Movie: Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945)
We have already witnessed Ellen Harland's (Gene Tierney) cold-blooded maliciounsess by the time she steps towards the stairs, but that doesn't make the realisation of what's about to come less chilling... The film begins with a title card placed on a book cover, informing us that it is based on the eponymous novel by Ben Ames Williams, and then lets its opening credits unfold over the pages of said book. It follows that up by framng its story as a tale Richard Harland's (Cornel Wilde) lawyer is telling to a friend. I don't know the intentions behind this, but it is easy to see why someone may have felt the need to refract this story through multiple narrators. Emphasising that this is all just storytelling without much basis in reality is the only comfort this film is willing to give the audience. The exception is perhaps the ending, which is a bit too convenient and happy.
Ellen is discomfitting right from her first scene when she stares too intensively at Richard, when they meet in a train to New Mexico. He, a writer, is amused by that, as she is reading his newest book. Moreover, he is immediately attracted to her and happy to find that they are both travelling to the same holiday resort. A couple of flirty nights later she dumps her fiancee and talks Richard into marriage and before long they live together. Unfortunately, Ellen feels threatened by anyone she might have to share Richard with, including his semi-paralysed brother, her sister and her mother. Even more unfortunately, she is willing to go to great lengths to do something about that, and does so with an icy unflinching determination. That she is not particulary methodical only makes everything she does more disquieting. She doesn't have full control of the situation and most of the time has to improvise and play it by ear. But whenever an opportunity does arise to get what she wants, she takes it without a hint of hesitation. It's amazing to see Tierney, especially after having watched her in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, be able and willing to portray Ellen for long stretches of the film without an ounce of warmth or humanity, yet without turning her into some sort of symbol of evil. She always comes off as a real person, capable of real cruelty.
There are several scenes in this film David Fincher must watch green with envy. Its connection to Gone Girl is quite obvious, but the general evocation of dread in the face of coolly stylish expressions of inhumanity, detached from any feelings of regret or remorse, is something he has tried to go for throughout his career. He has rarely been as succesfull as Stahl is here, maybe because he needs to find a better location scout. Leave Her to Heaven takes place in some of the most beautiful, tranquil places I have ever seen depicted in film. Most of the action takes place in three cottages in New Mexico, Georgia and Maine. They are all presented as ideals of homeliness, cozyness and warmth with fantastic, calming sights over mountains, lakes and oceans. They fit Richard extremely well; Wilde plays him as the most benevolently mellow version of Tom Hanks imaginable, a guy who enjoys nothing more than writing his book in his quiet garden, who loves his wife and brother, and who is always genuinely overjoyed to see his mother- and sister-in-law and sing corny farmland songs with them. This contrast between Ellen and her surroundings is what really makes the film special. It's much more transgressive to present such malevolence in a setting like this one, than in the perpetually rainy, miserable town of Seven.
No comments:
Post a Comment