead and Ellen is riding the train with her bright red
lips, feline eyes, and legs that are crossed in Cornel Wilde's direction.
Cornel
plays a novelist named Richard Harland. He's riding the train to New Mexico
and happens to be sitting in the same car as Ellen. They stare at each for
awhile and before you know it, she's telling him that he looks like her daddy.
She hastens to add that she means a younger version of her daddy. Having been
recognized as looking just like her father and knowing that all women secretly
want to be hit on by their fathers, Richard sidles on up to her and starts
busting out his sure-fire pick-up lines on her. Unfortunately for him, he
stole them from the book that she is currently reading and she recognizes them.
He tells her that he knows that book and thought it was a bit sloppy to which
she agrees. Later when the train stops and they both get off, she realizes
that it was Richard that wrote the book! This was good for a laugh, but
Richard should have enjoyed it, because the movie takes a detour straight
into a hell occupied by the shrewiest of all harridans as Ellen slowly begins
to reveal her real self. Ellen and her family (her mother and adopted sister
who is really her cousin -huh?) are all at this resort in Taos or wherever (say
"hi" to Billy Jack for me) to spread the ashes of Ellen's dear old dead daddy.
I guess he finally croaked rather then continue to deal with the unwanted and
psychotic attentions of his daughter, no matter how sex-ay she may have been.
That reminds me of a really valuable lesson this movie taught me. Most of you
guys out there probably won't buy this, but I think if you take a gander at
this film, you'll come around. There is a point at which the factor of how hot
your woman is intersects with how crazy she is and when these two axes cross
paths, the shaded part of the shape formed by the x axis and the y axis and
the two lines for the hot factor and whacko factor tells you how much freak
behavior you can put up with before you have to cut her loose. This is a
proven hypothesis (if you don't believe me, go ahead and graph it out for
yourself) and I know it goes against all we've been taught as men that it
doesn't matter how crazy a woman is, if she's a super-hottie. Okay, now that
you know it would probably be healthier to just settle down with a homely girl
and read lingerie catalogs while she's at work, we can get back to the
burgeoning
love of Ellen and Richard. Richard is smitten with her and since he looks like
daddy, she decides to get her hooks into him. The only problem is that she's
engaged to some hotshot politician that is running for district attorney back
east. Oh yeah, and he's played by Vincent Price. Whoops.  Ellen sends Vinny a telegram to let him know that he just didn't look enough
like her daddy and that she's going to have to downsize him back to loser
status. The next thing we know Vinny is down in New Mexico refusing to shake
Richard's hand and demanding to talk to Ellen in private. She tells everyone
that she and Richard are going to be married. Vinny and her have a pow wow to
discuss what a hoe-bag she is and he says he still loves her and always will
and she treats him like a tall, skinny lawyer with strangely combed hair ought
to be treated. Vinny leaves and Richard and Ellen go off and get themselves
married offscreen. The next stop is Warm Springs, GA. Warm Springs is where
Richard's crippled up brother is rehabbing and he's the least cool kid you will
ever see, all gushing over Ellen and hugging his brother and talking all this
kiddie talk (this is where the swell and gosh stuff goes into hyperdrive)
adults fantasize that kids use instead of the way tight knowledge they usually
drop whenever the party is hype! Ellen treats Danny (he's played by the
brother of Dobie Gillis!) very well, helping him get rehabbed so that he can
sort of walk again. I wasn't too sure what she was up to, since the doctor
told her that now that Danny is doing really well, he can go back to the rustic
and very cozy Maine lodge with the too cute name (Back of the Moon) that
Richard has. Ellen is a bit flummoxed as the doctor tells her this and she
tries to convince him that Danny should remain at the hospital forever and ever
and ever. The doctor says, "nah, his medicare ran out, so his All-American ass
is yours toots." It's around this time that we get another dose of Ellen's
ire, when she gets off the "but he's a cripple!" blast. She tries to kind of
take it back, but you can tell the doctor has her pegged as the selfish vixen
she is. Then Richard comes in and Ellen immediately puts on this front like
she's totally jacked that the cripple is crippling on home with them. Once at
the lodge, Ellen gets pissed because the walls are too thin and the woodsman
and Danny are all living in the house with them and she wants some alone time
with Daddy, I mean Richard. Then her mother and little cousin show up and she
gets pissed some more and Richard for about the only time in the movie while
Ellen is still alive gets a set and actually tells her that she's acting like a
piece of trash and to shape up. Ellen tries to clean up her act and go
straight, and by doing that I mean she takes the next opportunity to drown the
crippled brother! I like pig guts and scalpings as much as the next gorehound,
but I have to tell you, for sheer chills and making you sick to your stomach,
the scene where she is rowing behind Danny while he tries to swim across the
lake ranks up there with any of the best scenes from a horror movie. 
Danny has told Ellen that he thinks he's going to stay with them and not go off
to crippled camp or where ever Ellen was trying to trick him into going. At
this point, you can see the features in Ellen's face grow rigid (but still
sexy!) and you can practically see it on her face that little Danny better
develop a set of gills and I mean like pronto. Danny swims out and gets
crampy, cold, and tired and goes down a few times and Ellen just watches.
She's wearing sunglasses at the time only adding adding to the effect that
she's completely inhuman, her eyes obscured and unable to betray any emotion at
all. Once she's sure he's dead, she decides that it's time to turn it back on
and starts screaming and jumps in after him. Richard is very distraught about
the whole affair, but he's excited to learn some time later that Ellen is
expecting a baby. He is convinced that it is going to be a boy and eagerly
sets about turning Ellen's father's old room into the baby's room. He and
Ellen have moved into her parents' home since the drowning of Danny and Richard
and Ruth (Ellen's adopted sister) start hanging out and doing all sorts of fun
stuff like fixing up the baby's room, gardening, going shopping, and it becomes
evident that he really likes Ruth, but barely tolerates Ellen. Gosh, you drown
one crippled little brother and the next thing you know, you're public enemy
number one. Ellen's pregnancy is not the easiest and the doctor tells her she
needs to lie down a lot and have absolutely no fun and that her sister and
Richard will have all her fun for her - together! Okay maybe that's not what
the doctor said, but that's damn sure what Ellen heard when he told her to take
it easy. The next thing you know, someone is at the top of those steep stairs
with some high-heeled shoes on and lodging one of the shoes in a gap in the
carpet before taking a swan dive down the stairs. Adios bambino! Ellen loses
the baby and Richard is crushed, but Ellen is all pumped up because now she can
go swimming again! At this point, Ellen's own mom refuses to talk to her and
then Ellen finds a copy of Richard's new book in the mail. It's dedicated not
to the hot mama that killed his handicapped brother and aborted their unborn
child the old fashioned way, but to her no good sister that's done nothing but
be all nice and warm and friendly to everyone! Aaaaaarghhhh! Ellen
immediately writes a letter addressed to her old boyfriend Vincent Price, who
has been elected district attorney and then sets about poisoning herself! If you haven't already guessed it, Ellen is pulling the old "kill myself and
frame my little sister for it" gimmick. It's a solid gimmick to be sure, but
the drawback is that it can only be used toward the end of your master plan
where you seek to ruin everyone else's life so that you can be happy (except
for the part about being dead). Ellen croaks and what follows is a tediously
unconvincing courtroom scene where witnesses are badgered, the defense never
objects to anything, and those testifying are excused before the defense can
question them. In spite of the obvious ethical conflict that exists, Price is
prosecuting the case, presumably because he got a "melodramatic courtroom
scene" waiver that most of these bogus movies tend to use to amp up the
dramatic impact. Somehow or other the movie ends with Ruth being acquitted (I
guess the defense knew what they doing after all!) and with Richard getting two
years in the pen for not telling anyone that he knew Ellen drowned Danny. Umm,
did anyone ever ask him? How is that a crime? When did they have time to
charge him with that during the middle of Ruth's trial? In spite of all that
dumb
legal tripe, the movie is a solid one, highlighted of course by Tierney's
performance. She exudes this cold menace throughout the film and you're
tempted to rationalize what she did by saying that she was insecure and only
wanted to be loved, but this woman was such a consistently awful person that
you're more tempted to say that some people are just evil. Killing the
crippled kid can be written off as her being jealous. She wants Richard all to
herself and she doesn't have the tools to express those desires in a socially
acceptable way. It's understandable that we get scared that we aren't truly
loved from time to time and her actions here can be seen as a plea for Richard
to work less on his book, hang out less with his brother and give her some
quality time. Of course I think that all goes out the window when she gets rid
of her unborn child. Is she worried that the baby will take Richard away from
her? Perhaps a bit. But she's really irritated that being preggers is getting
in the way of doing all sorts of fun stuff and preventing her from leading her
life the way she wants to lead it. She's not jealous of the baby, she's
resentful of it for what it is turning her into (a homebody), so it has to go.
Her final act of ego is killing herself and then trying to pin it all on her
adopted sister. It's hard to make heads or tails of that, but by this time she's
probably gone completely around the bend and her desire to exercise all the
power in all her relationships reaches its apex. Her own life becomes merely
a chess piece in her strategy to make
others miserable and retain her control over everyone, even in death. It's the
ultimate ice-princess act. Leave Her To Heaven is a triumph in the jealous woman film genre and is shocking for its cold
depiction as to what lengths a woman will go to so that she gets what she
wants. Tierney's mix of beauty and unparalleled treachery will leave you
remembering those Technicolor lips and eyes and what they said about a woman's
capacity to destroy everything around her in the name of selfish obsession.
Reviews © 2004
MonsterHunter
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