Peyton Place
by Mark Robson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Arthur Kennedy, Lana Turner, Lee Philips, Lloyd Nolan, Russ TamblynDirector: Mark Robson
Brand: Fox
Cinematographer: William C. Mellor
Editor: David Bretherton
Editor: James B. Clark
Producer: Jerry Wald
Writer: Grace Metalious
Writer: John Michael Hayes
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 157 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-03-02
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Peyton Place
Movie Review: PEYTON PLACE (1957) is a movie to treasure
Summary: 5 Stars
I think it is the Americana montages that make the Jerry Wald/Mark Robson production of PEYTON PLACE (1957, Fox) my favorite small-town America soap opera of all time. Grace Metalious' scuzzy and scandalous best-selling novel has been carefully adapted by John Michael Hayes (REAR WINDOW and other 1950's Hitchcock gems). Hampered by censorship that would not allow Selena (Oscar nominee Hope Lange) to have an abortion, it becomes a secret miscarriage and a public appendectomy. Sex scenes become romantic kisses in a vertical position. This is one movie that was actually improved by censorship that forced producer Wald, director Robson, and writer Hayes (all Oscar nominees here) to get more creative. The movie garnered nine Oscar nominations in all, lost all of them in the finals to either THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI or SAYONARA, and was a box office blockbuster that vastly improves on the trashy novel.
(CAUTION--PLOT SPOILERS THROUGHOUT!) Partially filmed in Camden and other very scenic coastal Maine locations, PEYTON PLACE opens with first-person narration by very likeable heroine Allison Mackenzie (Oscar nominated newcomer Diane Varsi) about the beauty of the seasons in her town. She is then seen having a hasty breakfast with Mom Constance (Best Actress Oscar nominee Lana Turner) before she runs off to high school. Seeming drifter Mike Rossi (Lee Phillips) arrives by car in town and witnesses the son of brutal Lucas Cross (Oscar nominee Arthur Kennedy) and wife Nellie (Betty Field) leave home. Nellie works as the Mackenzie maid. Lucas is the alcoholic school janitor. One of my favorite scenes is a montage of Allison running through backyards and the woods to get to high school, backed by one of Franz Waxman's loveliest scores and William Mellor's beautiful use of CinemaScope.
At school, Mildred Dunnock (Miss Thornton) teaches twelfth grade and is expected to be the new Principal. But Mike Rossi becomes the new school Principal. We also meet other school board members, including kindly town doctor Doc Swain (Lloyd Nolan in a career performance) and Harrington (Leon Ames), who runs a textile mill that is the town's biggest industry. In Miss Thornton's classroom, we also meet nice guy male hero Norman Page (Oscar nominee Russ Tamblyn). So in just the first reel, we are introduced to almost all of the major characters. Norman and Allison are an appealing central couple. Radiating out from them are Selena and David Nelson, Constance and Mike Rossi (whose book sex scenes are reduced to forced kisses), and bad girl Betty Anderson (Terry Moore) and Harrington's horny son Rodney (Barry Coe) for more dramatic tension and later misunderstandings.
(PLOT SPOILERS-BEWARE!) The rest of a well-paced and engrossing film masterpiece follows these different couples all over town for 157 minutes. Selena gets raped by her stepfather Lucas, resulting in the miscarriage that is publicly called an appendectomy. Allison wants to be a writer. David Nelson wants to be a lawyer. Since the time period here is World War Two, Norman and Rodney both go off to fight overseas. There is a beautiful high school dance to Auld Lang Syne and an exquisite montage of boats on Maine's Penobscot Bay and the glory of Summer after a nostalgic high school graduation.
There is also an extended sequence in the film's middle for Labor Day that rivals Labor Day in PICNIC (1955) as the finest ever put on film-singers, school parades, watermelon and hot dogs. When Constance and Mike watch a man put a ship into a bottle, then share a lobster dinner on the bay, backed by Waxman's music, PEYTON PLACE comes very close to being my favorite movie of all time. There is also "Beautiful Dreamer" and rowboats on one river, and two very different couples swimming in a lake outside of Peyton Place, leading to a major misunderstanding. That 20 minute Labor Day sequence is unforgettably evocative, but followed by something gripping and Allison leaving town to become a professional writer.
.
The climax of PEYTON PLACE, roughly the last half hour of 157 minutes, is a court trial. I won't tell you who is on trial or for what-we have to have some surprises left in this review-but it has Lloyd Nolan's greatest scene as Doc Swain and a satisfying ending. The finale to the movie is one of my all-time favorites (PARTIAL PLOT SPOILER). The final shot is exquisite and euphoric for me, with Allison's voice-over: "We finally discovered that Season of Love. It is only found in someone else's heart. Right now, someone is looking everywhere for it, and it is in you," with two children riding bikes down a shaded Maine street and Waxman's gorgeous score again. (NINE Oscar nominations, but not one for the unforgettably beautiful music score?!)
The 1957 Wald/Robson PEYTON PLACE, acted and written to perfection, is a soap opera masterpiece with a very compelling and rewarding plot and some of the most beautiful Americana montages ever put on film. The DVD sells for only $14.95, with audio commentary by surviving cast members Tamblyn and Moore, restored color, lovely remastered music, and glorious CinemaScope letterboxing after decades of cropped pan/scan images. You can finally appreciate William Mellor's use of color and use of wide screen on a movie heavily filmed on both coastal Maine locations (including a lockout mountain scene that is awesome) and the Fox backlot in what is now Los Angeles' Century City. Most of all is a perfect cast down to the bit roles, under Mark Robson's skillful direction.
PEYTON PLACE, one of my ten favorite movies ever, is a must-see and must-own on DVD when you have a three hour time slot. Actually longer than 157 minutes because of a 30 minute behind-the-scenes featurette, newsreels, and a theatrical trailer (so you can see how the movie was promoted).
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Summary of Peyton Place
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