After hitting a career peak in her mid-30s, even gaining critical praise on PEYTON PLACE/’57 and IMITATION OF LIFE/’59, Lana Turner had nowhere to go but down. Trying a safe bet, she revisits the frank sex talk & New England autumn of PP, this time to little effect. The film not so much bad as dull. Lana’s a rich wife with a drinking problem & a limp husband in lawyer Jason Robards Jr., legal partner to Efrem Zimbalist Jr. He’s crippled, too, not physically but emotionally, unable to see the womanly side of wife Barbara Bel Geddes. Just as little going on with the younger generation where scion-of-Efrem George Hamilton & lovelorn presumptive fiancée Susan Kohner are on prenuptial hold. Maybe that’s why everyone sleepwalks thru the pic, somnambulists not only in front of the camera but also behind. John Sturges about as far from his directorial comfort zone as he ever got (lucky for him, THE GREAT ESCAPE but one film away) and Lana Turner vet cinematographer Russell Metty unable to do any more for her than he can for the art decorator's model showroom interiors. Finally, some mismatched screwing comes into play, Lana becomes a woman again with Efrem and Hamilton takes the town tramp in his car’s reclining front seats. That’s Yvonne Craig, asking for a cabin rental next time, the only lively thing in here other than Thomas Mitchell, senior attorney whose encroaching mental decline may be a dodge. The one interesting plot element, frittered away without a proper dramatic confrontation for him. Hard to fathom how pro scripters like Charles Schnee & Ketti Frings missed it. Maybe just miss the whole film.
DOUBLE-BILL: Jason Robards followed this, his effective Hollywood debut, with D.O.A. assignment #2 working with Jennifer Jones (chalk & cheese against another Child-of-Hollywood actress), in an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s TENDER IS THE NIGHT/’62. Equally dull, possibly worse filmmaking, but somehow more interesting.
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