Some people credit the murder of Emmett Till or the heroism of Rosa Parks as the inspiration for the civil rights movement. Don't count out this movie -- it's so hideously patronizing to both African-Americans and women you have to wonder whether it's coincidence that both groups were radicalized in the decade after this film appeared.
Lessee . . . Lana Turner is a working Mom (BAD) aided by a subservient black maid (GOOD) who has an ambitious daughter (BAD). All the tragedy that befalls every character in this film (and it comes in buckets) is a result of not accepting your place in society. Lana's boyfriend is doing her daughter? Well, dammit, she should just get off the stage and out of movies and everything will be fine! Susan Kohner, as Sara Jane, is beaten by her boyfriend and estranged from her mother? Well, if she'd just been a good little pickaninny and not turned up the noses at the "busboys, cooks and chauffeurs" at her Mama's church, she would be just fine! It's worth noting that the scene in which Sara Jane pretends to be a plantation slave while waiting on Lana's rich producer friends casts her as the villain, whereas she would have been the hero not five years later.
Cinematically, it's lushly produced, in that soporific, 50s eye-candy kind of way, so the visual splendor can distract you from the miserable plot. And the acting, well . . . most of the actors are entertaining in that melodramatic, soapy sorta way (later immortalized in every movie parody on the Carol Burnett Show), but Lana, oh, Jesus! If you shot Lana Turner, she could not play a dead woman. Sadly, she was born 30 years too early for the advent of 3D and 60 years too early for "Baywatch," so we were forced to try to take her seriously as an actress.
Lessee . . . Lana Turner is a working Mom (BAD) aided by a subservient black maid (GOOD) who has an ambitious daughter (BAD). All the tragedy that befalls every character in this film (and it comes in buckets) is a result of not accepting your place in society. Lana's boyfriend is doing her daughter? Well, dammit, she should just get off the stage and out of movies and everything will be fine! Susan Kohner, as Sara Jane, is beaten by her boyfriend and estranged from her mother? Well, if she'd just been a good little pickaninny and not turned up the noses at the "busboys, cooks and chauffeurs" at her Mama's church, she would be just fine! It's worth noting that the scene in which Sara Jane pretends to be a plantation slave while waiting on Lana's rich producer friends casts her as the villain, whereas she would have been the hero not five years later.
Cinematically, it's lushly produced, in that soporific, 50s eye-candy kind of way, so the visual splendor can distract you from the miserable plot. And the acting, well . . . most of the actors are entertaining in that melodramatic, soapy sorta way (later immortalized in every movie parody on the Carol Burnett Show), but Lana, oh, Jesus! If you shot Lana Turner, she could not play a dead woman. Sadly, she was born 30 years too early for the advent of 3D and 60 years too early for "Baywatch," so we were forced to try to take her seriously as an actress.