Peyton Place is a small New England town with a picturesque outer appearance that belies a myriad of secrets, scandals, and hypocrisies. During the days and weeks before America's entry into World War II, Allison, an aspiring writer played by Diane Varsi (
Compulsion), weathers her senior year of high school while quarreling with her overbearingly prim mother, Constance, played by Lana Turner (
The Postman Always Rings Twice), whose aversion to the slightest hint of impropriety compels her to request that her daughter not invite Betty, a reputed town sexpot played by Terry Moore (
Mighty Joe Young), to her birthday party. Meanwhile, Allison's best friend, Selena, played by the beautiful Hope Lange (
The Best of Everything), lives in quiet fear because of sexual abuse at the hands of her alcoholic stepfather, played by Arthur Kennedy (
Lawrence of Arabia), as her downtrodden mother tries to hold it all together while working as a housekeeper for Constance and Allison. Mr. Harrington, played by Leon Ames, discourages his son's relationship with Betty, fearing that the girl's reputation as a tramp will diminish his own standing as a prestigious town figure. As Allison yearns for life experience and tries to edge closer to the shy Norman, played by Russ Tamblyn (
West Side Story), her mother captures the attention of the new school principal. The lives of all of these people are soon irreversibly changed by passions, rumors, revelations, and crimes that shake the idyllic facade of their community.
The 1957 drama,
Peyton Place, which inspired a popular television soap opera of the same name, was based on the 1956 Grace Metalious novel, a sharp indictment of small town life that remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year, despite its surface reputation as a trashy and immoral work of literature. I was not alive at the time, but I would like to think that Metalious's novel was the 1950s equivalent of
Fifty Shades of Grey, which has mysteriously sold 125 million copies despite the fact that upstanding citizens turn up their noses at its mere mention. This film adaption, directed by Mark Robson (
The Harder They Fall), emerged during the last gasp of the Hays Production Code and, as such, slightly sanitizes the novel's more explicitly controversial themes concerning incest, abortion, adultery, and murder, but it still packs a solidly lurid punch that makes its 157-minute run time fly by at a lightning pace. All the while, the cinematography of William C. Mellor and the music score by Franz Waxman lend a colorful majesty to the proceedings, as if to reinforce the perception of Peyton Place as an idealized embodiment of Norman Rockwell Americana.
This may seem frivolous, but I try to purchase every Blu-ray release of a 1950s or 1960s film that was shot in CinemaScope, because I love the way that images from that format jump out of the screen. In this regard,
Peyton Place stands tall alongside the likes of
Rebel Without a Cause,
Forbidden Planet,
The Seven Year Itch, and
The Apartment. In high definition, the images of the trees, the oak leaves, the massive school building, the main street, and the town square take on a renewed splendor.
Be on the lookout for Lorne Greene (
Bonanza,
Battlestar Galactica) as a town prosecutor.
This Twilight Time Blu-ray sports a near flawless presentation on all fronts. An AMC backstory supplement and a location supplement are all in good fun, but the highlights of the extras are the excellently informative commentary track from Willard Carroll and an almost equally engaging track with Russ Tamblyn and Terry Moore. A great booklet essay rounds out this impressive release.
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Peyton Place (1957) (Limited Edition) - March 14, 2017
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