By Love Possessed (1961)

Director:

John Sturges

Writers:

James Gould Cozzens (novel)
Charles Schnee (writer)

Release Date:

5 January 1962 (Finland)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

ALL OF THEM WERE BY LOVE POSSESSED! The bold best-seller that sent a fever through America now fires the screen!

Plot:

Neurotic woman engages in an affair with the law partner of her impotent husband. |

Plot Keywords:

Affair | Beautiful Woman | Based On Novel

Cast

Lana Turner	...	Marjorie Penrose
Efrem Zimbalist Jr.	...	Arthur Winner
Jason Robards	...	Julius Penrose (as Jason Robards Jr.)
George Hamilton	...	Warren Winner
Susan Kohner	...	Helen Detweiler
Thomas Mitchell	...	Noah Tuttle
Everett Sloane	...	Dr. Reggie Shaw
Yvonne Craig	...	Veronica Kovacs
Gilbert Green	...	Mr. Woolf
Frank Maxwell	...	Jerry Brophy
Carroll O'Connor	...	Bernie Breck
Jean Willes	...	Junie McCarthy
Barbara Bel Geddes	...	Clarissa Winner

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:16 (f) | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Fitchburg, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Mirisch Corporation, The

Trivia:

In 1961, TWA began showing in-flight movies on a regular basis. This film kicked-off the program and became the first movie screened in-flight by an airline. See also Come September (1961). But for the very first in-flight movie see 'Lost World,The (1925)' qv)

Soundtrack:

By Love Possessed Theme

Sirk film without Sirk=disaster

James Gould Couzzens wrote one novel that was almost great-Guard of Honor-and a lot of melodramatic junk that was wildly over praised at the time of publication.The ne plus ultra of his Literary artlessness was undoubtedly By Love Possessed. When it was published, it was a wildly praised best -seller. The only dissents came from Dwight McDonald, who wrote a hilarious assault on the book called "By Couzzens Possessed", and William F.Buckley, Jr. who took a page and a half to sink it beneath the waves in his National Review. Of course, like all melodramatic best sellers, it eventually had to be made into a Hollywood film. Unfortunatly, the only Hollywood directors capable of making it into a good movie were Sirk (and maybe, just maybe, Preminger).Sirk, in fact, with his exquisitely controlled irony, and his insight into American manners and mores would have produced a chilly, superbly calibrated, yet compassionate melodrama, comparable to All that Heaven Allows, Written on The Wind, or Imitation of Life. Unfortunatly, Sirk had fled Hollywood, and Preminger was busy making Advise and Consent. So the decadent Hollywood system in its "genius' gave it John Sturges. Result, a movie that looks like a Sirk film( thanks to Russell Metty), sounds like a Sirk film, and has the cast and plot of a Sirk film..but isnt a Sirk film. Result..bloated, turgid melodrama, without a drop of genuine wit, irony, compassion , or human insight. Well, maybe Couzzens deserved it