By Love Possessed (1961)

Perfect cast and a good story

Load of rubbish!!

Don't Believe the Hype

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

She was 40 by this movie, and we all know what Hollywood does to 40+ actresses; they hit the eject button. It doesn't help that Lana's figure doesn't look anywhere near the way it's portrayed on the box cover. "Lovely for her age" is not the same as lovely, and this Lana for a long time reminded no one of her Postman Rings Twice zenith. She managed to hold on for 5 more films before allowing Hollywood to wash her out.As bloodless as the coupling of Zimbalist and Turner is, it's exceeded by the dull essaying of a role by George Hamilton (sans tan). It takes Yvonne Craig to crank things up a bit, over halfway thru the movie. But then we're dragged back into Zimbalist and Turner moping around over "lost love". This is one of those proper New England movies of the era, and some of them are quite good. This one is quite concocted. The evercalm Emfrem all of a sudden loses his temper over wild speculation about 2/3rds in, and it comes completely out of left field, as if Claude Rains were to all of a sudden blow up.The movie lacks pacing, and at 2+ hours just seems to drag the entire second half.

" . . . to the meaning of young love: Drain-O," boosts the narrator of the trailer for BY LOVE POSSESSED, in the clearest indication that this misclassified "melodrama" was originally released in 1961 as a screwball comedy. There was a time when someone could have called Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney or Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland "two of the screen's finest young stars," but NO ONE ever said such a thing about Susan Kohner and George Hamilton with a straight face! Furthermore, during this slap-stick BY LOVE POSSESSED flick, Ms. Kohner finds Mr. Hamilton's character so insipid and lacking in sex appeal that she does herself in by drinking a can of Drain-O off-screen. The rest of the cast simply observe at such a usually sad occurrence that Susan's role was as a Detweiler, and "Detweilers always off themselves." So after Susan's tragic-comical disappearance, they simply go about their business for the rest of this farce without missing a beat. The fact that Ms. Detweiler was the richest gal in town, and that she willed her fortune to her kindly guardian lawyer (who's been embezzling steadily from every trust that he controls) can only work as a plot device in the Darkest Recesses of Black Humor. As Mr. Hamilton plays a rich kid debating with HIS lawyer dad whether he nailed "the Three Elements of Rape" with his "let's play 'Veronica says'" one-night stand chick, BY LOVE POSSESSED morphs into something perhaps better titled BY EVIL POSSESSED.

The fact that this is a trashy soap opera should come as no surprise to anyone acquainted with this genre from the 1950s and 60s. After all, it stars Lana Turner--a woman who made a mid-life career out of appearing in these films. This was the result of her own soap opera-like life off-screen (which included a husband murdered by Lana's own daughter who claimed he was molesting her!). Instead of avoiding this bad publicity, she exploited it to the hilt. Additionally, Efram Zimbalist Jr. and George Hamilton are in the film--two veterans of this sleazy genre--so, as I said, it's no surprise what sort of film "By Love Possessed" is.The plot is about a lot of very stylish and very well dressed folks who, consistent with the genre, have very little reason to be unhappy but are miserable. When two marriages start to dull, Efram and Lana find each other in a torrid affair with each other. As for Hamilton, he is miserable because he's doing great in Harvard Law AND is supposed to marry a beautiful society woman who adores him (oh, the horror!!)--so he goes slumming and falls in with an opportunistic tramp (Yvonne Craig). What's to come of all these handsome, rich and dissatisfied folks? If you care, see "By Love Possessed". However, it is hard to care about these people and they all come off as rather petty and stupid (and those are only their good qualities). This film comes off as slickly made but rather vacuous--and lacking the appeal of other Turner efforts of the time such as "Peyton Place". Worth seeing if you like highly polished trash--and I could easily see this as a guilty pleasure. But also a film that is difficult to praise.

Awful. BY LOVE POSSESSED is a really horrendous movie --- a soap opera completely devoid of style and class. Lana Turner cheats on husband Jason Robards Jr. by having an affair Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Turner obviously likes good lineage, but that's still one junior too many! The characters drink a lot and ride horses and live in absurd houses on acres and acres of land. Zimbalist's ne'er do well son is played by George Hamilton. He's being blackmailed by party girl Yvonne Craig while trying to get something started with débutante Susan Kohner. The less said about Hamilton's acting the better. Turner and Zimbalist are dreadful and Robards is saddled with the absurd task of playing a drunk. He acts and acts and acts. As Zimbalist's patient wife, Barbara Bel Geddes emerges unscathed. Directed by a clearly derailed John Sturges.