By Love Possessed

"I Have no thesis other than that most people get a raw deal from life; life is what it is" James Gould Cozzens. In Cavalcade of The American Novel, (1951)Edward Wagenknecht wrote of Cozzens, "He stands in the front rank of American novelists" At that time, the praise was justified. He made his reputation with a brilliant novella, S.S. San Pedro, (1931) , which offered a fictionalized account of the sinking of the S.S. Vestris. He followed with a series of novels which garnered critical praise but which were only mildly popular. Almost all of them were what he called "Professional Novels", accounts of the lives of W.A.S.P. professional men. The Last Adam (1933) was about a small town doctor, Men and Brethren (1936) examined three days in the life of a big city Episcopalian Clergyman, and The Just and The Unjust (1942)-which Dean Zechariah Chaffee of Harvard Law School called the best novel about the legal profession ever written-Looked at an idealistic young small town assistant district attorney grappling with his first murder trial. Cozzens spent World War Two writing tech manuals, reports, and speeches for the Army Air Force. He drew on his experiences to write his Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece, Guard Of Honor,(1950) which told the tale of three days of crisis at a huge Army Air Force base in Florida at the height of World War 2. Not content to rest on his laurels, he spent seven years writing what he thought would be his TRUE masterpiece, an account of 49 challenging hours in the life of a middle aged small town lawyer. By Love Possessed. When it was first published in 1957, it was a surprise best seller. despite its often baroque style and erudite vocabulary, It was condensed by the Readers Digest, (Readers Digest Condensed Books, Winter 1957, and Cozzens sold the paperback and movie rights for unprecedented sums. Almost all the critics loved it. One even said Cozzens deserved the Nobel prize.Then came disaster. It started when the reclusive Cozzens granted an interview to Time Magazine. In it , Cozzens' sarcasms and ironies were mistaken for his real positions, and Cozzens came across as a bigoted and misanthropic WASP snob. A few months later came one of the most notorious negative reviews in literary history. Dwight McDonald's "By Cozzens Possessed", in which he launched a merciless attack on the book and its admirers. Cozzens reputation has still not recovered.However, this movie may have been the final nail in the coffin of Cozzens' reputation. It isn't a bad film-in fact there are good things in it. However, it does transform and simplify its source material almost beyond recognition. While some of Cozzens ideas remain, what had been a painstaking examination of a man having a spiritual, moral, and professional, crisis became a Lana Turner vehicle-a Douglas Sirk film without Sirk to direct it.

When I was a teenager this was considered an adult film and off-limits. It reminds me how up-tight people were about sex when I was growing up in the '50s and 60's. 'We represent 3.4 of the people out there" Yeah right I would be surprised if 10% could afford the services of that high-priced law firm.This was a time when you couldn't show a pregnant woman in a movie. A year earlier Jack Parr had the plug pulled on his talk show one night by an NBC censor because he said "water closet" in a joke he told. I kid you not. The world was coming to an end because a movie had been made about an unwed teenager. God! It was discovered we teenagers were having sex. When Elvis Presley was on TV they would not allow him to be filmed below the waist I call this a comedy because the plot is so ludicrous, but standard fare for its time. There never is any real sex shown it is only implied. Men would tell their friends that Lana was bare-shouldered in bed. That was practically pornography. Lana wants sex, but it seems Julius can't get it up, Efrem wants sex with someone other than his wife, but didn't realize it until he took a midnight walk in a cemetery., Hamilton wants sex, Barbara wants rough sex from Efrem, Susan kills herself because she wants sex, but is ashamed to want it outside marriage. Veronica yells rape because Hamilton won't take her to a motel. Oh and in this fictional town there is not one minority, even the servants are white. I look back on when I was growing up and it seems like life on another planet.

This film reminded me very much of Peyton Place -- and both star Lana Turner. This is a slow-ish, talky film, but with interesting characters and a lot of early 1960s culture. The highlights for me are: excellent women's fashion (love Lana Turner's hooded coat) and short hairstyles; a young, surprisingly handsome George Hamilton (who looked like Anthony Perkins?), a small role by Carroll O'Connor (of All in the Family); and a leafy fall New England backdrop (it was partly filmed in Fitchburg, MA).The orchestration is also really good -- except that it is sometimes disproportionately loud to the dialogue (so I had to keep changing the volume). The story is also pretty good--it's melodramatic, but people "learn lessons" throughout. One does just need patience, as it is a rather slow-ish film.

Definitely draws in the viewer.In the context of the 1960s, there are many issues covered of morality, human frailty/need/breaking point, kindness/fairness, parental live, male/female attraction and love in a down to earth way.Good cast & acting.There were definitely some memorable quotes on specific topics.Whoever styled Lana Turner's hair did a terrible job for a beautiful woman.

Remarkable film ... observation, Susan Kohner appears typecast when you compare/contrast her role in "Imitation of Life" which also starred Lana Turner....not a christian film ...but the power of forgiveness was evident at the end!

Un ottimo Melò, chi ama questo genere non potrà restare deluso. Lana Turner è sempre grandiosa nel tratteggiare un certo tipo di donna tormentata , tra l'altro in questo film c'è anche (in un ruolo completamente diverso) Susan Kohner, l'indimenticabile SARA JANE de LO SPECCHIO DELLA VITA, ritenuto non a torto, uno dei massimi livelli di questo genere. Lo stra-consiglio!

Melodrama para poco lucimiento de Lana Turner. Una copia barata de Douglas Dirk pero sin hacer que se te caiga una lágrima. La edición en dvd es correcta. Bien la imagen y el sonido algo raro las voces. Se ve que la han doblado de nuevo.

It really good quality, I was very pleased.

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