Leave Her to Heaven

[MissGoddess]

Moderate Moira,

I just wish he'd confined his criticisms to her acting ability, which is at least pertinent. Personal, gossipy complaints just have no real place in a film commentary any more than they do in a serious analysis of a film.

All in all, I just found his entire commentary of a very low and childish order.

The Immoderate Miss G

[mrsl]

johnm:

Hey friend, you said:

"I've worked with people who never let go of the character, and it was a royal pain in the ass. Always."

That statement pretty much verifies what we've all been saying. This movie was made pre-method acting, so a teenage kid might have just gotten the wrong idea about the lady who was the star of the movie.

Anne

[Mr. Arkadin]

I've worked with people who stay in character all the time too and yes, it's a royal pain, but I will say that it is a technique like any other and if you are just another bad actor, it won't help you.

There are some people who channel extraordinary performances from this idea and when you see their work, you can't argue with the result. Is it hard on those around them? Absolutely, but you have to look at the finished product and gauge that against what it took for them to achieve it.

I know Daniel Day Lewis during filming of My Left Foot (1989) was in a wheelchair, in character, the whole time on the set. I'm sure there were people who wanted to put him in a wheelchair by the time shooting finished, but it's an amazing performance. Could he have done it straight? Probably, but we're talking about his confidence here. If a person is not confident, it's very perceptible and you're not going to get a good performance from them.

I've acted, played music gigs, played hockey in a rink with people sceaming at you. All three require dropping everything else in life that we carry around and focusing intently on the job at hand. I was never one of those "in character" people, but I'm not the kind of guy who's gonna tell a million jokes either. In all these situations I had/have a job and role to play and I concentrated on pouring all of myself into it.

My wife did stage for over 15 years. There was one very intense drama she did (Home Front) which wrenched so much from her and the other three players that they would literally be shaking when they came off the stage. I play gigs that are about 80% improvisation. You're thinking on your feet the whole time, and all it takes is one slip for the music to fall apart. When I get through, I'm drained physically and mentally. It's hard for me to even talk afterwards.

People work in all kinds of ways and while it may not be pleasant to others (or themselves), they should be judged by their finished work, not their techniques. Lon Chaney once said that it doesn't matter if you cry--it's that you make the audience cry. That's very true, but if you have to do some real blubbering to get the take right, that's what you've gotta do.

When Mitchum made his cameo in the 93 version of Cape Fear he laughed at DeNiro's staying in character the whole time. Both are great actors who have done amazing things. Mitchum could just walk in and say the lines. George Sanders was much the same way, but both these men are the opposite extreme. Most actors need some preparation and a little time to themselves before they go on. The bottom line is not how you do it, but can you do it?

[MissGoddess]

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this, John. I don't like listening gossipy complaints in film commentaries from anyone. In an interview, I wll add, they wouldn't bother me. But I only listen to commentaries that give me insight about the film itself and how the participants went about making it.

[moira finnie]

I thought that it might be interesting for the contributors to this thread to know that Ben Ames Williams' novel, Leave Her to Heaven
has just been reprinted by the Chicago Review Press.

According to Scott Eyman's take in the Palm Beach Post, "it turns out to be very close to its film adaptation, except the movie has better dialogue. Williams did sweep and story pretty well, but his dialogue was of the 'Richard, will it please you to know that we are to have a son?' variety."

It might make a fun read anyway. The book is available in paperback for a little over ten bucks on Amazon, (used is only $5). Might be a fun stocking stuffer.

[MissGoddess]

I have a first edition of the novel which I read about two years ago. It's a very weak book, in my opinion, and the movie is a vast improvement. However, it does go into Ellen's attachment to her father a little more, and fleshes out the reasons why she got engaged to the Vincent Price character.

[rainingviolets21]

I would like to write a blip on the brilliant musical score by Alfred Newman
his superb music, sometimes accompanied by a loud drumbeat, is a wonder to hear, and the very ending where Wilde rows to greet Craine
is the most beautiful ending ever put on film ...the fadeout is perfection..this is what movies are all about..the blending of music and
substance..Bravo ~

[myrnaloyisdope]

I love how 1940's Technicolor looks. This film is pretty much my favorite example of that. It's simply fantastic to look at.

Gene Tierney is one of the most beautiful women ever, and this is her best performance, and one of my favorite performances. I am in awe of how she manages to maintain a level of quiet intensity without ever going into histrionics. It's what makes her character so deranged and so effective. I can't picture anyone being able to pull off what she does in this film.

It's not a perfect film, with the courtroom scene being pretty implausible, but it's a lot of fun.

[Alan K.]

I felt he was a prissy little prat who hadn't matured one jot since he made the darn movie and I am not surprised if I learn one day that Gene wanted to really let him drown.

Well, there's a calm, nuanced statement that puts Darryl Hickman's remarks about Gene Tierney and LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN in proper perspective.

Seriously, I sat down with Darryl and talked to him for nearly two hours before doing a Q&A with him at a screening of THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS. He related the LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN experience in detail and I questioned him about Tierney, John Stahl, etc.

My take on all of this:

1. Gene Tierney was struggling in an extremely challenging role, had her own problems that later got much worse and probably didn't treat Darryl very well. Darryl admitted that it took him awhile to realize that she stayed in character, had issues opaque to him and doesn't blame her for much of this now. Although he didn't understand this for some time, I got the impression that he probably regretted going overboard in his LHTH commentary.; he carried this around for a long time.

2. John Stahl was an insensitive old man who was a bad director. and not much fun to work with.

3. It was the worst professional experience of Hickman's entire acting career which encompasses over 130 movies and television shows not to mention a plethora of stage work. Remember, this is coming from a six decade veteran of the business, not a spoiled brat.

4. Darryl has matured a great deal since 1945 and has written a very interesting book on acting titled "The Unconscious Actor: Out of Control and in Full Command". Yes, Hickman is an actor and has an artist's ego and sensitivity. As far as it goes, I found him and his recollections to be straightforward, declarative and honest[/i]

[bettyjoan]

Anne Baxter wrote a fine autobiography, "Intermission" and in it, she relates her vivid memories of working on "The Razor's Edge" with GT, John Payne, Tyrone Power (who was involved in a romance with Tierney during filming) Herbert Marshall and Clifton Webb. - It's the wonderful scene where Baxter's character, Sophie, is discovered by the group (her former social friends) in a backwash dive sort of bar room and brothel. She is desheveled and inebriated, having come to dissapation in the Paris underworld after the tragic loss of her beloved husband and baby girl in the States, from a hit-and-run.

It seems Baxter had had a sort of premonition-dream about this scene some time before she even knew about the role. And when filming began with this scene, Baxter inexplicably received what she described as a thorough snobbish hazing from all of the actors mentioned above; especially Webb and Tierney. (Although Webb wasn't in this scene proper.) The group was supposed to be shocked by Sophie's condition as a drunken outcast. Nevertheless, Baxter said that the actors had formed a little cabal against her 'off-stage' as well, and that as an actresss she chose to use their cruel dismissal of her to augment her characterization as an outsider. - The actual film sequence was a 'deja-vu' experience of serious magnitude for Baxter.

When I read Hickman's description of Gene Tierney, it reminded me of the this.

[myrnaloyisdope]

Having read Gene Tierney's autobiography she comes off as very smart and quite open about her struggles with mental illness. But she was also brought up pretty high class, and she studied in Europe. I think she had a bit of a snobby quality too.

I think she probably had a snobby quality combined with her own personal troubles which served to alienate her from quite a few people.

Her ex-husband Oleg Cassini mentioned that he was very fortunate to know the real Gene Tierney which few people ever knew.

I think between her beauty and her illness she kept people at a distance. The people who knew her really liked her, and those who didn't know her very well didn't like her.

She's complex and compelling to say the least.