Leave Her to Heaven starring Miss Gene Tierney

Love it when she lets his weedy little brother down. Annoying little fuck.

*drown

I love this movie

Dumping those ashes side to side on horseback is one of the funniest scenes in movie history.

Poor Gene. She deserved better than JFK, Oleg and that bitch with German measles who hurt her baby.

I remember hearing Darryl Hickman (who played the little brother) talking about working on this movie. (Perhaps it was an extra on the DVD.)

He remembered that the lake was extremely cold when they worked on that scene. Also that Gene Tierney was aloof during the shooting of the movie. Not rude, just rather detached.

Some of DL's true movie lovers will know that Darryl Hickman was the older brother of actor Dwayne Hickman, of TV's "Dobie Gillis".

I must have been 12 or 13 when I first saw this and I was in the middle of discovering classic movies. This film knocked me down and I had to catch my breath! How could anyone behave that way and get away with it? Superb film!

"Ellen... I'm getting tired! I ate too much lunch! I'm winded! ELLEN! HELP!!!!"

One of the few Classic Hollywood psych dramas that holds up well. Most early 20th century movies about madness were centered around the miracle of Freudian analysis and the white male saviors who brought it to the world, but this film shows a modern understanding of some mental disorders. They can't be cured, they can only by partly cured, and if you run across a really toxic one you can only hope to get away alive.

So this movie is a wonderful combination of modern understanding and mid-century glamour! And it really gets to the viewer, who hasn't thought of drowning a really annoying person at some time in their life, the movie shows someone doing what we've all wanted to do at one time, but we stopped ourselves. And that's the essence of sociopathy or psychopathy, seeing no reason to hold yourself back.

Such a great film. It's a shame Tierney was at Fox. She got some shitty scripts but this one was amazing and she delivered.

God she was amazing! Think that she actually had plenty of talent - but usually her looks overshadowed that.

Here - she really shines.

And the other film I love her in - Laura - is one of he ones where her beauty is overwhelming. But that’s kinda supposed to be the point. She was utterly fabulous.

I wonder if her being slightly aloof to Hickman might have just her been getting into character? I mean - she’s gotta play this psycho bitch who has to murder him. Maybe she didn’t wanna get close and feel warm and fuzzy. Detached would be a much better mindset.

And perhaps he was as annoying as all fuck? besides - what on earth would Tierney have had to talk to him about anyway? He was little more than a kid.

Gene Tierney's 1979 biography, "Self-Portrait," is fabulous as well. The first chapter opens with her stepping out of her open living room window onto the narrow ledge outside her high-rise Manhattan apartment building, getting ready to jump.

Vincent Price was cool in this. He should have become Prospero and took care of that bitch.

I've said it before when this movie has come up. She played the first female psychopath who was beyond redemption. There had been bad girls, gold diggers, and assorted bitches. They all found salvation in the end. Ellen didn't get that and the audiences were shocked. They ate it up but they were shocked. Up to this point there had been no female character like Ellen. Not even close. I love Gene and I love this movie. She was just impossibly fucking gorgeous. Absolutely no one else could have been Laura. Others have tried in remakes only to pale in comparison.

She couldn't take a bad picture if she tried.

I'm a misogynist so I have no interest in the blank-faced tiny actress playing the psychopath.

What interests me is that this very black 'noir' film is set in such luxurious settings and photographed in glorious technicolor. Almost every scene in the second half of the film is bathed in sundown's golden light.

The way the bitch nailed her slipper to the stairway carpet LOL.

I think Loni Anderson was far superior in the remake and much more beautiful too. You old gays idealize these hammy old movies so much. The male lead and her pretty friend were too bad to even remember. I think one of them was Donna Reed. Decades before I was born. Loni was a natural beauty and the very definition of femme fatale. I recommend the remake Criterion edition anyday. Did Gene Tearney blow JFK? That's no distinction.

[quote] She couldn't take a bad picture if she tried.

Yes she could - she looks like a chipmunk (though an attractive one) in her smiling pictures. There's a good reason she has that same sad expression in 99 % of her pics - that was her best look and she knew it.

Loni was so stunning that she hasn't received the recognition she deserves for her work. She leaves Patrick Duffy in the shade.

I wish it had a reasonably priced Blu-ray release

In my darkest hours, alone in my room, I question whether DL is a worthwhile use of my time...

[quote]Poor Gene. She deserved better than JFK, Oleg and that bitch with German measles who hurt her baby.

I completely stole all of Ms. Tierney's outfits as inspiration for a friend's trousseau- I made her 6 outfits, and even hunted down a good copy pair of the sunglasses. So glamorous. My friend was a psycho auburned hair wealthy vixen too. She never knew of my inspiration.

R18, Miss Donna Reed won an Oscar, child. Not for that role, but Loni Anderson? Please.

R21, if you look on Amazon they have a Mexican import that looks nice. The picture is supposed to be derived from the Twilight Time master. And it's region free. I'm happy with it.

Loni Anderson is hideous. Kill her with fire.

R20, truly godawful. And poor Julie Harris stuck in that crap.

What was dopey was when that brittle little woman was standing up and paddling a boat in high heels and mink

Joan Crawford (Mildred Pierce) BEAT Gene Tierney for the Oscar that year

r29, YES SHE DID.

[quote] I wonder if her being slightly aloof to Hickman might have just her been getting into character? I mean - she’s gotta play this psycho bitch who has to murder him. Maybe she didn’t wanna get close and feel warm and fuzzy. Detached would be a much better mindset.

[quote] And perhaps he was as annoying as all fuck? besides - what on earth would Tierney have had to talk to him about anyway? He was little more than a kid.

As I recall, Hickman said she was aloof from everyone, not just him. She kept to herself.

I wish I could remember where I read Hickman's comments because he was talking about other cast members, who was friendly, what the director was like, etc.

Apparently the Hickman comments were on the DVD commentary track.

The TCM page on the film talks about Hickman's comments.

Just watched it on youtube for the first time. Wonderful. Thanks for the thread, OP!

Yes, there is a very good clear copy on youtube these days. I won't link to it, but you'll find it.

As much as I love this movie I'd still take The Ghost and Mrs. Muir over this any day.

I'm not one of those hideous pedophiles. But.

This teenager does look rather delectable presenting his derrière to us around the 50 second mark. The curve of his retrouseé nose matches the of of his pert buttocks.

I wrote about this curve in my delightful, elegant, passionate and prize-winning novel 'The Line of Beauty'.

Lo Lo Lo Lolita. Rolls right off the tongue.

Of course, all those astute readers who've enjoyed my delightful, elegant, passionate and prize-winning novel 'The Line of Beauty' will realise that the 'line of beauty refers to the double-curve (or ogee).

You can see the double-curve in the jawline of that French twink in that over-hyped new movie which I won't be seeing because I, as I mentioned above, am not one of those hideous pedophiles.

Darryl Hickman is pushing 90, but I'll be damned if he's not a sexy old man.

^ Wow, he is very tactful and professional dealing with dumb questions.

His brother was Doobie Gillis. Even during the unfortunate blond years.

^ which is prettier?

Daryl really looks amazing. Could easily be in his late 50s but is 30 years older!

And he does seem like a lovely guy. I'm going to look for his autobiography.

Hard to believe this film was shot the same year as Mildred Pierce. Maybe it's just the Technicolor but it feels like they are a generation apart.

And I love both films.

And murder!

R39, indeed! I seem to remember his saying on the DVD that Wilde was really nice and brotherly, not all that much as an actor.

I don't really get it. I'm guessing Gene Tierney only made a few watchable films? Mildred Pierce is a much better written, constructed, acted and produced film than the kind of silly Leave Her to Heaven. And Crawford was a shitty actress. Yeah, Tierney plays a psychopath but clearly no one informed her. Some crazy bitches just look fierce in sunglasses. Hey Faye Dunaway. I guess it's a celebration of style and time and preferred brands of "evil woman bitchery." I couldn't make it through a second view.

^ it may have been boring, dull and dumb but Leon Shamroy made it pretty to look at.

A few watchable films? She had an amazing career.

R46, are you the guy saying Loni Anderson was better up above> Beacuse Gene made a lot of good films, including, but not limited to:

The Razor's Edge

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

The Mating Season

Leave Her to Heaven

Laura

Tobacco Road

Most of her films are watchable; the ones above are good enough to recall without google.

Haha. I don't know who Loni Anderson is, but I posted that for fun. I have a gay uncle who made me sit through things while he rubbed my legs and shoulders and drank scotch. Even he didn't think much of Gene Tierney. Enjoy your own diva or great actress or Loni Anderson. You friendly uncles know them all. Nowdays, you'd all be in jail or at least out of a job. Gene Tearme said she only made two good movies, Laura and Leave Her to Heaven. She would know right gramps? Loni Anderson will receive the honorary Oscar this year, more than pretty Gene ever got.

Wilde was one of those old fashioned Europeans at heart. Almost Greek

When Gene was young she had a very earthy, simple beauty to her. That earthy look still seems modern today. She would lose all of that earthiness very young and soon. Nothing she could do her looks just matured into a very glamorous look that would only work as glamour. She was never going to be able to play a shop girl. The closest she would come to that was a young wife in The Mating Game which was a fantastic movie too.

R50, you're a hoot!

It's a tragedy Fox destroyed all of their original Technicolor negatives in the early 1970s because they were tired of paying the storage coats. Fortunately, currently available prints of Leave Her to Heaven derive from excellent second generation film elements but it's still not the same as what we should have.

And for those very few of us who care, Darryl Hickman was the first replacement for Robert Morse in the original Broadway production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

^ Er, storage costs, not storage coats. Sorry.

Fabulous. Just fabulous.

It's out on Criterion now. I picked it up immediately and read the book at the beginning of quarantine. Like the film, it loses steam after Ellen's dramatic exit but still a good read.

The Ghost and Mrs Muir is quite wonderful. It goes off track a bit when George Sanders enters but that ending is so beautiful it makes up for everything. And there's no cut that I saw.

Whirlpool is another film worth seeing.

What is so odd is that Fox threw away those negatives in the 70s when film preservation was gaining full steam and a great appreciation for old films was probably at its zenith. Those that were responsible for that were willful idiots. A cinema tragedy.

I’m sorry Tierney didn’t think highly of her work in “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.” She’s really quite wonderful in it, and it’s a lovely film, not least because it has Bernard Herrmann’s best film score. And, over time, it has earned a devoted following.