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"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.
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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!
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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. 20th 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.' |
FYI: I put all the movie overflow on my public FB movie page.