Peyton Place (1957)

French title:
“The Pleasures of Hell”

Directed by: Mark Robson

Written by: John Michael Hayes, Grace Metalious

Starring: Lana Turner, Hope Lange, Lee Philips

Running Time: 2 hours, 22 minutes

Rating: NR

Pre-Conceived Notions: Gather ’round, kids, I’ve got a little story to tell you. 

[cue flashback music] 

I was at dinner with my father’s family, and I mentioned to them my interest in theatre and maybe thinking about doing movies, and all of a sudden my uncle pipes up: “Y’know, your father was in a movie in the ’50s. And your aunts.”

“Really? Nah. You’re joking.”

“No. It’s true. Your father and your aunt are the people at the very beginning of Peyton Place, walking up the stairs, and your other aunt was the person in the room that gets up and leaves right afterwards.”

And it turns out it’s true. Peyton Place was filmed in my hometown of Belfast, ME, and my father and aunts were hired as extras. Back then, you didn’t get issued a social security number until you got employed. Years later, I got to meet and talk with Hope Lange when she was a special guest of the National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped the first year they were in my hometown. I had no idea who she was when I talked to her, but it was cool because now I can say I talked to Hope Lange about Cheez-Its. (She was a fan.) 

Why I Haven't Seen This Film: You’d think that I’d’ve run out to the video store as fast as possible to rent this movie, but I didn’t. I don’t know why. But it is what it is.

2 hours, 22 minutes later…: I think I need a couple shots of whiskey to decompress from this movie. I mean it had it all: murder, adultery, suicide, and shots of my hometown. Which is really kind of weird to be sitting there, watching an old movie and, “Oh, wow! That’s where that chick rear-ended me and my van in her father’s Audi!” And then a couple of scenes later, “There’s the church my aunt got married in!” etc. This is going to be the first in a series of three movies filmed in my hometown that I’ll be reviewing during the course of the year, so stay tuned!

The two lessons this movie dealt with was, 1) Let your kids be who they’re going to be. You’re the parent, not the puppeteer. The more you try to control your kids and mold them into the people you want them to be, the more they are going to want to rebel and push themselves away from you, and 2) Gossip is a very destructive thing. “What are they going to think of me if I do that, or how will people react if I do this?” Who cares? You only get one life in this world, so live it for you! In the end you’re only accountable for yourself, so are you going to live your life for somebody else, or are you going to live it for you? Huh? Answer me! 

Sorry. I just got done watching a very melodramatic movie for the past three hours, and that kind of thing is really hard to get out of your system. Speaking of melodrama, holy melodrama, Batman! So many people grabbing each other by the shoulders, and crying forcefully, and all the suave comebacks from everybody on top of that. I mean, did people really talk like that in the ’40s (when this movie was set)? Oy vey! And I loved all of the poor man’s process stuff going on. Like they took a picture of the location (e.g. the exterior of Constance MacKenzie’s house), and projected it onto a giant screen in a soundstage and threw Lana Turner in front of it to act. But this was a time before green screen, so I can’t get after them too bad. 

(Addendum to the above story: I didn’t see any of my family members in the scene my uncle was talking about, because movies do a really bang-up job at hiding extras. But I’ll take my uncle’s word for it that they're in there.)

Final Thoughts: 5 out of 6 slices of pizza. If you have almost two and a half hours to spare, go ahead and watch this movie, especially if you’re from the Camden, ME/Belfast, ME area. Once your mind gets desensitized and turns into jelly because of all the melodrama and can focus in on the plot of the movie, it’s a very good time investment to make.