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Leave Her To Heaven Film Noir

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Leave Her To Heaven Film Noir
The 1945 film Leave Her to Heaven directed by John M. Stahl is a perfect example of a classic noir film. There are an exceptional amount of reasons why Leave Her to Heaven is categorized as a noir film. In noir, we see shadows, neon lights, mirrors, white clothing, femme fatales, murder, seduction, lies, guilt, dark locations, suspicion, crime, sometimes the exception of technicolor, and many more elements that without a doubt create a phenomenal noir film. Leave Her to Heaven is one of the few noir films that was created in a beautiful technicolor production. This does not mean that it is not a noir, but in all seriousness, this film fits into the noir genre beautifully. Leave Her to Heaven is the epitome of noir aside from the usual black and white productions. In this film, a writer (played by Cornel Wilde) meets a young woman (played by Gene Tierney) on a train. The two of them fall in love and get married quite soon after the fact, but her obsessive and possessive love for him threatens to be the undoing of both of them and everyone else around them. Leave Her to Heaven, told in an extended flashback for the majority of the film, revolves around the femme fatale (Ellen Berent) who entraps herself a husband (Richard Harland) and commits a series of crimes motivated by her insane jealousy over …show more content…
Despite clues and situations that continually point him in another direction, Richard allows himself to be dragged along by Ellen on a path that leads straight to tragedy. Richard is blinded by Ellen’s unfathomable beauty and adoration towards him. A male being deceived and led astray by a beautiful woman is the epitome of a noir film. The film is a breeding ground for paranoia, anxiety, and suspicion which all come together to create a perfect noir. From start to finish, looking at all of the elements of noir, this film comes out far darker than its colorful appearance would

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