One can see how the bait-and-switch might have been a bit much for some viewers. The oft-befuddled New York Times<\/em> critic Bosley Crowther noted<\/a>, \u201cChristmas Day was an inauspicious moment to bring in a moody, morbid film which is all about a selfish, jealous and deceitful dame. Somehow, this hardly seems the season for indulging in that sort of thing.\u201d Crowser called Leave Her to Heaven<\/em> \u201cplainly a piece of cheap fiction done up in Technicolor and expensive sets,\u201d as if that isn\u2019t what\u2019s so awesome about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The writer first spots her on a train. She\u2019s Ellen Berendt\u2014a dazzling beauty with blue-green eyes that bore into the camera lens, played by Gene Tierney at her must angular and unforgettable. He\u2019s Richard Harland, a dapper gent played by Cornel Wilde with a weak chin and a personality in danger of blending in with the wallpaper. She\u2019s reading one of his books, but hasn\u2019t put together yet that the man in the flap-jacket author photo is the one sitting across the aisle. In the first of many blows to the writer\u2019s ego, she nods off while reading it. Everyone\u2019s a critic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even less impressive is when he tries to pass off a bit of the book\u2019s banter in conversation, prompting Ellen to quickly flip back to the chapter in which he\u2019d already expended his pickup line. By this point, Richard\u2019s fate is already pretty well sealed, and the whirlwind courtship that ensues is entirely on her terms. The poor schmuck never even gets a chance to ask her to marry him. She takes care of that, assuming his tacit agreement in the midst of publicly humiliating her former fianc\u00e9e, a district attorney played with simmering menace by Vincent Price. (Watching Price\u2019s cucked, undignified exit, you can\u2019t wait for him to come back looking for vengeance later in the picture.) Members of her family gravely intone loaded compliments that sound more like warnings: \u201cNothing ever happens to Ellen,\u201d or \u201cEllen always wins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The one hurdle I\u2019ve never quite been able to get over is why such a dynamite woman would fall so hard for such a milquetoast bore. (This could either be the writing or my own Cornel Wilde problem.) The movie makes a big deal out of how much Richard resembles Ellen\u2019s recently deceased father. He and his demise are spoken of mysteriously, with a caveat that Ellen \u201cloved him too much.\u201d Indeed, we quickly come to see how Ellen\u2019s love can be an all-consuming thing. She wants Richard, but she wants him all to herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is easier said than done, as her husband clearly doesn\u2019t prioritize much in the way of \u201calone time\u201d with his wife. There\u2019s always family around, especially Ellen\u2019s adoptive sister Ruth (Jeanne Crain) a kinder, gentler version of Ellen who big sis clearly doesn\u2019t like very much, though Richard seems unnervingly pleased with her undemanding company. So much of the movie is Ellen seething at perceived slights to which dull others are cheerfully oblivious, the movie more than once brings to mind the famous R. Crumb self-portrait of a man fulminating with rage while regular people happily go about their day. Time Magazine<\/em> critic James Agee quipped<\/a> that \u201cAudiences will probably side with the murderess, who spends all of the early reels trying to manage five minutes alone with her husband.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is bad news for Danny, Richard\u2019s polio-stricken kid brother who\u2019s trying to learn how to swim. The second hour of Leave Her to Heaven<\/em> include some gasp-inducing measures taken by Ellen to try and get some goddamn quiet time with her man, as well as a barn-burning cross-examination by Price at his hammy, theatrical best. But there\u2019s no scene more memorable than one after Ellen helps little Danny off his crutches and into the water. (You might recognize some of some of the setups that were borrowed by superfan Martin Scorsese for a similar scene in Shutter Island<\/em>.) It\u2019s not so much an action sequence as it is an in<\/em>action scene, with Tierney\u2019s lethal stillness burning a hole through the screen. She\u2019s wearing sunglasses, yet somehow we still know exactly what it looks like behind those blue-green eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Leave Her to Heaven” is streaming on the Criterion Channel<\/a><\/em> and Plex<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/leave-her-still-1024x576.jpg\")
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