Holy cow! Gotta wonder why every single member of the original "Peyton Place" declined to appear in the sequel...where is Hope Lange, Dianne Varsi, David Nelson, and especially Lana Turner? Word was they all got fat heads from the success of this film and producer Jerry Wald would not offer enough money to entice most of the cast back...especially Lana Turner..word was Turner was "available" for the sequel at a very high price and Wald said "no go"..... Anyhow what kind of time frame was the sequel? The original Peyton Place was set during world war II, Ted Carter was inducted remember? Return to Peyton Place it is suddenly 1961....what? Watch closely when Allison is running down the street at the beginning of the film and you will see a 1959 chevy impala parked......twenty years later!!! Looks like Allison didn't age too much! Movie seems to be divided into two parts: Allison McKenzie and her story of Peyton Place and the selling of her book and part two, hell hath no fury like a disenchanted mother played to the hilt by Mary Astor who tries to ruin the lives of anyone who gets in her way, especially Selena Cross (Tuesday Weld) and her daughter in law, played by Luciana Paluzzi (a few years before being a Bond girl). Talk about the mother from hell....if you saw "A Summer Place" remember the mother from hell in that one with Constance Ford? Mary Astor is her equal in this film. Seems like the entire town of Peyton Place in the sequel is fixated on keeping Astor out of their hair......Eleanor Parker is the new Constance McKenzie and does not have the acting power of Lana Turner as the original McKenzie mom. She tries hard to overact ala Turner in the original but it just does not work. Tuesday Weld as Selena handles her role a bit better but just does not connect as well as Dianne Varsi....a tidbit about Weld, she was also filming "Wild in the country" with Elvis at the same time Return to Peyton Place was being filmed...story had it that she just commuted from sound stage to sound stage on a daily basis to make both films at the same time. As soon as filming for the day was done on Wild in the Country she hurried over to the Peyton Place set. Anyhow this film isn't too bad...just gotta love the execution squad of Astor and the local townspeople who threaten to fire Mike Rossi for placing Allison's book in the school library. A love twist develops between Selena (Weld) and a Swedish ski instructor (Gunnar Helstrom) who prods Selena to tell her story about being raped. Allison (Carol Lynley) falls in love with a married book publisher (Jeff chandler) as the movie bounces back and forth between the goings on in the town and Allison's love tryst with Chandler in New York. Mary Astor, as the mother from hell and the Polly Harrington of the town pretty much steals the film. By the end you will detest the sight of her. Ending leaves a little bit to be desired....a town meeting that ends with Astor being more bitter and everyone else trying to explain their personal beliefs. Allison decides not to keep her romance with Chandler at the end of the film and return to peyton place (no pun intended!). Not bad for a sequel, but the original is much better.
