


Adapted from the Ben Ames Williams million-seller, Leave Her to Heaven (1945) was a blockbuster whose reputation has only grown with time. A juicy Technicolor melodrama with the shadowy heart of a film noir, it focuses on the alluring Ellen (the incomparable Gene Tierney), a femme fatale whose elegant exterior conceals depths of feverish jealousy which will drive her to the most heinous crimes. Although lushly photographed (by the great Leon Shamroy, whose work would win him a well-deserved Oscar®), the film is directed with admirable austerity by veteran John M. Stahl, and features a potent score by Alfred Newman, available here as an isolated track.