Peyton Place is a 1957 drama film directed by Mark Robson, based on the wildly successful potboiler novel of the same name by Grace Metalious.
The setting is 1941 and the quiet New England seaside town of Peyton Place, where it seems that a lot of the residents have secrets. Class valedictorian Allison MacKenzie (Diane Varsi) doesn't have any secrets, but her mother Connie (Lana Turner), a widow who owns a dress shop, has a big one. Allison is sweet on another member of the high school graduating class, Norman Page (Russ Tamblyn), but Connie gets violently angry at the prospect of Allison losing her virginity and Norman's mom is just generally a domineering shrew.
Allison's best friend Selena Cross (Hope Lange) lives in a tumbledown shack with her weary mother Nellie (Betty Field), housekeeper to the MacKenzies, and her violent drunken lout of a stepfather, Lucas Cross (Arthur Kennedy). Other students in the graduating class of 1941 include the vaguely slutty Betty Anderson (Terry Moore), rich boy Rodney Harrington (Barry Coe) who likes her, while Rodney's father Leslie (Leon Ames) categorically forbids Rodney from marrying a lower-class girl. And the new principal of Peyton Place High School is Michael Rossi (Lee Phillips), a handsome Cool Teacher who starts paying a lot of attention to beautiful single mom Connie.
Lorne Greene, a couple of years before his big break with Bonanza, appears towards the end as a prosecutor. Peyton Place achieved franchise status after the film was followed by a Prime Time Soap series on ABC in the 1960s, which was immensely popular and largely displaced both the novel and movie in the public consciousness.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Lucas Cross, a mean drunk, who's apparently drunk all the time. He carries a hip flask when he's working at the school as a janitor.
- As You Know: Connie complains about Allison's habit of always kissing her father's portrait, which causes her to reply "It's not my fault he died when I was two!" (The audience later learns that matters are a bit more complicated than that.)
- Auto Erotica: Subverted. Betty is miffed after Rodney dumped her, but she still gets in his car. They start wrestling in the front seat and Betty even says "Are you going to make love to me?", this in 1957 when the meaning of that phrase was starting to change. Then moments later she grabs her purse, whacks him upside the head with it, exits the car, and tells him to get lost.
- Bludgeoned to Death: Selena hits her father with a log, sending him to his knees. A second swing of the log puts him on the floor. Then she swings the log a bunch more times.
- Bowdlerize: The film, while still more salacious than most anything in American cinemas in the late 1950s, was toned down a lot from the book. In the novel Dr. Swain gives Selena an abortion while in the movie it's a Convenient Miscarriage. Book Betty really is slutty while Movie Betty is basically faking it; in the book Rodney knocks Betty up but in the film they get married. In the book Ted Carter is a heel who dumps Selena when she gets in trouble; in the movie he's a loving, faithful boyfriend.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The film opens with Paul Cross, who's finally had enough of his mean drunk of a stepdad, storming out of the house and driving into the town of Peyton Place. The whole scene leads a viewer to believe that Paul will be a main character. Instead, after the camera follows him into town and starts introducing other characters, Paul Cross is never seen again. He doesn't even show up for his sister's murder trial.
- Cool Teacher: Mr. Rossi, a cool guy who cares about his students, encourages Allison to pursue her writing dreams, and chops wood on the weekend.
- Convenient Miscarriage: One of the most unfortunate consequences of the bowdlerization. In the book Dr. Swain gives Selena an abortion. In the movie she asks him for one but he refuses, pronouncing it "against the laws of God and man." Instead she trips and falls while running away from her abusive stepfather, and suffers a miscarriage.
- Driven to Suicide: Nellie Cross, realizing how badly she's failed her children after her evil drunk of a husband drove her son off and then raped her daughter, hangs herself.
- During the War: The film begins in 1941, prior to America's entry into World War II, then proceeds into 1942 and 1943 with a few "home front" issues getting touched on.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After all the melodrama—rape, murder, running away from home, Parental Marriage Veto, war—three of the four couples end up happy. Connie and Mr. Rossi get together, Norman comes home to the prospect of a future with Allison, and Ted stands by Selena after her acquittal. The only unhappy ending is for Betty, as Rodney is killed in the war (at least Rodney’s father appears to have regretted his earlier disdain for Betty, and he asks her to help ‘keep what’s left of the family together’).
- False Widow: Connie was never married. She was the mistress of a man named MacKenzie and she simply changed her name to his after Allison was born.
- Gossipy Hens: Marion, a meanspirited older lady who likes to talk badly about people. After mistakenly thinking she saw Allison and Norman skinnydipping (it was actually Betty and Rodney), she spitefully calls their parents, provoking the vicious fight between Allison and Connie.
- Melodrama: Heightened emotions, big dramatic plot twists, adultery, rape, murder, lots of crying. Note how Allison says that if she can't find a job in New York she'll "live off some man like you did!", followed by a big dramatic musical crescendo as Connie weeps on the stairs.
- My Beloved Smother: Norman's mom, who has a vise-like grip on his life. Later Norman tells Allison that he joined the paratroopers just so he could get away from his mom.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Connie has a moment like this, when she stops and thinks about how her insistence that Selena should tell the police about her stepfather's death has resulted in Selena being on trial for murder.
- Mythology Gag
- In a brief shot right after the graduation, Allison is shown bent over a keyboard typing. This is a recreation of the photo of Grace Metalious on the back cover of the book, right down to the clothing.
- Allison tells Mr. Rossi that she is writing stories inspired by people in the town, but she doesn't use real names. Grace Metalious actually did use a real name in her book, naming the principal character "Tomas Makris" after a Laconia, NH teacher who was a co-worker with her husband. Makris sued for libel, forcing later printings of the book (and thus the movie) to name the character "Michael Rossi".
- Narrator: Allison is heard from time to time narrating the goings-on in the town and her life.
- Parental Incest: Selena Cross's brutal stepfather rapes her. After he comes back and tries to do it a second time, she kills him.
- Rape as Drama: Lucas rapes and impregnates his stepdaughter Selena.
- Rape Discretion Shot: Lucas pins Selena on the bed, she screams at him to get off, and the film cuts to the next scene.
- Roman à Clef: Allison tells Mr. Rossi that she's been writing stories inspired by people from her hometown, but "They were only fiction. I didn't use real names." Infamously, the Peyton Place novel was a Roman à Clef based on real life people that the author knew. The Selena story was inspired by a 16-year-old girl who killed her sexually abusive father.
- Schoolmarm: The elderly teacher who is referred to as Miss Elsie Thornton. She's a minor character in the film.
- Sexy Sweater Girl: Curvy, flirtatious Betty wears several tight sweaters.
- Skinnydipping: Curvaceous Betty tempts Rodney to go skinnydipping and naturally he follows along. Leads to a major plot development when mean old Marion confuses that pair of teenagers with another pair of teenagers, Allison and Norman (who are wearing tan swimsuits that look like “nothing at all” from a distance), and calls Allison's mom.
- Stocking Filler: Selena is shown putting on her stockings in the cramped shack her family lives in, which is both a bit of fanservice, and a character moment when the camera shows her disgusting pig stepfather Lucas leering at her.
- Train-Station Goodbye: A Bus Goodbye as Selena runs for a short time along with the bus taking Allison out of town.
- Under the Mistletoe: It's out of season (spring!), but Rodney has some mistletoe and he's holding it over his head as he and Betty dance.
- Wrong Side of the Tracks: It's pretty obvious that the Cross family lives on the wrong side of the tracks—it's a tar-paper shack, after all—but the movie makes it more of a Literal Metaphor by repeatedly playing the sound of a train whistle over the soundtrack in scenes at the Cross home.
