Leave Her to Heaven

Another movie watched solely on the basis that someone said the female lead (Gene Tierney) is beautiful - not really my style, however.

She plays Ellen Berent Harland: as she is returning by train to her father's funeral, she spots a young man,

Richard - they talk, she says he reminds her of her father, there's a bit of humour where she says the book she's reading is terribly dull,

he agrees and then it is revealed he is its author and before you know it, she's dumped her fiance (Vincent Price) and is marrying Richard, saying she'd never let him go.

He's a nice enough fellow, loves his disabled brother (Danny), gets on well with Ellen's sister, Ruth, and all could have ended happily. Problem is, Ellen is screwed up, can't handle competition so those who appear to love Richard have to go - there's one cold blooded scene in which she watches Danny drown. When it looks like Richard might like Ruth more than he should (he dedicates his book to her), we're led to think that Ellen is about to poison her, but Ellen is more subtle than that, as well as more damaged.

The movie tended to move fairly slowly through these waters, but then the pace and tension picked up remarkably at the end, with a murder trial. Ellen's former fiance is the prosecutor, and he's like a dog with a bone - going way beyond merely badgering his witnesses - his questions were intense and repetitive (spoilers after the photos):

So, as I said, Ellen's plan was a bit more subtle than just killing Ruth: she killed herself and framed Ruth. She might have got away with it - Ruth confesses to being in love with Richard. If the fiance hadn't been a bit bitter and twisted about losing Ellen to Richard, he might have stopped: instead, he recalled Richard to the stand in order to force him to confess to being in love with Ruth. Only then does the truth spill out.

On a completely unrelated point, I liked the look of the club car of the train: