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Leave Her to Heaven

  • Director: John M. Stahl
  • Year: 1945
- The first thing that struck me about this film is its stark beauty - it's really the first color film on the list to make good use of natural sets. The various wilderness settings (New Mexico, Maine) serve a function as well, highlighting the lead woman's "wildness", and later on, her increasing desperation to have her husband to herself. This film noir, more than most, highlights the sexism inherent in the genre, but for a moment early on, it's easy to be sympathetic towards her, and it's not to the film's credit that we abandon any sympathy for her by the end of the film.


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