Peyton Place

Plot synopsis:
In April 1941, in the seemingly idyllic New England town of Peyton Place, drunkard Lucas Cross (Arthur Kennedy) stumbles out of his house as his step-son Paul - fed up with Lucas' alcoholism - leaves town. Lucas's downtrodden wife, Nellie (Betty Field) goes to work as the housekeeper for Constance "Connie" MacKenzie (Lana Turner), a rather prim-acting local dress shop owner. The daughters of the two families, Allison MacKenzie (Diane Varsi) and Selena Cross (Hope Lange) are best friends and are about to graduate high school.
Following an argument about the merits of a good education, a stranger to the town, Michael Rossi (Lee Philips), is hired to be the new principal of the high school by the president of the school board, Leslie Harrington (Leon Ames), the owner of the local woolen mill; the students' choice for the position is long-time teacher, Miss Elsie Thornton (Mildred Dunnock). The board is composed of Dr. Matthew Swain (Lloyd Nolan), the town's main physician; town attorney, Charles Partridge (Staats Cotsworth); his snobbish and gossipy wife, Marion (Peg Hillias) and Seth Bushwell (Robert H. Harris) the editor in chief of The Peyton Place Times, the town's local newspaper. Dr. Swain and Seth become friends with the newcomer.
Arriving at the school, Rossi wins over Ms. Thornton by telling her that he wants to work with her. She is pleased with the newcomer and they get on well.
Later, while picking out dresses for Allison's birthday party, Connie encourages her daughter not to invite Betty Anderson (Terry Moore) to the party, due to Betty's overtly sexual style; ultimately, Constance reconsiders and allows Allison to invite anyone to her party. Betty arrives at Allison's party with Leslie Harrington's son Rodney (Barry Coe), who swiftly turns the affair into a make-out party and kisses Allison; the party is ended, however, when Connie walks in, embarrassing Allison by making a scene.
Later on, Allison becomes a witness to Lucas beating and abusing Selena.
Later that week, Rossi arrives at the MacKenzie house to announce that Allison has been named valedictorian, and he asks Connie to chaperone Allison's graduation dance, and the two slowly develop a romance. Meanwhile, Harrington tells his son, Rodney, that he will not accept his going to the graduation dance with a girl with such a bad reputation as Betty Anderson, and forces Rodney to call Betty and uninvite her to the dance.
Instead, Rodney goes with Allison, though Allison is in love with another classmate, the shy Norman Page (Russ Tamblyn) who has an overprotective, widowed mother, Evelyn Page (Erin O'Brien-Moore). When they get to the dance, Rodney splits off to make out with Betty in his car, but she is angry at him for dumping her and refuses to have sex with him. She hits him with her purse and storms away from the car.
During the traditional singing of "Auld Lang Syne", Rossi, realizing he is still new and not part of the town's traditions yet, asks Elsie Thornton to lead the singing, to the dismay and horror of Marion, who never liked Elsie, even going so far as to call her a drug addict. Outside, after dancing with her, he kisses Connie, but she again rejects his advances. Selena is escorted home by her boyfriend Ted Carter (David Nelson), and is later raped that night by her drunken step-father, Lucas.
Selena becomes pregnant, and when she goes to Dr. Swain for an abortion he refuses, and she confides in him that her step-father raped her. Swain confronts Lucas, and he is forced by Swain to promise to leave town after signing a confession, all of which Nellie accidentally witnesses. Lucas chases Selena out of revenge when she returns home, and although she escapes, she trips, falls and injures herself. After treating her, Swain enters the operation as an "appendectomy," though in fact she has had a miscarriage, blackmailing his nurse into cooperating. Nellie then becomes morosely despondent in response to what has happened.
At a Labor Day picnic that same year, Rodney and Betty reunite and go skinny dipping while Allison and Norman go swimming, in proper suits, nearby. Marion sees the nude couple and falsely making an assumption, tells Connie it was Allison and Norman, whom she had earlier seen on their way to the lake. This disgusts her husband, Charles.
Connie explodes at Allison for causing rumors. They fight, and Connie tells her that Allison's father was actually married to another woman when she became pregnant with her. Allison runs upstairs and finds that Nellie Cross has committed suicide by hanging herself in a closet. This puts Allison into a state of shock, and she is confined to a bed for a time. Sometime after, Rodney and Betty elope, infuriating Rodney's father Leslie. Allison tells her mother that when she is well enough she is going to leave Peyton Place for New York City, even if she is forced to do the same things her mother did. After saying a tearful goodbye to Selena, Allison makes good on her promise to leave town.
World War II erupts during December 1941, and the men of Peyton Place go off to war. However, when Rodney is killed in action the next autumn, his now-chastened father offers to take care of his widow, Betty, and she is at last welcomed into the family. Meanwhile, during Christmas of 1942 Connie visits Rossi to apologize for being so dismissive of him, and, when she confesses that she was a married man's mistress, Rossi decides to stay in Peyton Place and promises her his offer for marriage is still open. During the same time, a drunken Lucas returns from the Navy and tries to rape Selena again, but this time she bludgeons him to death in self-defense.
Shortly after Easter of 1943, Selena tearfully confesses the killing to Connie and is later arrested and tried by the District Attorney (Lorne Greene) for murder. Allison, still estranged from Connie, returns for the trial, as does Norman, and the truth about Selena's self-defense, her step-father's abuse and her miscarriage - as well as Dr. Swain's false report and Connie's failure as a mother - all come to light. Dr. Swain also admonishes the town for their gossipy nature, and their failure to offer help to Selena when she needed it, to the disgust and fury of Marion. Ultimately, Selena is acquitted, and she and Ted are free to marry.
Allison, after seeing her mother's emotional breakdown, has a change of heart, and approaches Connie at the steps of their home with a hope of reconciliation. Norman is also welcomed into the house.

Tags: murder, melodrama

Review:
And the film's unraveling of the town's secrets is handled well - building up like a ball of snow as each successive scandal is unearthed.We meet the townspeople from the point-of-view of Allison Mackenzie(Diane Varsi), the sweet and sheltered daughter of Constance(Lana Turner).
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.
Everybody knows everyone so if things aren't quite fitting the America of Norman Rockwell you keep them behind closed doors.Like Lana Turner never bothering to tell daughter Diane Varsi that she's an out of wedlock child, like poor Russ Tamblyn not being able to relate to the opposite sex in his teen years, like Hope Lange living with a brutal rampaging father in Arthur Kennedy who physically abuses her mother Betty Field and does more than that with her.Leon Ames as the town's employer, owner of the mill where most of the town works maybe the leading citizen, but the town's moral authority is Lloyd Nolan, a very wise and caring doctor, the kind of small town doctor who's a passing memory.It's impossible to describe the plot of Peyton Place because there are so many strands in the plot fabric.
The whole thing is narrated by Diane Varsi as Allison McKenzie who grew up and wrote a book about her home town.Peyton Place got nine Oscar nominations, but unfortunately lost a lot of awards it was up for to The Bridge On The River Kwai.
Russ Tamblyn and Arthur Kennedy split the vote and Red Buttons won for Sayonara for Best Supporting Actor and the same thing happened with the Best Supporting Actress with Diane Varsi and Hope Lange splitting for Miyoshi Umeki to win for Sayonara as well.The Code was still firmly in place and had it not been I think Russ Tamblyn's character would have been more explicitly gay.
Then as now, gays are not real comfortable in most small towns.Still for those who like their big screen soap operas, you'll love Peyton Place, even with changing mores the film holds up well..
Based on the bestselling novel by Grace Metalious, Peyton Place is a solid melodrama all about the secrets and scandals of a small New England town.
Small town scandal has been a topic for movies forever and a day, but none better than PEYTON PLACE.
But Lana Turner, Diane Varsi, Russ Tamblyn, Terry Moore, Barry Coe, Mildred Dunnock, Lloyd Nolan, Leon Ames, and Hope Lange give enormously sensitive performances that will live with me for a long time.
Lana Turner gets top billing in this film adaptation of Grace Metalious' scandalous novel, Peyton Place, a small town in the New England states just before WWII.
The actors that really come off the best are Terry Moore, as the town tramp (who's really not that bad;) Diane Varsi (as the daughter who discovers who or what she really is;) Arthur Kennedy as the town drunk, who's totally in character; Lloyd Nolan, as the doctor providing care and common sense to those that will listen; and lastly Lana Turner, who was given only one Oscar nomination in her movie career, for this film.
Grace Metalious' blockbuster of a novel had remained on the New York Times best seller list for more than a year, and its film adaptation was highly anticipated by millions who had devoured the trashy book.
Her fellow residents protested, but readers didn't care - they were fascinated by her tawdry tale of sex and scandal hidden away behind the white picket fences of small-town America.Peyton Place is peopled by a colorful array of characters, chief among them Constance Mackenzie, owner of a dress shop, a cold, repressed woman and single mother of poetic and virginal Allison, a high school student and aspiring writer.
"Peyton Place" isn't all sex and sin; set during the period leading into World War II, it also captures the mood of a small town as it prepares to send its young sons off to war.What no longer stands the test of time is the acting of most of the cast.
The best performances are offered by players in secondary roles, particularly Mildred Dunnock as Mrs.Thornton, the teacher whose dream of promotion to principal is dashed by the arrival of Rossi; Arthur Kennedy as Lucas, Selena's hard-drinking, abusive stepfather; Terry Moore (who allegedly later married Howard Hughes in a secret ceremony) as Betty Anderson, who sets her sights on Rodney as a steppingstone to a better life; and Leon Ames as the elder Harrington, who scorns his son's choice of a bride.
(While none of the cast made any attempt at a New England accent, Varsi's speech pattern suggests a regional dialect that's both undefinable and at times grating.) In general, the acting styles on display here are those found in most sudsers of the decade, overly dramatic and punctuated by facial expressions rarely seen in real life."Peyton Place" seems ripe for a remake.
There's more filth and dirt in the dumpster!" While it's true that the world has taken more than a few spins since 1957, and while it's true that the film tends to date a bit, "Peyton Place" is still, at it's best, top-notch entertainment.Lana Turner, in what was, regrettably, her only Oscar-nomination, scores solidly as the pivotal character of Constance McKenzie.
Arthur Kennedy lends his usual understated but powerful presence to the principal heavy of the piece, Lucas Cross, and the young Hope Lange, whom a later generation probably remembers best for TV's "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," gives a solid performance as Selena Cross, the girl with a secret from the wrong side of the tracks.
Others in the notable cast include such reliable performers as Lloyd Nolan, Russ Tamblyn, Betty Field, and a two years pre - "Bonanza" Lorne Greene, all turning in fine performances.If you can, see this film in letterbox, if only for the beautiful Camden, Maine, scenery, beautifully captured by William C.
"Peyton Place" was historically very interesting cause it was virtually the first miniseries in movie theaters.After viewing it,you 've got the strange feeling of having been told ten stories or to have seen ten or twelve episodes of a miniseries.Adapted from a bestseller which spawned a -real-TV miniseries this time- in the sixties,Dorothy Malone and Mia Farrow replacing Turner and Diane Varsi ,it is the granddaddy of the soap opera miniseries we've been seeing for all those years.Classy soap opera indeed.Although the McKenzie (Turner and Varsi) are in the center of the plot,you can hardly call them "main characters"."Peyton Place" is made of many subplots which interfere or don't.It depicts life in a small provincial town where the main danger is gossips.The fear that" people will talk" is everywhere mainly if ,like Constance ,Serena and her mother you have secrets to conceal.Doctor Matthew Swain 's final speech deals with the talk of the town.A soap opera maybe ,but one which depicts a not so rosy world: child abuse was not a subject movies often broached in the late fifties.My favorite scene is very short and might seem to some very down to earth: the drunkard's boy licks the home made cakes of the picnic,then stuffs himself with hot dogs and watermelon which he washed down with plenty of cola.This is not a comic relief,it makes you think:this boy is miserable,because ,even if the monster is away,he knows there's a crack in the mirror at home.Psychologically,they call that "compensation".My favorite character is Russ Tamblyn's.Although many of the problems of PP are dated now,his is still around today: the shy boy,whose mother is over possessive ,who does believe he is "a sissy,a coward" and who thinks he will never know a girl's true love because he is too gauche.There are plenty of them even now.Peyton Place is no masterpiece but it is really an entertaining film.Like this?Try these....Imitation of life Douglas Sirk 1959Rebel without a cause Nicholas Ray 1955.
In spite of the flaws (or even because of the flaws?), many of the performances, including Lana Turner, Hope Lange, Arthur Kennedy and, especially, Lloyd Nolan as the town doctor and the voice of reason, were outstanding.
I just finished the book Peyton Place last night and was excited to get the movie on laserdisc to see how Hollywood interpreted the true to life stories of the numerous characters in the novel.
For people who dismissd Lana as a plastic creation out of the MGM dramatic school,check out this fine film.The settings are beautiful,the acting first rate.Although Lee Phillips as Michael Rossi seems a bit bland.Jeff Chandler (who appears in the sequel) might have been a better choice).Possibly the flop teaming he did with Turner in The Lady Takes a Flier might have caused him to be passed by.The fine cast of character actors really makes this picture work,especially Lloyd Nolan as the town doctor and Arthur Kennedy as the town drunk.Passed over in comments was Mildred Dunnock as the devoted teacher who is passed over to be principal.Her words to Allison about it are very touching.Miss Dunnock usually played nagging mothers,so it's a treat to see her playing a nice,vulnerable person.Susan Hayward was supposedly set to play Constance but Lana was definitely the best choice.The pity is Diane Varsi never followed up her career and quit the business.Her Allyson was very good..
Grace Metalious' mega-selling "Peyton Place" (1956) made it to the big screen the following year, and came to represent small-town sexual repressions; moreover, it set a standard for a new kind of soap opera, with its characters' sexual practices pushed up a notch.
There were "Oscar" nominations for protagonist writer Diane Varsi (as Allison MacKenzie), tightly-wound mother Lana Turner (as Constance MacKenzie), shack-dwelling friend Hope Lange (as Selena Cross), sensitive boyfriend Russ Tamblyn (as Norman Page), and alcoholic janitor Arthur Kennedy (as Lucas Cross).
If they had been given, "Peyton Place" might have won some casting and acting ensemble awards.********* Peyton Place (12/11/57) Mark Robson ~ Diane Varsi, Lana Turner, Hope Lange, Russ Tamblyn.
Today, given the lack of restrictions and censorship, the results would have been more graphic and the film would have exploited all the more vulgar aspects of the novel.Lana Turner gives her finest mature performance as Constance, the worried mother who keeps her past a secret until she finally reveals it to her rebellious daughter, well played by Diane Varsi.
Their emotional confrontations are highly satisfying from a dramatic standpoint, making it easy to understand why both actresses won Oscar nominations.Others in the large cast do exceptional jobs--everyone, from Russ Tamblyn (as Norman), Lee Phillips, Hope Lange, Arthur Kennedy, Mildred Dunnock, Lloyd Nolan, Leon Ames, Terry Moore, Betty Field--all give compelling performances under Mark Robson's direction.
Franz Waxman's soaring musical score is one of his finest, completely capturing the moods and seasons of this New England drama.Another novel of small town hypocrisy was made into a stunning movie in 1942--KING'S ROW--and it too did a marvelous job of transferring a bulky, rambling novel into a coherent multi-plot film.
Scenes are designed with the dramatized emphasis of a fashion magazine photoshoot, practically screaming that, yes, the film has a big-budget, and yes, it can afford to be filmed in CinemaScope.Peyton Place isn't a smart melodrama cut from the same cloth as Written on the Wind, but thanks to shows like Twin Peaks, vintage soap has been given an entirely new edge.
All I will say is that Lana Turner is named Constance McKenzie (a name that was perhaps chosen by a soap opera character generator), and she, along with her daughter (Diane Varsi), acquaintances, and old-time friends, live in Peyton Place, an idyllic town stationed in rural New England.
Lana Turner gets to look pained throughout as the frigid matriarch Constance McKenzie with her own dark secret but does so with aplomb, Arthur Kennedy tears into his part as the reprobate villain of the piece and Diane Varsi is good as Alison, the town's awakening conscience.
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).
Lana Turner gives her best performance ever, minimizing any annoying postures, heading a mostly noble ensemble cast, with the possible exception of Lee Phillips, handsome as the small town's new principal, but somewhat grating in character.
It would have been a good, but not great movie.Peyton Place with Lana Turner is a time capsule of small town Ameicana, without some cliché's which remained for later versions of Peyton place and its TV versions.The original film also captured the way Americans were affected by the coming of WWII.
Based on a controversial (at the time, at least) novel, PEYTON PLACE is a story about the lives and secrets of people who live in a small New England town.
"Peyton Place" is one of those old films that dutifully records the values and mores of a conservative, Victorian era, especially in the Lana Turner character.
The story is about Allison MacKenzie, played by Hope Lange, and her life in a small town in New England.
The outstanding cast, especially the principal leads: Lana Turner, Russ Tamblyn, Diana Varsi, Hope Lange, Terry Moore have never been better.
The cast is headed by fine character actor, Lloyd Nolan, newcomers Diane Varsi, Hope Lange and Lee Phillips (who later became a reliable director of television films), the underrated but highly talented Russ Tamblyn, perhaps Lana Turner's best performance, and the always engrossing Arthur Kennedy.
In the novel, Allison McKenzie (the aspiring writer), Norman Page (mama's boy), Selena Cross (Allison's best friend who is sexually molested by her stepfather Lucas), Ted Carter (Selena's boyfriend), Rodney Harrington (Allison's crush), and Betty Anderson (the town tramp) attend Peyton Place Junior High School.
Michael Rossi, who wins Allison's mother, Constance Mckenzie's heart, comes to town to accept a job as principal at Peyton Place High School.
The story takes place in the late 1930s and begins as the High School's new principal, Michael Rossi (Lee Philips), arrives in town to assume his duties...Constance MacKenzie (Lana Turner) is an attractive widow who owns a dress shop...
She runs it efficiently but is an over-protective mother who removes all choices from her teenager daughter, Allison (Diane Varsi), including her selection of friends Allison seems a strong candidate for rebellion once the opportunity arises Allison's best friend is Selena Cross (Hope Lange), who lives in a shack on the wrong side of town with her mother, Constance's housekeeper Betty Field, and her drunk stepfather, Lucas (Arthur Kennedy).There is also Russ Tamblyn, "stuck" in a failure cycle emotionally, and socially; Barry Coy, the wild son of the town's richest businessman; Terry Moore, the high school flirt; David Nelson, the boyfriend of Selena Cross; and Doc Swain (Lloyd Nolan), the voice of logic...
In 1941, in the small town of Peyton Place, Michael Rossi (Lee Phillips) is hired as the new principal of the local high school.
However, Dr. Swain exposes the sordid, hypocrite and despicable moral behavior of the local gossipy and intolerant dwellers and tells the drama of Selena to the jury."Peyton Place" is a dated melodrama, a soap opera that shows the stereotypical lifestyle of a small town in America in the 40's.
Now, with that I really take exception, and the reason is that I grew up in a small town in the 1950s (the story takes place in the 1940s), and I could identify with most of the characters in the film.
It all comes down to how to save Selena from life in prison after she murders her stepfather, who intends to rape her a second time.Lana Turner gets top billing here, although it's actually Hope Lange and Diane Varsi who really have the dominant roles.
Lee Phillips plays Michael Rossi, a newcomer to Peyton Place who has been hired as the new high school principal, a job that all the students were sure would go to beloved English teacher Ellie Thornton (Mildred Dunnock), who finds himself attracted to Constance MacKenzie.Despite John Michael Hayes' somewhat watered down screenplay, the spirit of Metalious' steamy novel still pervades as we watch small town morality being challenged and championed at every turn.
Lee Phillips plays Michael Rossi, a newcomer to Peyton Place who has been hired as the new high school principal, a job that all the students were sure would go to beloved English teacher Ellie Thornton (Mildred Dunnock), who finds himself attracted to Constance MacKenzie.There are some dated elements here, but this film pretty much invented the genre known as soap opera and a few years later, in addition to a sequel, would become the first prime time television soap opera, which was actually broadcast two days a week.Mark Robson's sensitive direction is a big plus and the cast is first rate.
Even Lucas Cross (Arthur Kennedy) gets his secrets kept, and he's guilty of raping and impregnating his step-daughter, Selena (Hope Lange).The glue of the story is Lana Turner's Constance McKenzie, a beautiful but sexually frustrated "widow" with a teenaged daughter (Diane Varsi) about to graduate from high school.
Director Mark Robson would go on to direct the 1967 film version of "Valley Of The Dolls", while Peyton Place would inspire a sequel book and film, as well as a primetime soap opera from 1964 to 1967.A box-office smash upon its release in 1957, more than partly due, no doubt to the scandal which immediately followed the 1958 Oscars for which Turner, Varsi, Lange, Kennedy and Tamblyn received nominations for their performances in the film.