The California filming locations for Leave Her to Heaven included Bass Lake in the High Sierras, Monterey and Busch Gardens. They also shot Ellen's first meetings with Richard and her father's memorial in Flagstaff and Granite Dells, AZ. Although most of the lake scenes were shot in Busch Gardens, a unit did film some long shots and other backgrounds in Warm Springs, GA.

On a Saturday night, before finishing work for the week, John M. Stahl asked Gene Tierney to run through the drowning scene so cinematographer Leon Shamroy could see the staging and know how to light it. When she finished, Stahl was upset. "That was perfect," he said, "just the way it should be done. But, oh God, you will never get it again, never in a million years." He refused to believe Tierney's protestation that she had been rehearsing it exactly that way for weeks which left her a nervous wreck on her Sunday off. Monday morning they shot the scene, and she nailed it.

While shooting the drowning scene, Stahl was particularly tough on Darryl Hickman, who played Cornel Wilde's brother. He never even referred to him by name, calling him "boy" or "son" the entire time. Then word came back from Hollywood that studio head Darryl F. Zanuck thought the rushes were some of the best he had ever seen. Suddenly Hickman was one of Stahl's favorite actors, but he took to picking on Wilde and calling him "son" and "boy."

For the proposal scene, Wilde had trouble reacting convincingly to Tierney's advances, but each time they did a take the crew was so impressed, they whistled at her. Finally, Stahl said to Wilde, "They all seem to understand how the scene should be played. Why can't you?"

Leave Her to Heaven received four Oscar® nominations: Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Sound. Gene Tierney lost the Oscar® to Joan Crawford, who only pretended to be a murderer in Mildred Pierce (1945), but Leon Shamroy won for his Technicolor cinematography.

by Frank Miller

SOURCES:
Self-Portrait by Gene Tierney