Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch

VividSimon Simply Perfect

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

rbrankley This film deserves a prize for hypocrisy. Despite it's trumpeting of high minded values, a salacious sexual undercurrent is only too apparent. This is particularly apparent in the performance of Lee Philips as Michael Rossi, who arrives in the hick town for which the film is named and becomes school principal. His sexual obsession soon becomes apparent in his pursuit of Lana Turner, who plays a sedate, dress shop owning widow. He tells her that he plans to introduce a sex education program at the school (remember, this is set in 1940!) and, after inviting her to be a chaperon at the school graduation dance, envelopes her in a passionate embrace which she quite properly resists. Boring and morally unsavory tripe.

mark.waltz Peyton Place isn't really a city. It's a state of mind, set in various decades with characters in parallel universes. This explains two movies (one "Return to"), two soap operas (one "Return to") and two TV movies where characters from the first soap opera (on prime-time) long believed dead came back or had their pasts re-written for dramatic effect.The original film of "Peyton Place", though, takes place in the early 1940's in the beautiful New Hampshire town where the fall leaf changes are among the most beautiful in the country and a white church with a steeple makes it appear like a Norman Rockwell painting. But the people live more like Norman Maine or Norman Bates, their problems so deep that even people that never saw "Peyton Place" would hear someone's personal real-life soap opera and say, "That sounds like something out of Peyton Place!".Every major character in this seems to be living a lie, and so-called noble characters are judgmental hypocrites who leave Sunday church service to go to the local eatery for a gossip fest. That is except the good ole' Doc Swain (Lloyd Nolan), a noble man who knows everybody's secrets in town yet never spreads a word about anybody. 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. There's already scandal as the film opens, and its really minor, the hiring of a newcomer to town, Michael Rossi (Lee Philips), who gets the position of principal over the beloved long-time teacher (Mildred Dunnock).This is a movie which focuses on the problems of the teenagers, all of those issues associated with something concerning their messed up parents. Wealthy Leslie Harrington (Leon Ames) dominates his son Rodney (Barry Coe), objecting to his choice of girlfriend Betty Anderson (Terry Moore), while Mrs. Evelyn Paige (Erin O'Brien-Moore) seems evident on keeping her son Norman (Russ Tamblyn) a virgin. Gossipy Marion Partridge (Peg Hillias) is the Gladys Kravitz ("Bewitched's resident gossip) of the community with her husband Charles (Staats Cotwsworth) admonishing her every time he catches her on the phone in lowered voice.In other words, this is a really screwed-up town, and like "King's Row", you expect a sign to indicate that this is a great place to raise your children. Doc Swain sees every promising high school graduate leaving as fast as they can, and that happens in droves when Pearl Harbor is bombed and the young men go off to war. Poor Selena gets the bulk of the second half of the drama with her handling of step-father Lucas. That's after her mother (Betty Field) takes the easy way out of dealing with all of the issues that have been cropping up.Lana Turner is simply the lead because she's the biggest name in the film, her on-screen footage equal to pretty much everybody else's. Still, she got a Best Actress Academy Award Nomination with a bunch of supporting performers also nominated. Overall, the cast is worthy of an ensemble award, and Turner had better performances that were totally overlooked. Among the supporting cast, Kennedy and Lange stand out, his abusive drunken father absolutely hateful but Kennedy playing him as if he was reciting Shakespeare.This is beautifully filmed, and in addition to the TV versions and movie sequels it also spawned other trashy novels to be adapted to the screen, most notably "From the Terrace", "The Best of Everything" and "Valley of the Dolls", all from 20th Century Fox. Mark Robson ("Champion") seems an odd choice to direct the epitome of a woman's flick, but since soap operas on TV were just catching on, the big screen thought it could grab into the ballgame as well. It is not a great film, but it certainly ranks as a classic, if only for the franchise that it started.

JLRMovieReviews 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 reason the book was so scandalous at the time was because it dealt with things that were not dealt with in families nor spoke of in decent company: getting involved with a married man, incest, or just being lonely and scared of growing up or the opposite sex. Family #1: Mother Lana Turner owns a dress shop, and her daughter Diane Varsi is the class valedictorian. There's a story there. Another family: Betty Field's first husband died, so she married Arthur Kennedy, so that her three children would have a father figure. But he drank and was rough on the boys, particularly the oldest son, Ben, which led up to him leaving home, which begins the movie. That leaves daughter Hope Lange and a younger boy at home. Another family: Father Leon Ames, whose son Barry Coe likes the school tramp Terry Moore, and vice versa. Then there's Mildred Dunnock who's a teacher who has seniority to become principal, now that the last one has recently died. But the school board elects to hire one from out of town. Enter Lee Philips. Then, there's Russ Tamblyn, whose life is being monopolized by a domineering mother who is trying to make him hate all girls. Then there's Lloyd Nolan, who's the friendly town doctor, who is pressed to go beyond the call of duty to help others. And, there's also the town gossipers, who spread it like wildfire.Being a Lana Turner fan, I may have seen this film more than the average person. But instead of falling head over heels for it, I do see its limitations. One of the film's strengths is almost its undoing or worst criticism. Its study or treatment of the town's citizens (and their problems) is like that of a bird's eye view, allowing us to see their world without being judgmental of their actions or feelings, and is therefore a straightforward account of what happens to them. But, by doing so, it feels emotionally aloof and we, the viewer, don't connect enough to anyone in particular. The film's main success is in the production values and how they complement the actors using their craft. 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. In fact, in my opinion, the film's best scene belongs to her and the principal, played by Lee Philips, when he tells her that he cares for her and he expects the same adult feelings from her, without it being dirty. That may be the scene that earned her the nomination more than the courtroom scene.While I have always liked Hope Lange, the presentation of the events in her life does not draw the viewer in or make us care enough. It feels too artificial to matter and does not come across as real. But the opening score that accompanies the credits is so moving, that the last time I saw this film, I had to listen to it twice and I was almost brought to tears. "Peyton Place" may be from the imagination of Grace Metalious, but these people and events are portrayed in the film, as if this could have been, but for the Grace of God, you or me given the circumstances, and that we are all looking for love and acceptance in another. This also is showing the misfortune of people to allow you the chance to see things from a different perspective. Open your heart and see yourself in another's place. "Peyton Place" is a film about people.

Criss Cross OK for starters the movie entertains me lots, but i still think that, between all the silly dialog of this characters and their morality problems resides just a silly movie full of clichés and a beautiful cinematography.The movie, based on a famous bestseller from the 50s, is full of rape, misogyny, murder, abortion ... a lot of topics for a trashy exploitation movie. This is not exploitation, even if all the topics are included here. The thing is that are so, but really so outdated, that you cant avoid the jiggle.Still, the performances are very good, the Cinemascope photography is gorgeous, and, at the end, the direction takes for more thank two hours of material like this. So, it's trashy but catchy.A 7.