June 8th: LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (John M. Stahl, 1945)

A novelist's new bride takes jealousy to disturbing extremes.

Hollywood veteran John M. Stahl began his career during the silent days directing shorts, and was a founding member of the motion picture Academy. He was best known for his melodramas of the 1930s, including Magnificent Obsession and Imitation Of Life, both of which were remade by influential stylist Douglas Sirk in the 1950s.

Ben Ames Williams' eponymous novel ruled the bestseller list for a year, and set off a bidding war between the studios that fetched a very high price for the time. 20th Century Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck gave it the full prestige treatment, assigning some of his best behind-the-scenes people to the production. The script was written by Jo Swerling (Gone With The Wind, Guys And Dolls).

Gene Tierney was a New York City debutante who entered the acting profession against the wishes of her parents. After early success on the stage, she went back and forth between Hollywood and Broadway until she was able to negotiate a favorable contract from Fox. It took several years to find her big breakthrough, which turned out to be the title role in Otto Preminger's noir masterpiece Laura and would lead to her casting in Leave Her To Heaven.

Joining Tierney in the cast are burgeoning star Cornel Wilde (The Naked Prey), the iconic Vincent Price, Jeanne Crain, and veteran Ray Collins (Citizen Kane). Behind the camera was Fox's top cinematographer Leon Shamroy, a winner of two Oscars in the last three years.

While much of the film was shot on the studio soundstage, there was considerable location shooting in California (Bass Lake in the High Sierras, Monterey, Busch Gardens) and Arizona (Flagstaff, Sedona). In a rare move, the musical score was commissioned while the film was still in production, giving composer Alfred Newman (winner of 9 Oscars) more time than was usually allotted.

Despite most of the story taking place in the daytime, outdoors, and in color, the film has many plot, character, and thematic elements that have led many film historians to put it under the film noir label. The pedigree of the novel and romantic melodrama are far overshadowed by the more lurid and shocking moments.

The film received positive reviews, and became Fox's biggest grosser of the entire decade. It received Oscar nominations for Tierney, the art direction/interior decoration, sound recording, and cinematography, the latter winning Shamroy his third statue. It is now regarded as a unique film from the period, championed by such filmmakers as Martin Scorsese and Pedro Almodovar.

Running time is approx. 1 hr, 45 min.