I first saw this movie when I was in grade school. I thought it was great then, and still think so with qualifications. When I saw the movie the first time I thought the Tierney character was a paragon of evil. Now, withmore understanding of human nature (or so I like to think) I see her as a woman in the grip of a mental illness even she didn't understand and probably couldn't control, a person to feel pity for. She was a psychopath in the sense that she didn't understand normal emotions and relationships. Now for the spoilers--if they are spoilers--since most people are familiar with the plot, but here goes. When Ellen learned her husband was leaving her she plotted her suicidal revenge very cleverly, to the extent of writing for help to the man she had jilted to marry her husband. On the stand, Wilde revealed all of his wife's crimes, which the audience was privy to, but as far as the jury, he provided no evidence whatever for his story. Then, the jury returned with a verdict of not guilty for Ruth in ten minutes. Whoever heard of a jury returning in ten minutes with any kind of verdict? The next implausible turn of plot was that the hero was sentenced to prison as being an accessory to Ellen's killing of Danny. Since Ellen didn't premeditate letting Danny drown,it would probably have been next to impossible to convict her, much less her husband. Who could prove it wasn't an accident? As a one-time aspiring writer I have this thing about gaping holes in plots and plausible motivation. Gene Tierney and Jeanne Crain were certainly two of the most beautiful women in films at the time and were stunning to look at, as was the scenery. I liked the psychological portrait of an unstable and ultimately tragic woman, whose obsession destroyed not only her own life, but that of everyone around her.
Review of Leave Her to Heaven
