Peyton Place

Trailer—Peyton Place

A sheer number of society issues this film covered is staggering, and it was done in warm and kind way, with great scenario and good performances from the actors. The only sad thing is that most of the themes they covered are still taboo and unresolved in 2020. Really enjoyable film, glad I had the chance to watch it!

Grace Metalious' bestseller comes to the screen with lavish good taste, but the small town scandals depicted are not entirely white-washed. Glossy melodrama directed by Mark Robson allows star Lana Turner to suffer nobly, playing single mother to graduating teenager Diane Varsi, harboring a skeleton in her family closet while being romanced by high school principal Lee Philips (in an appealing performance). Varsi and her friends are all awakening to the joys of boy-girl coupling, unsure about sex and not about to ask their parents for help. Involving and polished, though just a bit stiff or starchy. The courtroom climax (with shopgirl Hope Lange on trial for killing her abusive step-father) is really corny, but fans of the soap genre will be enthralled. Fashioned into a popular television serial starting in 1964. Followed by "Return to Peyton Place" in 1961, which featured none of the talents assembled here. *** from ****

This movie has few pretensions at being great art. Instead, it's a very glossy and high quality soap opera that deals with so many sleazy elements in an entertaining way that it will keep your attention throughout. The main theme is sex--teen sex as well as middle-aged woman sex--all in a supposedly conservative small town. It just seethes with a cauldron of rape, murder, illegitimacy and hypocrisy! You might have expected Ms. Turner instead to have done a movie akin to THE SINGING NUN after the much publicized trial, but instead chose this tell-all tale. All-in-all, an excellent movie with a great script, wonderful acting and terrific production values. However, it probably will shock you with its very frank talk about sexuality--something rarely seen in a 1950s A-picture from Hollywood.

Okay, so I wasn't alive in the 50s. But my father certainly was. He recommended this movie to me, and I have to say -- I was impressed. It represents one of the few mainstream films of the era that presented day-to-day life as it really was. Peyton Place is a movie that strips away the candy-coated exterior which surrounds many a 50s film, and shows the raw and flawed lives of people who are struggling with issues that viewers in today's society can still relate to. Although a different genre, it wasn't until I delved deeper into Film Noir that I discovered more films that presented an edgier and raw window into the world of the 40s and 50s. I appreciate a writer or director that has the guts to risk losing viewers by insisting on honest presentation of culture or events. This film is worth a look.