I've heard Eddie Mueller say something to the effect that "This movie may be the blackest Noir of them all." I have to agree. I saw it with a new, luscious print at the Seattle Noir Fest. Can't wait to see it again next month.
shareEllen carried the darkness within her. Tierney gives an amazing performance.
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"I've heard Eddie Mueller say something to the effect that "This movie may be the blackest Noir of them all."
Gene Tierney is certainly the ultimate femme fatale. Her only competition is Ann Savage in Detour. Amazing something as gorgeous and beautiful as Ellen Berent could be so monstrous and she gets more and more beautiful the more violent and corrupt she gets. And the best part is that her character remains an enigma with no real explanations for her insanity but at the same time Gene Tierney's phenomenal performance ensures that despite her dementia, we still like her and her death scene remains moving all the same.
And the joke is her final words, "I'll never leave you." The last scene is of him returning to the same cabin where she had killed his brother and which was to be their love nest and her sister Ruth is waiting for him and she's dressed and framed just like Ellen. She would never leave him. She wins after all.
"Ça va by me, madame...Ça va by me!" - The Red Shoes
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I wonder why imdb does not categorize "Leave her to heaven" as a film noir?
Can a color movie not be a film noir?
Color ain't noir. Not only is this movie a drama, it borders on melodrama.
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Please put some dashes above your sig line so I won't think it's part of your dumb post.
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Noir isn't just about visuals, dummy. It's about atmosphere, theme and character. To say that "color isn't noir" is to say, for instance, that Chinatown isn't noir. Which it absolutely is.
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I don't think of this movie as noir (and Double Indemnity is on my top 10 of all time favorite movies) but I agree with your comment otherwise. A really good example of a modern noir film is Malice with Alec Baldwin, Bill Pullman and Nicole Kidman.
shareThis film is a drama but is not Noir. At least 1/2 of the films I see labeled or suggested as such on IMDB are indeed not Noir at all.
Remember When Movies Didn't Have To Be Politically Correct?
THANK YOU! I am so sick of everyone chanting "noir" for any melodrama made in the 40s and 50s - ludicrous.
shareSave for the settings and color, this is the ultimate film noir. Ellen is the quintessential femme fatale while Wilde is the firm yet emotionally fragile male lead. Deception and lies dot both of their paths of destruction. Plus, the fantastic cinematography paints a gloomy picture in otherwise serene locations. Wilde's and Tierney's first talk on the stairs inside the home and at the coffee table are highlights.
this is noir.
the theme and characters are more realistic and darker than other contemporary dramas and melodramas from that censorship era.
"Leave Her to Heaven" has all of the essential elements of film noir. Black-and-white cinematography is not essential to film noir. "Noir" refers to the mood, not the picture.
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