On this day in 1991 Gene Tierney died from complications arising from emphysema. She was 70 years old. Tierney was both a beauty and a fine actress with more than her share of personal tragedy. If you'd like to read about her personal life there are more than a few online biographies you can turn to for information. The reason however that I was going to write about her in October was for the 1945 film Leave Her to Heaven which is a sort of spiritual Godmother to Play Misty for Me and Fatal Attraction. Her character even commits suicide but makes it look like murder which is exactly how Fatal Attraction was slated to end before preview audiences stepped in and became screenwriters causing nutless Adrian Lyne to gleefully change the ending of his own movie. Not so with Leave Her to Heaven which must have turned some heads back in 1945 with its tale of a woman so possessed, obsessed and heartless that she watches the helpless paralyzed brother of her husband drown and doesn't bat an eyelash. She throws herself down a flight of stairs just weeks before giving birth to force a miscarriage ... just to get sympathy and attention from her husband who she suspects is falling for her sister (she's right). And in the end, as noted above, she kills herself by poisoning and frames it on her sister. Damn.
These kinds of movies have always been popular whether the obsessed party is male (King of Comedy, The Eyes of Laura Mars, The Fan) or female (the above mentioned Play Misty for Me and Fatal Attraction) there's just something really creepy about someone who won't stop thinking about you! In Leave Her to Heaven, one of the first of its kind, the same maddening and mystifying traits of the stalker/obsessor are examined. Ellen (Gene Tierney) has had relationships before so what is it about this one with Richard Harland (Cornell Wilde, and no, he doesn't blog at Movie Morlocks) that sends her over the edge? Her former fiance, played by Vincent Price, is clearly in love with her and wants her but she, for whatever reason, has locked her sights onto Harland and won't veer away. From the first unilateral decision she makes, announcing to everyone after only a single outing with Harland at her family ranch that they are to be married you know there's going to be trouble. Later, when Harland, a novelist, decides to dedicate his latest novel to Ruth (Jean Simmons), Ellen's sister, he is told by their mother, "Oh no. You should dedicate it to Ellen. You should dedicate all your books to Ellen." The mother knows what Richard is willfully choosing not to see and this is her way of warning him. Foolishly, he doesn't heed the warning and the events described above, leading to her suicide, begin to unfold. But does she win? Will Richard and Ruth go to prison for murder? Yes and no. I won't completely spoil the film for those who haven't seen it (although I've come pretty damn close) but it's compelling that the movie allows the murderous Ellen a even partial victory in the end. And on top of that, she went out at the hour and means of her own choosing effectively avoiding justice for her murderous deeds.
Leave Her to Heaven is a well told tale of murderous obsession and Tierney would never again have a role that demanded as much from her as an actress. She wasn't Ingrid Bergman or Katherine Hepburn it's true, but she was a damn good Gene Tierney and in this film, more than even Laura, she showed an impressive display of acting chops. This November 20th would have been her 89th birthday.
11 comments:
I don't know why Ellen was so keen on Richard, either. His books sounded so boring. Self-important bloated claptrap. Still, too bad about his brother.
Does anybody know if Tierney's first daughter is still alive? The weird circumstances that resulted in the girl being born blind and mentally retarded - Gene was pregnant and working in the Hollywood Canteen as part of a USO tour and a woman with measles was so excited to meet her that she came right over and shook her hand or something - are so perfectly tragic that I've long wondered if it weren't some sort of Hollywood myth. But, sadly, it appears to be true. Years later (again, as the story goes) the woman who had infected her introduced herself and said something like "Even though I had a fever of 105 I wanted to meet you!" No wonder Gene Tierney had such problems with depression later in life.
Yes, Richard that's all true. Gene Tierney spoke of it in a couple of interviews, one of which I read a few years ago. The fan did indeed say that to her which immediately struck a chill through her heart. Even if she wasn't visibly pregnant, which she was, being so grotesquely selfish as to risk making the person you purportedly admire ill with German measles just makes me cringe.
Bill, have you seen it? Actually, she does fall asleep reading his book. It's just something about him for whatever reason.
I remember when she passed away, was in high school at the time. I was so sad to hear the news.
Yeah, I've seen it, Greg. It's been a couple of years, but reading your post brought that element of Wilde's character back to me. Unintentional, I'm sure, but God did his books sound awful.
I did like the movie, by the way.
Bill, it's funny because I don't even remember the books, so I guess they were pretty dull.
Tom, emphysema is a horrible way to die, it's very sad indeed.
Your mention of Fatal Attraction reminded me of the year I spent as Glen Close's next door neighbor. It was during the year of 1987, when Fatal Attraction was a big hit, and I moved into a 4 story walk-up on Cornelia Street, a New York style rowhouse with two apartments per floor which are typical to that area of the West Village. The day I moved in, my landlord mentioned that an actress he never heard of lived next door, "some chick named Glen." When I said "Glen Close?" he confirmed it. When word got around my family that I was living next door to "the crazy woman from Fatal Attraction" everyone thought it was funny to leave messages on my answering machine asking if anyone left a rabbit cooking on my stove. In actuality, Glen turned out to be a stunning beautiful woman (the screen doesn't do her justice) who is funny and really down to Earth. She wasn't above hanging out on the stoop drinking beers with me and some of the neighbors. I never did ask her what she thought about the change in the ending to Fatal Attraction, but I guess that's one of the unwritten rules about making the acquaintance of a celebrity is that you give them space and let them broach the subjects. Still she was a good piano player and her little white dog wasn't too annoying. And she never did cook hossenpfeffer
Thanks for sharing that Fred. That landlord of yours though, geez. By 1987 she'd done The World According to Garp, The Big Chill, The Natural and Jagged Edge, all big hits. What kind of isolation chamber was that guy living in?
I'm so glad to see your fine tribute to Gene Tierney. She always interested me because she had real sensitivity and responsiveness as an actress, and so many of the other great beauties (like Lamarr) couldn't engage with a role as deeply. Tierney's villainess in Leave Her To Heaven is genuinely chilling--while her title character in Laura has a lovely warmth. And maybe this seems like a small thing--but Tierney had intelligent eyes. You could believe in the mental processes behind her actions.
Margaret I agree, she had very knowing intelligent eyes. I could never see her playing someone who wasn't smart. As such, she seemed even more menacing and calculating in this because you just knew she was smarter than everyone else (which her character clearly is to my eyes) so the prospect of her continuing without being stopped felt very real.
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