Leave Her to Heaven

Wonderful all-stops-out melodrama (from a novel by Ben Ames Williams) drawing luridly on gimcrack psychology to tell the tale of a father-fixated girl (Tierney) who picks a husband because of his resemblance to Daddy, and is then gripped by a mounting paroxysm of jealousy which inclines her to dispose violently of anyone else laying claim to his affection. The potential for absurdity is enormous, not least in an unforgettable scene where Tierney roams the mountain-top on horseback at dawn (the colour, incidentally, is Fox-bright but exquisitely toned), scattering her father's ashes to the winds. But Stahl is totally in control, his precise pacing and compositions lending a persuasive dimension of amour fou, while Leon Shamroy's camerawork makes each image a purring pleasure on the eye.