Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by rico (A) on July 14, 2006 at 09:35:22

Despite being based on the best selling Grace Metalious novel this film was going nowhere in terms of box office until star Lana Turner's real life daughter stabbed Lana's lover to death and the public suddenly became interested. The 1957 film is set in 1940 although typical of fifties movie costuming the women's dresses look like mid-fifties styles rather than early 1940's. The film also moves the venue from a New Hampshire small town in the novel to one in coastal Maine. The two main plots involve unmarried and frigid dreaa shop ownwer Turner and her reluctant romance with the new high school principal and another is about a rape of a poor girl by her step father. There are a couple of anachronisms but the musical score is memorable and the entire production is lavish. Up and coming young stars Russ Tamblyn, David Nelson, and Hope Lang are in the cast along with vetreans Lloyd Nolan and Kevin McCarthy. An enjoyable soap opera, nowhere near as steamy as the novel.