Return to Peyton Place (1961)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

José Ferrer

Writers:

Ronald Alexander (screenplay)
Grace Metalious (novel)

Release Date:

5 May 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The residents of Peyton Place, New Hampshire, are not happy when its most famous resident, Alison Mackenzie...

Plot Keywords:

Book | Marriage | Library | Principal | Italian

Cast

Carol Lynley	...	Allison
Jeff Chandler	...	Lewis Jackman
Eleanor Parker	...	Connie Rossi
Mary Astor	...	Mrs. Roberta Carter
Robert Sterling	...	Mike Rossi
Luciana Paluzzi	...	Raffaella
Brett Halsey	...	Ted
Gunnar Hellström	...	Nils (as Gunnar Hellstrom)
Tuesday Weld	...	Selena
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joan Banks	...	Mrs. Humphries (uncredited)
Helen Bennett	...	Interviewer (uncredited)
Bill Bradley	...	Mark Steele (uncredited)
Jack Carr	...	Mr. Johnson (uncredited)
Harry Carter	...	Newspaper Publisher (uncredited)
Bob Crane	...	Peter White (uncredited)
Alex Dunand	...	Pierre Galante (uncredited)
Tim Durant	...	John Smith (uncredited)
José Ferrer	...	Voice of Mark Steele (uncredited)
Bess Flowers	...	Lady at Town Meeting (uncredited)
Wilton Graff	...	Dr. Fowlkes (uncredited)
Pitt Herbert	...	Seth Wadley (uncredited)
Jennifer Howard	...	Mrs. Jackman (uncredited)
Collette Lyons	...	Mrs. Sarah Bingham (uncredited)
Kenneth MacDonald	...	Dexter (uncredited)
Max Mellinger	...	Nevins (uncredited)
Harold Miller	...	Guest at Book Publishing Party (uncredited)
Tony Miller	...	Photographer (uncredited)
Warren Parker	...	Lupus Wolf (uncredited)
Arthur Peterson	...	Selectman Seth (uncredited)
Hari Rhodes	...	Arthur (uncredited)
Charles Seel	...	Diner Proprietor (uncredited)
Max Showalter	...	Nick Parker (uncredited)
Leonard Stone	...	Steve Swanson (uncredited)
Hal Taggart	...	Extra at Town Meeting (uncredited)
Reedy Talton	...	Frank O'Roark (uncredited)
Emerson Treacy	...	Bud Humphries (uncredited)
June Valentine	...	Waitress (uncredited)
Carol Veazie	...	Interviewer (uncredited)

Directed by
José Ferrer

Writing credits
Ronald Alexander		(screenplay)
Grace Metalious		(novel)

Produced by
Curtis Harrington	....	associate producer
Jerry Wald	....	producer

Original Music by
Franz Waxman

Cinematography by
Charles G. Clarke		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
David Bretherton

Art Direction by
Hans Peters
Jack Martin Smith

Set Decoration by
Fred M. MacLean		(as Fred Maclean)
Walter M. Scott

Costume Design by
Donfeld		(as Don Feld)

Makeup Department
Ben Nye	....	makeup artist
Helen Turpin	....	hair stylist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
David Hall	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Warren B. Delaplain	....	sound
Bernard Freericks	....	sound

Music Department
Leonid Raab	....	orchestrator

Production Companies

• Jerry Wald Productions

Distributors

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (1961) (USA) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox (1961) (France) (theatrical)
• Centfox (1961) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1971) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2005) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

123 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #19847) | West Germany:16 (f) | Finland:K-12

Filming Locations:

Fitchburg, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Jerry Wald Productions

Trivia:

The voice of the character "Mark Steele", played by Bill Bradley in an uncredited role, is actually that of the film's director José Ferrer.

Movie Connections:

Follows Peyton Place (1957)

Soundtrack:

The Best of Everything

You Can't Go Home Again...

As has already been stated, all of the actors in the original "Peyton Place" were replaced by new performers. That was the first mistake. The next was the script. Allison MacKenzie (Carol Lynley) has just completed a semi-autobiographical novel about her home town. Off she goes to New York for a meeting with her publisher Lewis Jackman (Jeff Chandler) and what looks like (at least at first) an antagonistic relationship between the two. Meanwhile, back in Peyton Place, Ted Carter (Brett Halsey) has just returned with his new(pregnant)Italian Bride, Raffaela (Luciana Paluzzi) and is greeted by his wealthy, influential mother, Roberta (Mary Astor) who is displeased, to say the least,by her son's choice of a wife, and immediately begins a campaign to destroy Ted's marriage and drive Raffaela away. Roberta even goes so far as to involve town outcast (and Ted's onetime girlfriend) Selina Cross (Tuesday Weld) in an attempt to make his wife jealous. In New York, Allison has discovered she likes her publisher and considers becoming involved with him. When the newly published book reaches Peyton Place, all Hell supposedly breaks loose. Allison's mother Constance (Eleanor Parker) who has a skeleton in her own closet, is disgusted by the book. Her high school principal husband Mike Rossi (Robert Sterling) however, promptly puts it in the school library. Whereupon Roberta Carter (naturally, the head of the school board) demands his resignation. And so it goes...

Most of the performances are problem number three. Lynley plays Allison so stiffly and unpleasantly that she quickly becomes a bore. Chandler is OK though he has little to work with. Parker overacts to a fault, which she often did in the past, and Sterling does about as well as Chandler. Weld is a bit shrill herself (especially when she begins an impromptu affair with new ski instructor Gunnar Hellstrom) but at least she's lively. The best scenes in the film are those between Astor (superb, as always), Halsey and Paluzzi (both of them are good and prove adequate sparring partners for Astor, though of course, they aren't in the same league). But whenever the tension between them begins to mount, back we go to New York, and Lynley's tiresome,almost-affair with Chandler. As for the direction by Jose Ferrer, he appears to have left the performers to their own devices, and done little else. At least the obligatory town meeting, attended by all the principal characters, wraps up most of the loose ends neatly, which is certainly a novel ending for a soap opera., and the CinemaScope production is handsomely photographed. It really isn't necessary (or wise) to see the original "Peyton Place" before viewing this film, because "Return To Peyton Place" inevitably suffers in comparison. In all fairness, it must be mentioned that this film underwent extensive editing before it's release, excising scenes still glimpsed in the theatrical trailer. Astor's part suffered from the editing most (and her scenes are probably the only regrettable deletions), but the rest would only have made a mediocre melodrama that much longer.