Review of Leave Her to Heaven (1945) by Jason R — 18 May 2009

Stahl's gorgeous technicolor melodrama is basically the perverse, but kind of logical conclusion of the maternal melodrama. In other words, here's a woman no one would want as a mother. Tierney plays the classically glamorous black widow, driven into a murderous jealous rage after quickly taking possession of Wilde.

The deck is stacked in Tierney's favor, though, because Wilde is such a naive sap. Her adopted sister, played by Crain, serves as both her most dangerous competition and the person most likely to see through her thinly veiled machinations.

While the film can't be as explicit as post-classical titles like "Fatal Attraction," it's abundantly clear from the moment they meet that Wilde is sexually overwhelmed by Tierney. The film is totally entertaining until its final act, which bogs down in a ridiculous, if completely standard, trial following Tierney's suicide.

It's a great, deliciously bitter plot twist, though: kill yourself in an attempt to frame your sister, thus putting her in the clink and away from your husband. It doesn't work--again, this is Hollywood in the 40s--but you can't just eradicate that kind of evil with a verdict.