Peyton Place does start off slow but once the secrets come flying out, who Nellie! As for the performances, Turner may headline this production, but she kind of phones in her performance. Not that's she is bad, but she just seems ordinary. I can't believe this was her only Oscar nominated role. In my opinion she was far better in that other soap tearjerker, Imitation Of Life. Kennedy is great as the drunken step father. He's hysterically funny one minute, then cruel and vicious the next. Lange is unbelievably powerful as Selena, his step-daughter. She's quiet,composed and acts so good it doesn't seem like she's acting. Varsi is ok as Turner's daughter. It's to her credit that she can say the film's corniest lines with a straight face. Lee Phillips is solid as the town doctor who gives a memorable speech at the film's climax that sums up everything nicely. And Terry Moore is quite fetching as the bad girl who makes good. What's so good about her performance is that she convinces us that she's not really a bad girl, but a girl who knows what she wants.
Hope Lange
Diane Varsi
Terry Moore
B+
1 comment:
Oh, Monty: I love PEYTON PLACE - the books as well as the movie.
Have you seen RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE? I have not yet.
I am completely with you on Lana Turner's better performance in IMITATION OF LIFE. I guess it is harder to perfom a character who is so repressed like the one in PEYTON PLACE than that in IMITATION OF LIFE where she can be more emotional.
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