AllMovie

A Technicolor melodrama infused with film noir pathology, John M. Stahl's Leave Her to Heaven (1945) combines vivid visuals with a coldly passionate performance from Gene Tierney to create a memorable femme fatale. Cornel Wilde's Richard is doomed the moment that Tierney's crimson-lipped Ellen fixes her ice blue stare at him and remarks on his likeness to her beloved, recently deceased father. Stahl suggests the force of that love in Ellen's expressionistic horseback ride to scatter her father's ashes, but the scene in which Ellen impassively puts on her sunglasses and watches Richard's crippled brother drown in an idyllic Maine lake most powerfully communicates her nature. Richard's placid Maine cabin and Ellen's well-appointed family residences may present a surface as beautiful as Tierney's face, but Stahl reveals the obsessive evil lurking beneath. The second-most popular film of 1945, Leave Her to Heaven earned Tierney her sole Best Actress Oscar nomination for her archetypal woman who loves far too much, while Leon Shamroy won the Oscar for his striking color photography of landscapes, deluxe homes and Tierney's red lipstick.