Leave Her to Heaven

Ellen tells author Dick, “We’ve come here for my father’s funeral.” (0:11)

Ellen spreads her father’s ashes. (0:15)

Ellen tells Dick, “Thank you for coming to the funeral this morning.” (0:18)

Dick calls Ellen “Idiot.” (0:36)

As Ellen begins to voice her jealousy Dick tells her, “You’re in a rotten mood Ellen.”
”You are deliberately whipping yourself into a fit of hysterics.” (0:55)

Dr. Saunders tells Dick and the other Berents, referring to Ellen, “When she came too, she remembered nothing about leaving her room. She thought she must have been walking in her sleep.” Malingering? (1:19)

Ellen tells Dick, “And then I grew panicky.” (1:25)

Ellen: “Richard, I’m going to die.”
”I want to be cremated like my father.”
She dies holding Dick’s hand. (1:32)

Ellen's adoptive sister Ruth swoons after she leaves the witness chair. (1:46)

On the witness stand Dick tells the court, referring to Ellen, “She killed herself.”
Prosecutor Russell: “Do you honestly believe Ellen committed suicide?”
“Knowing her as you did and I did, you think her capable, not only of committing suicide but falsely accusing her own sister of her death?” (1:47)

Does Ellen suffer from delusional disorder or a personality disorder, and if the latter, which? Narcissistic perhaps? Her mother and sister describe traits that predate her relationship with Dick. How might you imagine helping her family address her behaviors from childhood?

Reference in Mommie Dearest