Posted on 09/07/2014 12:37:24 PM PDT by ReformationFan
1) It's not shot in black and white but in bright Technicolor like a musical comedy.
2) The femme fatale isn't played by the likes of either Barbara Stanwyck or Bette Davis but instead by the angelically beautiful Gene Tierney(a Republican actress who dated JFK but voted against him for Nixon in 1960).
Miss Tierney won her only Oscar nomination for the sociopathic Ellen Berent. Her performance was so convincing that later on when she was visiting a friend's house their maid refused to cook for that "mean woman". Miss Tierney went to speak to the maid and afterwards the maid said to her something along the lines of "you were real mean in that movie ma'am but now that I've met you I can see you're really very nice." Miss Tierney later said she was very flattered by this experience as it was the most sincere compliment she ever received for her acting ability.
“The trouble with Ellen is that she loves people.....too much.”
ping
I’m late mentioning this, but I finally watched your suggestion from last week, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. It was great!!
Great movie.
When you have spent an important part of your life playing Let’s Pretend, it’s often easy to see symbolism where none exists.
Gene Tierney
Yay! Another Gene Tierney!
You rock Sir.
While I like Gene Tierney the “Gal with the Hoe” always got my attention too.
Another beauty. And like Miss Tierney, Jeanne Crain was also a Republican.
Indeed. “Martha Ivers” makes a good companion piece to “Leave Her To Heaven” which I why I showed them in the order I did. Martha Ivers is B & W with the typical film noir villainess in Barbara Stanwyck while LHTH is atypical with it’s bright Technicolor and Gene Tierney’s classic beauty masking the monster within.
Reminds me of a quote from another Republican actress, Shirley Temple. I’m paraphrasing but the gist of it was after spending the first twenty years of her life in fantasyland(i.e., Hollywood) she wanted to spend the rest of her life in reality.
Indeed. And as a Roman Catholic I’m sure you appreciate(as I do as a pro-life Protestant) the fact that the film clearly portrays abortion as murder. One does not walk away from this film thinking that Ellen’s premeditated termination of her pregnancy is being presented as anything less than an evil act. If it were made today, Hollywood would sadly try to portray Ellen as a “misunderstood” anti-heroine committing a justifiable act.
Thanks.
I love the scene from 15:05 to 16:14 where she is scattering her deceased father’s ashes while riding a horse.
great movie
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