CLASSIC FILM YOU'VE NEVER SEEN: LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN

Gene Tierney gets bitten by the green-eyed monster

A chance meeting on a cross-country train forever changes the life of novelist Richard Harland played by the handsome but milquetoast Cornel Wilde when he meets the beguiling Ellen Berrent (Gene Tierney of Laura fame). They quickly fall in love and marry and what seems like an idyllic love story goes horribly awry when Ellen’s jealousy over her husband consumers her life.

"Leave Her to Heaven," directed by John M. Stahl is a technicolor feast for the eyes which helps mask the film’s sinister undertones and that of the main character. Ellen’s diabolic obsession with trying to completely possess her husband and be the center of his attention drives her mad and takes a deadly turn in not one but two shocking scenes – both considered quite controversial in 1945, when the film was first released.

Gene Tierney, costumed exclusively in Oleg Cassini, her designer husband at the time of filming, has never looked more striking which makes her psychopathic performance even more disturbing. You won’t be able to take your eyes off her when she’s on screen which is saying something since the film won an Oscar for Best Cinematography in the color category.

A talented supporting cast including Vincent Price and Jeanne Crain along with a well-paced story will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. This film noir personifies the femme fatale archetype with a character soo evil and manipulative who won’t stop until she gets what she wants even if it means murder.

Watch the trailer.