By Love Possessed

source: By Love Possessed

Trailer—By Love Possessed

By Love Possessed

There's nothing better than Lana's voice when she's being quietly emphatic about whatever ... she can purr with the best of them and takes you back to her earliest days in film. Otherwise, the movie seems to jump all over the place as far as plot/who we really want to focus on. In many ways Zimbalist and Robards should have switched parts: to see Hamilton get riled up each time he has a conversation with the incredibly passive Zimbalist is laughable. Great '60s period piece, great cast - the inimitable Thomas Mitchell (Pa O'Hara from "GWTW"), Everett Sloane and Barbara Bel Geddes ("Miss Ellie" from "Dallas") add to the fun of this soaper (I agree with the review that says "Sirk - without Sirk") and it was a good find.

Love is on everyone's mind. Lana Turner wants Efram Zimbalist to fulfill some moment lost in the past. Barbara BelGeddes wants to feel love from her husband, Zimbalist. Jason Robards wants Turner to stay but not out of pity. George Hamilton is incapable of love, but then he thinks, I did love her in a way. All this thinking about love has Elmer Berstein's score booming throughout. James Cozzens wrote the novel from which all this love thinking grew. John Sturges directed this almost two hours of love focus. If you love love you will love this film.

What can be more laughable than a film that attempts to skewer wasp hypocrisy and small-town stereotyping, but uses such stereotyping in it's presentation of characters? This is an unabashed attempt to gather the Peyton Place fans by bringing back Lana Turner to a New England setting in Autumn, along with the period Boy-Man of angst, George Hamilton. While Turner is so good that she can do this type of role in her sleep, and still come off well, the rest of the cast is pretty wooden, especially Efrem Zimbalist. It's easy to see why he could portray an FBI agent on TV so well. Nothing more than a turgid melodrama, so popular at the time, filmed in color with a panoramic view so that it could lure the women of 1961 away from the B&W small-screen TV daytime soap operas, to see the exact same stuff on a big screen. Pass on it and get Peyton Place instead, unless you're a Lana Turner fanatic.

Like the contemporary " this earth is mine" , this disjointed melodrama looks like a pilot for a non-existent TV series ; there are so many characters that the viewer gets lost in a story more complicated than complex : no real central character but in the first third ,almost every scene introduces a new face and leaves the viewer panting for breath. The implausible suicide of very attractive Helen -Susan Kohner , who had already played opposite Lana turner in Douglas Sirk's highly superior "imitation of life" - only happens to put the people on the right track :for instance,Marjorie B (sic)(Turner) gives up leaving her impotent husband (Jason Robards ) ; Warren Winner (George Hamilton) comes back after trying to escape and is going to face his future trial , abetted by his father (Efrem Zimbalist Jr) :with a surname like that ,how could they lose ?and the patriarch's embezzlement will be hushed . In fact ,the story could go on and on and on

One thing the campy reviewer above forgot to mention was the lush score of Elmer Bernstein. Very very memorable themes, beautifully scored... tying everything together... and haunting long after the movie is over... It's a shame this film cannot be seen today on the networks... Too tame by today's standards... but representative of solid storytelling, and fine drama... never possible to be replaced by today's synthesized orchestras, computer drawn scenery, and wannabe character actors... It's also a testament to an era when big name movie stars existed - something you don't have today. Those stars are from an era gone by, and never to be repeated - thanks to our interfering government breaking up the Hollywood system!!! Today's here-today-gone-tomorrow stars just don't have it!

It is certainly not a great movie, but it makes enjoyable television watching. The cinematography is great. It's fun just watching the marvelous rooms with the elaborate woodwork, sweeping hallways. These folks live very well. The camera is quite static so it is a visually appealing, quiet movie with very literate characters. It is fun just watching these drab folks live among such rich colors. Their lives may not be a rich tapestry, but their backgrounds sure are. OK, the plot is very melodramatic and a bit contrived. Folks have very big problems (infidelity, crimes, court drama, family break ups) but nothing much really seems to happen. They sure talk a lot. Oh well, but late at night, when you don't want to go to sleep, this is almost perfect.

Awful. BY LOVE POSSESSED is a really horrendous movie --- a soap opera completely devoid of style and class. Lana Turner cheats on husband Jason Robards Jr. by having an affair Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Turner obviously likes good lineage, but that's still one junior too many! The characters drink a lot and ride horses and live in absurd houses on acres and acres of land. Zimbalist's ne'er do well son is played by George Hamilton. He's being blackmailed by party girl Yvonne Craig while trying to get something started with débutante Susan Kohner. The less said about Hamilton's acting the better. Turner and Zimbalist are dreadful and Robards is saddled with the absurd task of playing a drunk. He acts and acts and acts. As Zimbalist's patient wife, Barbara Bel Geddes emerges unscathed. Directed by a clearly derailed John Sturges.