Leave Her to Heaven
Picture: B+ Sound: B- Extras: B- Film: A-
Ok folks…this is a DVD to
truly show your friends and not just for the subject matter, but the transfer
for this film. I am in absolute awe at
the accomplishments made to bring this 1946 gem to DVD. Fox has really taken some sweet time and
well spent time restoring this film to Technicolor glory, so much that you
might be disappointed by some of the other films in your collection that do not
look like this. The bar has been raised
and at one point in the format it looked like only the people at Criterion
could achieve this, but stand aside as Fox shines in a moment of bliss.
With that out of the way,
lets really get down to it with this DVD of the classic Leave Her to Heaven. One
thing is for sure and that is there are very few people still alive that will
remember this film looking so good and that can only help achieve the films
storytelling capabilities in the present day.
I should also take this moment to point out that this is without a doubt
one of the funniest, darkest, oddest, and craziest melodramas ever produced,
and most of those traits were probably unintentional. The melodrama is a genre that in my opinion is more fun to watch
now than it ever could have been during its prime.
The reason for this is
simple: what the film was ‘skirting’ at
the time such as racial tension, sexual frustration, gender issues, social
differences, and the list goes on are now in your face realities. These films actually thought that they were
a reflection of society and the people that flocked to them probably bought
into their ridiculousness. Now looking
back we see that the subtext of these films is far more important than anything
on the surface. Watching them today is
almost like watching an ant farm…they think that they are digging tunnels in
some dirt field somewhere, but as we watch on we know that they only have so
many places to go, yet they still dig.
You could almost think of
a melodrama as a large pool, one that has a deep end and a shallow end. While it might be easier to see something
stuck to the bottom from the shallow end, the deeper end is where the true
treasures lie. Leave Her to Heaven does not miss much when it comes to this and if
you ‘read between the lines’ you will find it just as entertaining as I
did. Oddly enough it’s also a film that
at the very end, despite the obvious happy ending, you don’t exactly feel so
great about its so-called happiness.
This of course goes directly back to the very basis of the film and that
is ‘what is true happiness’? Of course Vincent Prices performance is enough to
convince anyone of anything, I might even believe the world was flat if he said
so.
Richard Harland (Cornel
Wilde) is a writer, a fairly well-off one at that, who stubbles across the
woman of his dreams enter Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney). Only problem is that she is already engaged
to anther man played by Vincent Price.
She falls quickly for Richard and their dreamy happy life begins all too
fast. There are a few wrenches thrown
into our story though. Ellen also has a
sister Ruth (Jeanne Craig) and a tag-along mother. Richard also looks after his younger brother Danny, so their
perfect life together is a bit clustered with other folks always in the way. At first, Ellen deals with the
interruptions, as she loves Richard with all that she can, but soon she cannot
deal with all the distractions in their life and begins a fit of jealousy
towards anything and anyone. She does
everything in her power, including having a baby, to try and win Richards
attention, but is that enough?
As I already said above,
this is a funny movie, without any intention of being so. The very reason is rooted in just how
bizarre some of the events are played out and watching now we quickly see below
the surface at some of the more implied meanings. It’s pretty obvious to look back now and see some of the sexual
tension that arises and whether there are inadequacies in certain characters as
well. The film almost reminds me of some
of the other films during the 50’s such as Peyton
Place, or some of Douglas Sirk’s masterpieces like Written on the Wind or All
That Heaven Allows. Even the word
‘heaven’ appears in both. If you watch
this film and truly think about its title of ‘leaving someone to heaven’ you
realize just how dark the material truly is.
Oddly enough this soap opera is laced inside a sweeping melodrama that
was shot in Technicolor with an edge to give it a nice contrast between the
beautiful real world and the ugly world created by those involved.
Fox’s DVD of the film is a
pinnacle of perfection too, which makes it a hot grab! It falls in as one of the studio’s Classic
collection numbered as 26, most of these films are Oscar winners as this
particular films only won for best cinematography (Leon Shamroy) aside from
being nominated for three other categories.
Shamroy’s work here would help pave the way for other incredible work,
many of which were Biblical epics. Some
of those highlights would include The
Robe, The Kind and I, South Pacific, Cleopatra, and towards the end of his lengthy career Planet of the Apes (1968, just so you
don’t get confused with that waste of time remake, although if he had
photographed that film maybe it would have been more tolerable to watch, then
again miracles don’t happen that often).
It’s obvious that he had a nice career mostly working with Fox.
Here his work shines like
solid gold with a beautifully restored transfer showing off the full frame
Technicolor image wonderfully. Although
some scenes tend to suffer from a few minor scratches and occasionally the
depth of field becomes slightly washed out, the overall presentation is
superb. You see colors here that you
rarely get to see in film today. Notice
some of the colors early on that Richard is wearing like his suit on the
train. Or the colors of the interior
sets. John M. Stahl should also be
mentioned as this silent film director made this as one of his last films and
probably his most well known by today’s standards. It is clear with his directing that he understood the source
material taken from the novel by Ben Ames Williams.
The audio is another
delight, which gives the option of Dolby 2.0 Mono or Stereo and both are quite
good. Soundtracks to melodramas are
equally as important as the overall look of the film. It has to sound sweet to the point of bitterness and here we have
all that wrapped tightly in its score by Alfred Newman, who also did the music
for Fox’s film Noir Call Northside 777
(reviewed on this site) as well as many other Fox films ranging from some of
the Marilyn Monroe pictures to Biblical epics.
A limited edition CD soundtrack for Leave
Her to Heaven is still available
from Film Score Monthly’s FSM label, appropriately paired with All About Eve. You can read about it elsewhere
on this site and order it via that review.
The PCM CD audio there is better than on this DVD, but obviously lacking
the match to the stunning restoration, which you can see more about in the
extras. You also get a newsreel, stills
and trailers.
If you really love this
film, you will also enjoy its commentary by Richard Schickel and Daryl Hickman,
although you will only understand most of it if you really like melodramas for
some of the reasons mentioned throughout this review. The DVD also contains a few other gems like an Oscar night
capture from Movietone and a restoration comparison, which are always worth
viewing. If you think that melodramas
are funny, the trailers are even more of a hoot too!
If you are still reading
this wondering if the DVD is worth getting, stop right here and head to your
local DVD store and snag it up. Many
experts even consider this the only full color Film Noir of the original 1941 –
1958 era, so that is another reason to consider picking it up. There has to be something in this for
everyone, so it’s sure to please on some level. The great thing also is that while chicks tend to eat this
material up like some sort of Harlequin romances novel, guys can be on standby
waiting for another moment of bizarreness of a funny line or two…such as ‘golly
gee’ and other 40’s lingo. Leave her to
heaven, but don’t leave this film behind!
- Nate Goss
