BY JOHN M. WHALEN
“By Love
Possessed,†(1961), a soap opera starring Lana Turner that was her attempt to
have another hit on the order of “Peyton Place,†has two distinguishing
features. First, two of the male leads, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and Jason
Robards, Jr., have Jr. after their names, (There may be other films with two
juniors in the top-ranked cast, but I can’t think of them, can you?) and,
second, it may be the worst film that the estimable John Sturges ever directed.
Other than that, there is absolutely nothing noteworthy about this film except
how bad it is.
First of all even
though Lana got star billing, the central character is really the lawyer played
by Zimbalist. He’s partners with Robards in a firm headed by Thomas Mitchell. Efrem is a
cold, unfeeling guy who believes in fulfilling the letter of the law, no matter
who it hurts. (Sounds perfect to play in a TV series about the FBI). To show
the kind of guy he is, Efrem discovers Thomas Mitchell has been screwing up the
law firm’s books. When he first suspects something’s wrong he tells Robards
they’ll have to put the old man on moth balls, because he’s becoming senile. He
plans to take away all his duties, and just keep him around as a lawn jockey.
Jason flinches, telling Efrem to carry out the deed because he couldn’t bring
himself to hurt him that way.
Zimbalist has a
wife (Barbara Bel Geddes) who’s in the hospital with a tennis injury
(presumably tennis elbow!) They have a son (George Hamilton) who hates his
life. It’s rough being wealthy and going to Harvard Law School. George, in
turn, has a girlfriend (Susan Kohner),
but he’s bored with her because she won’t sleep with him. After failing to have
a meaningful conversation about relationships with his father, George decides
to take up with the town tramp, Yvonne Craig.
Meanwhile with
wifey Bel Geddes in the hospital, and Robards away in New York, Efrem discovers
Lana has eyes for him. You see, Robards is impotent as the result of an
undefined accident. Efrem and Lana start
a little fling. In the meantime, Efrem’s son, George’s date with the easy girl Yvonne turns disastrous when he brushes her off
afterward, and she cries rape. Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Conner) shows up as the
police chief and arrests George. George gets out of jail and skips on his bail.
When girlfriend Kohner finds out about the tramp she kills herself by drinking
cleaning fluid. That’s right. Cleaning
fluid.
By this time, I
felt like I wanted to take a swig of it myself. But as Everett Sloan as the family
doctor says, while playing gin with
Efrem, “Forces are put in motion that lead to an inevitable end, and sometimes
it’s a bitter inevitablility†or some jazz like that, that makes as much sense
as the rest of the movie. I won’t bore you with the rest of this tedious
nonsense, but suffice to say that, since it was only 1961 and the sexual
revolution was still to come later in the decade, the hypocritical ending lets
just about everyone off the hook, morally speaking.
Perhaps, the
biggest mystery surrounding this film is how in the world John Sturges came to
direct it. Sturges had already done “The Magnificent Seven†the year before,
and “Gunfight at the OK Corral†before that, and would go on to “The Great
Escape†and other solid action films. Perhaps Sturges’ venture into Douglas
Sirk territory best serves as a reminder that if you want a long career in
Hollywood, you’ve got to be flexible.
“By Love
Possessed†was a Seven Arts Production with script by Charles Schnee (as John
Dennis) produced by Walter Mirisch, music score by Elmer Bernstein and cinematography
by Russell Metty. MGM’s Limited Edition Collection DVD is presented in 16x9 1.85:1
widescreen format. Picture is adequate, sound a bit flat and tinny. Recommended
for Lana Turner completists and those with a taste for cleaning fluid.
(John M. Whalen is the author of "Hunting Monsters is My Business: The Mordecai Slate Stories" . Click here to order the book from Amazon)