‘A Summer Place’ Still Steamy & Silly 1959

"You can't ever let him think your kisses come cheap!" Troy Donahue & Sandra Dee... *Batteries not included!

A Summer Place was a smash in 1959, due in equal doses of Percy Faith’s pop take on Max Steiner’s music, dream team Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue, and the titillating teen sex story line.

Triple threat director, producer, and screenwriter Delmer Daves moved from western flicks to glossy soaps starting with A Summer Place. This daring melodrama was also his most successful.

The cast of 'A Summer Place,' with appropriate facial expressions: Dee & Donahue as the teen lovers;
Richard Egan & Constance Ford as the Jorgensons; and Arthur Kennedy & Dorothy McGuire as the Hunters.

Adapted from the novel by Sloan Wilson (The Man in the Gray Flannel), the Warner Brothers’ film version of A Summer Place was obviously inspired by 20^th Century Fox’s recent racy novel-to-movie hit, Peyton Place. Like that ’57 sexy soap, there’s the nostalgic New England setting, glossy production values, heart-tugging score, plus a cast comprised of fresh young stars and familiar favorites. And after salivating over the sizzling stuff, audiences get a reassuring moral message by the veteran male star at the finale.

Molly Jorgenson: “Remember that family that lived next door to us back home?”

Ken Jorgenson: “Yeah.”

Molly Jorgenson: “Their son used to look at me.”

Ken Jorgenson: “Without you knowing it?”

Molly Jorgenson: “Well, his bedroom was right across from mine and... one night, I felt naughty and went right on undressing so he could see. Then all of a sudden I... I got terribly ashamed and I ran and pulled the curtains down. I'll never forget... I had hot and cold flashes all over me afterwards. Wasn't that awful?”

Despite the 2 hour and 10 minute running time, A Summer Place squeezes a lifetime into one year. (The novel takes place over 20 years.) The story starts with a splash as lush Bart Hunter (Arthur Kennedy) sets up the stakes in his snide way. Former love rival for his wife, Ken Jorgenson (Richard Egan), is bringing his family back, years later, for a summer visit. They plan to reside at the Hunter family estate, now run as the Pine Island Inn. Bart wants to say no, but wife Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire) protests that they are buried in debt and need to take in these summer guests. Kennedy’s pompous response: “Just because we’re broke doesn’t mean we have to lose our dignity!” Let’s just say more than dignity is lost in A Summer Place.

Charming host Bart Hunter to his guests: “Do you and your husband often swim in the raw, Mrs. Jorgenson?”

Whatever possessed Ken, who went from island summer help to successful chemist, to marry Helen (Constance Ford) is never explained. (In the novel, she’s the daughter of his business partner). Helen is a frigid, pious, pretentious, overbearing, and humorless shrew. In the first scene, she tries to control her family by dressing Ken up like Gilligan’s Island’s Thurston Howell III in a yachting get up, and daughter Molly (Sandra Dee) like Shirley Temple in a sailor dress. Not only that, Helen wants Molly to wear an iron clad bra and girdle that would be more suitable for the ample mama.

Molly Jorgenson: [to Ken] “She says I bounce when I walk. Do I?” 

Helen Jorgenson: "When we arrive at the inn, I want her to look completely modest."

Molly: "She means like a boy. Flat as a pancake!"

There’s a voyeuristic tone to the whole movie. First, the locals are checking out the Jorgenson family as they arrive on their yacht. Then Dee’s Molly and Johnny Hunter (Troy Donahue) are scoping each other out through binoculars. At the end of day one, the smitten teens peer through their bedroom windows at one another good night. Their respective parents, Ken and Sylvia, once teen lovers, are also wistfully doing the same. The handyman is hired to spy on them by suspicious Helen. Once Molly and Johnny fall madly in love, everyone is spying on the teens. Most of all, audiences were eating this all up, along with their popcorn!

“You have to play a man like a fish.” No problem here!

A Summer Place made a star of Troy Donahue. The teen idol possessed striking blue eyes, set off with a mane of blonde hair, with the soft jaw line of George Peppard. Apparently, Donahue wanted to be an actor since he was a kid, with the family background in showbiz. Sadly, it doesn’t show. Donahue is so wooden, there’s absolutely no conviction to his line readings, and in his big scenes, the camera cuts away, and comes back to him in tears. Troy’s voice sounds like a disembodied Tony Curtis—when Tony was trying to sound like he wasn’t from the Bronx! It also doesn’t help credibility that 6’ 3” Donahue towers over the rest of the cast, who treat Troy like a troubled boy, even though he was 23.

Bart Hunter: “Oh, Johnny, stop being a silly sentimentalist. It's stupid! Molly is merely
 a succulent little wench!” Johnny: "She's not a wench! She's everything I've ever dreamed of in a girl."

Sandra Dee on the other hand, has her moments, but whether by her choice or the studio’s, falls back on her perky persona that borders on hyperactive. This was a major debit in the same year’s Imitation of Life; depending on your taste, it’s either endearing or unendurable. I am of the latter camp. Still, Sandra shines in comparison to dull Donahue. They make a pretty, white bread screen team.

Helen (about daughter Molly): “I don't want her stared at.” 

Ken: "So you insist on de-sexing her, as though sex was synonymous with dirt."

The veteran actors save the day in A Summer Place. While Richard Egan’s dialogue is often speechy—though Ken’s papa actually preaches in defense of the teens—he plays it as straight as possible. Some of Ken’s most high-minded speeches sound just like Lloyd Nolan’s Doc Swain in Peyton Place. Physically, Egan’s rugged masculine looks are a pleasing contrast to the elegant Dorothy McGuire. As Sylvia, the long-suffering wife of Bart, McGuire comes off with the most dignity intact. That’s because her dialogue doesn’t contain as many clinkers as the script as a whole contains.

Richard Egan and Dorothy McGuire as the sane parents...they only committed adultery!

However, it’s the two dysfunctional parents who have the most delicious dialogue. Arthur Kennedy, at this point in his career, was adept at playing slime balls, such as Peyton Place and Some Came Running. As Bart, he is never without a drink or dirty quip as the drunken father of Johnny and spouse of Sylvia. Some of the lines are so sleazy, that I wonder how they ever slid the censors. Kennedy is nearly a comic villain, and he has a field day.

Constance Ford as Helen: “No decent girl lets a boy kiss and maul her the very first night they meet! I suppose it's your Swedish blood in her. I've read about how the Swedes bathe together and... and have trial marriages… and free love. I've read all about that. Anything goes.”

The real scene stealer is character actress Constance Ford, as Molly’s monstrous mother and Ken’s witch of a wife. Later, Ford was a favorite on daytime TV for 25 years as Ada, the no- nonsense mother of willful Rachel, on NBC’s Another World. Here, as Helen, she is a bulldozer, burying her husband and daughter alive. With her dour face, dumpy figure, and a whiny voice that rises to caterwauling, she’s like Shelley Winters long-lost sister—but without the humor! Ford makes the most of her moments and over the top dialogue.

The infamous "Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee, got knocked over with the Christmas tree!" 

Constance Ford's sister in cinema Shelley Winters serves up some Mama slaps in "A Patch of Blue!"

Divine ain't gonna go down like Sandra Dee and the Xmas tree!

A Summer Place’s Delmer Daves deserves much credit for not bending to censorship in trying to tell a positive story about teenage love and sex. Though there are consequences, neither Dee nor Donahue’s characters must “suffer” for their sins. No convenient miscarriages. No running away. No car crashes. Audiences can appreciate that message while wallowing in the glossy suds—enjoy!

Molly Jorgenson: “Are you bad, Johnny? Have you been bad with girls?”

Film footnote: Though the Hunters’ home turned inn and Ken and Sylvia’s later modern home are set on the New England coast, the Pine Island Inn exteriors were filmed at an actual home in Pacific Grove and the latter day Frank Lloyd Wright house is in Carmel, both in California.

"Pine Island Inn" house was actually in Pacific Grove, CA.

The Frank Lloyd Wright House is actually in Carmel, CA.

‘Some Came Running’ Stars Go the Distance 1958

Frank Sinatra & James Jones' realism versus MGM & Minnelli's gloss in 'Some Came Running.'

Some Came Running has a critical reputation that has run the gamut over the decades. Running was a big commercial success back in 1958, but received mixed reviews. Critics were kind to the actors and Minnelli’s magnificent finale, but not to the source material and MGM gloss.

Today’s critics, film fans, and TCM have revised this movie into the realm of an “essential” film. I always enjoy Some Came Running as a highly entertaining melodrama, with a strong cast, top-notch production values, and an intriguing look at postwar middle-class American morals, as filtered through Hollywood's studio system era. However, an essential classic? Not quite. Censorship and MGM’s “classy” gloss dilutes Some Came Running’s consideration as a classic.

Look what the Greyhound dragged in! Sinatra as the boozy ex-soldier and MacLaine as the brassy babe.

Some Came Running, James Jones' 1200 –plus page follow up to his breakthrough novel From Here to Eternity, was a critical flop, but reader curiosity made Jones’ soldier homecoming story a commercial success. Then MGM bought the behemoth, boiled it down, which was directed by stylish Vincente Minnelli. Frank Sinatra made one of Hollywood's most famous comebacks as scrappy Maggio in Eternity, and was enthused to star in another James Jones’ saga.

Sinatra's Dave and Martin's Bama in their first film scene together.

The old ‘you can’t go home again’ advice certainly proves true for Sinatra’s Dave Hirsh. The army vet rolls into town on a bus, sleeping off a drunk, though how he could catch any zzz’s with Elmer Bernstein’s bombastic opening score is beyond me. With Shirley MacLaine’s good-time Ginny tagging along, Sinatra decides to stick around Parkman, Illinois, where he proceeds to get into non-stop trouble. His partner in hi-jinks is Dean Martin’s Bama Dillert, a gambler and boozer. Not helping Dave’s homecoming is Ginny’s psycho ex-boyfriend, who won’t take no for an answer. Meanwhile, Dave’s older “respectable” brother Frank has introduced him to an academic daughter and father, Gwen and Professor French. Dave is instantly in love with her, but his bad boy baggage gets in the way, not to mention Gwen’s inhibitions. Things come to a head at Parkman’s Centennial celebration, vividly depicted by director Minnelli’s acclaimed carnival climax.

Minnelli expertly introduces the characters and their stakes in the film’s opening scenes. Mid-way, though, Running begins to stroll, dwelling too long on the cynical soldier’s romance with the respectable writing teacher. Perhaps the several drunken altercations could have been tightened up, too. The 137 minute melodrama could have easily been kept at two hours.

Shirley MacLaine got her first juicy role with 'Running' as tart with a heart Ginny Moorehead.

At first, the female stars of Some Came Running got the lioness’ share of praise. Running is recalled as Shirley MacLaine's big breakthrough and Martha Hyer's career peak. Both got Oscar nominations, so that was the take at the time. 

Shirley MacLaine, looking like Stella Dallas, confronts tasteful teacher Martha Hyer over Sinatra's soldier.

Shirley MacLaine rightly became a star in Some Came Running, after several years of getting miscast or stuck in middling material. As Ginny Moorehead, this became the Shirley MacLaine boilerplate role for many years: the tart with a heart. MacLaine is warm, charismatic, funny, and dramatic as the floozy who follows Frank’s Dave Hirsh to his hometown, and now works at a bra factory. However, the flip side of Shirley's star quality is present as well: over the top and too “on.” A decade later, MacLaine’s mugging would turn to caricature as yet another bimbo in Sweet Charity. At times, Ginny comes off like Lucy Ricardo's trashy sister! Part of this is due to the screenplay. In one scene, Ginny actually calls the library a 'li-berry.' Is anyone really that dumb? Minnelli should have dialed Shirley's shrillness down a notch, but both he and MacLaine had a tendency toward overstatement. Running set Shirley MacLaine off on a long career. While Shirley’s Ginny is great fun and touching, she’s also grating instead of ingratiating, at times.

Martha Hyer as Gwen French, the 'classy' other woman in Frank's Dave Hirsh's life.

Martha Hyer had a rather odd career. Hyer was 30 when her career finally got traction, and was often cast as the bland second lead that lost the leading man to the unique Audrey Hepburn or Sophia Loren. And while she wins Sinatra at the end of Some Came Running, Shirley stole the show. Somehow, Hyer got a best supporting actress Oscar nom as Gwen, the prudish college teacher who lives with her father. Even more astounding is how Hyer got a nomination over Judith Anderson and Madeleine Sherwood in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, also an MGM production. Hyer always reminds me a pod person who gives slightly stilted line readings, as if she’s visiting planet Earth. To be fair, she has some of the movie’s worst lines, not to mention constantly referring to Sinatra’s character by his full name. Hyer was another actress pitched as the next Grace Kelly; let's just say that Martha Hyer was at least more talented than Tippi Hedren. The one scene where Hyer comes to life is when she and Frank get down to business and her Gwen has a hard time warming up. Totally ‘50s, all silhouettes and symbolism, with the uptight teacher letting down her hair, in every way, it is still an effective scene.

When Hyer's frigid Gwen allows Sinatra's Dave to let her hair down, it unleashes her womanly desires!

As skillful as the supporting actresses are, they’re working against the stereotypical female roles that they're given to play—and this is true of stars MacLaine and Hyer, as well. The women are typecast as whores, virgins, bitches or saints. That the actresses breathe any humanity and life into the roles is to their credit, as well as Minnelli, an empathetic woman's director of the highest order. Leora Dana bristles as Agnes, Frank Hirsh’s frustrated country club wife. As rigid as Dana is, she gives you a feel for how trapped Agnes is in her life. Betty Lou Kiem is bright and likable as Dawn, the good daughter, and not insufferable like so many ‘50s movie ingénues. Nancy Gates is genuinely touching as Frank’s secretary, Edith Barclay, who lets her guard down and goes for a romantic drive with the boss. When discovered, she’s the one who must pay. Nancy Gates had a sympathetic and sensual quality that should have led to bigger opportunities. Connie Gilchrist is a warm presence as working class local, Jane Barclay, Edith’s mother. She runs into Sinatra’s Dave at Smitty’s, the local watering hole, and Gilchrist is a breath of fresh air, as always.

Nancy Gates' secretary takes boss Arthur Kennedy out for an after work drive.

I think the male performances are the real standouts in Some Came Running, as they are more naturalistic and hold up better. This is partly because the women's roles were archetypes that are more aptly stereotypes today. The other is the way the actresses played them, when female stars' performances were still more "elevated" than their male co-stars, during the last gasp of studio era “star” acting.

After praise in several post-Eternity roles, Frank Sinatra's persona was rapidly overshadowing his acting roles, and critics began to downplay his abilities. Some non-Sinatra fans claim that he just walked through his movies. The fact that he was famous for doing one or two takes only didn't help.

Frank Sinatra at his naturalistic best, a mostly complementary contrast to Shirley MacLaine's splashy performance.

I think Frank Sinatra's terrific in Some Came Running. As Dave Kirsh, he's the prodigal son who comes back home after 16 years. Aside from a wanderer and carouser, Dave’s been a writer, a soldier, and he's now back where he started. Sinatra is a natural actor, his wry, sarcastic humor is terrific, but he's not afraid to show his tender side, either. His scenes with MacLaine’s tart are alternately sweet or volatile. Dave’s sarcasm toward his phony brother is funny, as are his bantering scenes with Dean’s Bama. Frank’s scenes with love interest Martha Hyer, as Gwen French, become increasingly tender, after his character’s initial bad boy come-ons. Aside from his famed vocals, Frank had a very distinctive and expressive speaking voice, no surprise, for a singer famed for his phrasing.

Like The Manchurian Candidate, Frank is depicted as a deep thinker who loves books, when he's not boozing or chasing broads. Sinatra always came across as street smart, so it's believable that his character is a rough and tumble writer. 

On the flip side, this is yet another movie where Sinatra is at least a decade too old for his role. Honestly, he was even long in the tooth at 38, as Private Maggio, in From Here to Eternity. But Frank's 'bad boy' rep lasted decades. So, Sinatra was 43 in Running, yet his character left boarding school before he was 18 and gone for 16 years as the film begins... Another familiar Frank trope is there's a fight scene where Sinatra is super unconvincing. He still sports the famed scrawny physique here, and the fights feel “stylized,” and it’s about as convincing as Elvis' karate moves!

Frankie's rep as a lover boy is a bit pandered to here, where he's all over Martha Hyer like white on rice. It looks worse by today's standards, but even for '58, 40-something Sinatra acting like he's never seen a woman before is a bit much.

Especially amusing is when Martha's Gwen, the frigid writing teacher who maintains she's only interested in Dave the writer, not the frisky bad boy. After reading a story that the struggling novelist had given up on, Gwen summons him and announces with a straight face: "Dave, you have a very exciting talent!" Any Sinatra fan worth their salt knows that Frank was famous for an exciting talent, other than his singing pipes. And he proceeds to apply that talent to Gwen’s own analysis paralysis!

'Some Came Running' introduces Dean Martin as a strong dramatic and comedic actor.

The real surprise was how good Dean Martin was as Bama Dillert, the seemingly sanguine gambler who never takes his hat off. Martin, one of the most laid back show biz personalities ever, is another actor easy to underrate. But Martin just about steals the show and that's saying something with MacLaine turned loose here. Martin is likeable and great with the one-liners and double takes, but he's also a bit melancholy and fatalistic. 

As the gambler who gloms on to Frank’s new guy in town, Martin is at first his genial self. But as time goes by, you realize Dillert's willful obliviousness that life is just one long party is a defense mechanism. Later, when Sinatra’s Dave decides to marry MacLaine's Ginny, Martin’s Bama lets him have it, and he's pretty harsh about it. And Dean plays those not-so-genial moments well, too.

'Kid' brother Frank Sinatra to Arthur Kennedy in 'Some Came Running.' Arthur was a year older than Frank!

Arthur Kennedy once specialized in playing sensitive guys. As he grew older, Kennedy also excelled at playing creeps. Now a character actor, he was most memorable as sleazy janitor Lucas Cross in1957’s Peyton Place. Kennedy is great here, too, as Sinatra's “older” brother, Frank Hirsh, who married well and abandoned his kid brother Dave in a boarding school. In real life, Arthur was only a year older than Frankie! Kennedy is a comic bad guy here, the sanctimonious ass who is actually a sad case. Frank Hirsh reminded me of Frank Burns on M*A*S*H. Kennedy's scenes tangling with Sinatra are alternately dramatic or offer comic relief. Still, the scene when Kennedy's restless Frank takes his secretary out for a drive captures that small town desperation well. 

Vincente Minnelli, who gets downgraded by some critics for his non-musical films, does a great job giving Some Came Running in-depth characters, dramatic situations, and some Douglas Sirk-like subtle digs at American social mores. Yet, his love of MGM gloss gets the better of him, especially with the French father/daughter characters, who are pure drivel.

The home of the phony French family, complete with kitchen/library combo, perfectly sums up intrusive MGM gloss.

The extensive location scenery in Madison, Indiana as the fictional Parkman, Illinois gives authenticity against the MGM gloss. Elmer Bernstein’s score starts sonorously, like a Bible epic, but once Running gets going, his usual trademark jazzy and bombastic style kicks in.

As someone who grew up in a middle-America small town, Some Came Running has a real feel for that life. However the duality of that authenticity versus the genteel MGM version of upper middle class life keeps Some Came Running from being a true classic. The post war era feels right, though I often forgot the movie was set just after WWII. Except for Frank’s uniform and a marquee playing Elizabeth Taylor’s 1946 Courage of Lassie, the movie feels like 1958. Still, the post war era of celebrating peace and prosperity with smoking, drinking, gambling, and hanky panky was a party that lasted a mighty long time! Frank has more fun doing all of the above with Martin’s gambler and MacLaine’s bimbo, than engaging in stilted banter with the collegiate French family—who can blame him?

Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine in the brilliant Minnelli finale of 'Some Came Running.'

Watch Some Came Running for its stellar cast and James Jone’s recognizably human characters in this mid-west version of Peyton Place.

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Performances Make 'Peyton Place' Worth a Visit 1957

"Peyton Place" became the password for small town gossip and scandal. In the 1957
 film version, Lana Turner & Diane Varsi play the problematic mother & daughter.

Peyton Place was forever equated with small town scandal the moment Grace Metalious’ novel was published September 24, 1956. Peyton Place was an instant sensation and huge bestseller, eventually selling 12 million copies. A year later, the film version of Peyton Place was released, and audiences were dying to know if the movie was half as steamy as the book.

An estimated 1 in 29 people had read 
"Peyton Place"at the height of its popularity.

In truth, Peyton Place the movie was about half as steamy, but that was still mighty hot for 1957. On a recent re-viewing of Peyton Place, I was amazed at how much did make it onscreen. Particularly, the rape of Selena Cross by her alcoholic stepfather—it is subtle, but still powerful. And the big showdown between uptight mother Constance MacKenzie and angst-ridden daughter Allison doesn’t water down the fact that Connie was not a widow, but a mistress. Though the screenplay toned down or tweaked certain plot points, as when Betty Anderson’s method of cock-blocking Rodney Harrington becomes verbal rather than literal, or how Selena’s abortion becomes a miscarriage—they are diluted, but not deleted. Audiences already read the book and were movie-wise to censorship substitutions, with the original action burned in their dirty minds. The film version still pushed the envelope, but had its eye on the Oscar envelope, which rewarded “good” films, not trash—at least in theory!

Off-screen, Lana Turner wasn't exactly a wallflower!

Jerry Wald was a pistol of a producer, who gravitated toward material and stars that generated class or cash, preferably both. Wald had created the sizzle in casting Joan Crawford as a mother in her Oscar-winning Mildred Pierce comeback. When he snapped up film rights to Peyton Place over a decade later, he talked another former MGM star into playing a mother with a problem daughter: 36-year-old Lana Turner. 20^th Century Fox preferred Olivia de Havilland or Jane Wyman as Constance MacKenzie, the small town shop owner with a secret past. Both actresses were Oscar winners, certainly better actresses than Lana, and a bit closer to the character’s age. At this point, Lana’s public began to prefer reading about her romances, marriages, and divorces rather than paying to see her perform onscreen. 

Lana Turner as upright and uptight Constance MacKenzie in "Peyton Place."

But Jerry Wald was canny about casting and publicity. First, Wald knew that everyone loves a comeback.  Like Crawford before playing Mildred Pierce, Turner hadn’t had a hit several years, since The Bad and the Beautiful—which was also a comeback! Plus, the public and the press would eat up the scoop that love goddess Lana was playing a mother for the first time. So what if Lana had a teenage daughter in real life, one who would make headlines of her own shortly after Peyton Place’s release. Mother roles were considered the last hurrah for Hollywood glamour girls. But this wasn’t just any maternal role, this was Constance, a hot mama underneath the cool demeanor. Wald figured that audiences, who often equated stars with the character they played, would use movie short-hand in filling in the blanks of what was suggested on-screen with Lana’s own scandalous off-screen behavior.

Welcome to Peyton Place! Lee Phillips as Michael Rossi,
the one uninspired performance in the movie.

Wald also used a popular method of casting in mid-century movies, when audiences young and old were now watching television at home, to attract both audiences. Lana Turner was still very much a star and Wald backed her up with veteran character actors like Lloyd Nolan, Arthur Kennedy, Betty Field, Leon Ames, Lorne Greene, and Mildred Dunnock. But the producer also cast up-and-coming young stars like Hope Lange, Russ Tamblyn, and David Nelson in featured roles. Wald also chose an unknown Diane Varsi to play Constance’s dreamer daughter, Allison. At 18, Varsi was certainly a more forward-thinking choice for the role than Debbie Reynolds, who was considered—and six years older.

L: Lloyd Nolan as no-nonsense Doc Swain, telling some tough truth to the people of Peyton Place!

As often the case with all-star movies, it’s the old pros who steal the show: Nolan, as plain-spoken Doc Swain; Kennedy as despicable drunk Lucas Cross; Field as rightly depressed Nellie Cross; Leon Ames as the blowhard bigshot; Lorne Greene as the fiery D.A.; and Mildred Dunnock as the passed-over teacher. These veterans are terrific troupers here.

Diane Varsi & Russ Tamblyn as shy kids Allison & Norman.

The young folk of Peyton Place are a mixed bag. Diane Varsi’s awkwardness actually works as Allison, the teen who dreams of writing a novel—about guess what? Russ Tamblyn as Norman Page, her comrade in shyness, gives a genuinely excellent performance. And Hope Lange is heartbreaking as Selena Cross, the sad girl from the wrong side of the tracks. But the others, like David Nelson of Ozzie and Harriet, are bland. And at 28, Terry Moore comes across like an aging starlet than a high school age fast girl, Betty Anderson.

Constance gets her comeuppance from daughter Allison. Lana Turner's best moment.

Last but not least, there’s Lana. For her role as Constance MacKenzie, Turner received her first and only Oscar nomination. Though Lana’s role was not the showcase that was Crawford’s Mildred Pierce, Turner gives it her MGM best, suffering and insinuating, with chin tilted and eyebrows arched to the heavens. It’s easy to laugh at acting styles from another era, but Lana has a number of genuinely effective scenes in Peyton Place. The scene where the new man in town puts the moves on near-frigid Connie, Turner’s reaction of disgust rings surprisingly true, considering the real Lana was quite hotsy-totsy. Another authentic moment is after an argument with Allison, who throws her mother’s past in her face, which ends with Lana leaving the room. Grandly walking down the stairs in despair, Turner crumples on the steps, sobbing in semi-darkness, gasping, “Oh, God!” It is a genuinely great bit of acting by Lana. And of course, Turner turns it on during the courtroom scene, during the trial of Selena Cross.

Turner as Constance, on the witness stand. Lana would appear in a real courtroom
 the following year!

20 Century Fox, with their widescreen Cinemascope, was the first studio to embrace location filming. Peyton Place exteriors were filmed mostly in Camden, Maine and a few other New England locations. The panoramic locales against Franz Waxman’s memorable score rather romanticized Grace Metalious’ seamy small town. This irritated the author, though she liked the performances from the cast.

The Cross family's subplot in 'Peyton Place,' the toned down, is still a shocker.

The greatest task for solid studio director Mark Robson and his screenwriters was to “clean up” the scandalous story for the silver screen. This was Hollywood hypocrisy at its best: Let’s buy a salacious book, turn it into a whitewashed movie, and then promote it as shocking!

28-year-old Terry Moore is less than believable as hot teenager Betty Anderson.

The critics condescendingly praised the “classy” screen version of Peyton Place as a vast improvement over the “dirty” book. Yet a few critics at the time called the adaptation sanitized or antiseptic. The truth falls somewhere in the middle: Peyton Place was run through the Hollywood Hayes Code whitewash cycle, though it managed to keep key events intact. There was no way in 1957 that the movie could have depicted the book’s dirt intact. Metalious may have disliked her book’s adaptation, but then, the depressed author didn’t like much of anything. Peyton Place was one of the year’s top-grossing films and received nine Oscar nominations—though it won none.

Finally, Peyton Place was still playing in theaters when Lana Turner’s latest boyfriend, gangster Johnny Stompanato, was fatally stabbed by her daughter, Cheryl. The details that flowed after the murder made Peyton Place look like a small-town picnic. When Lana was going through her real trial the following year, some audience members were heard to call out their support to Turner as she testified onscreen in Peyton Place.

Blood, sweat, & tears: Lana at the inquest over the stabbing death of gangster boytoy Johnny Stompanato.

After her latest scandal, Lana was forced to, yes, make another comeback! Turner took a small salary against a huge potential share of the profits and starred in a film even soapier than Peyton Place. 1959’s Imitation of Life was one of the biggest hits of Lana’s career, making a fortune, and extending her career as a leading lady for nearly another decade. And that’s about as happy of a Hollywood ending that Lana Turner ever got in her long career.

After the Johnny Stompanato scandal, Lana would get the call for another comeback opportunity. This time it would be from producer Ross Hunter, for 'Imitation of Life.'

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