Where Love Has Gone (1964)

Director:

Edward Dmytryk

Writers:

John Michael Hayes (writer)
Harold Robbins (novel)

Release Date:

2 November 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

From the blistering best-seller! From the team that brought you 'The Carpetbaggers'! The explosive story of the violent world where a mother and her teenage daughter compete for the same lover...WHERE LOVE HAS GONE goes where no motion picture has ever dared go before!

Plot:

A divorced couple's teen-age daughter stands trial for stabbing her mother's latest lover.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Marriage | Ex Wife | Trial | Teenage Daughter

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Susan Hayward	...	Valerie Hayden Miller
Bette Davis	...	Mrs. Gerald Hayden
Mike Connors	...	Major Luke Miller (as Michael Connors)
Joey Heatherton	...	Danielle Valerie Miller
Jane Greer	...	Marian Spicer
DeForest Kelley	...	Sam Corwin
George Macready	...	Gordon Harris
Anne Seymour	...	Dr. Sally Jennings
Willis Bouchey	...	Judge Murphy
Walter Reed	...	George Babson
Ann Doran	...	Mrs. Geraghty
Bartlett Robinson	...	Mr. John Coleman
Whit Bissell	...	Professor Bell
Anthony Caruso	...	Rafael

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:18 (f) | Finland:K-16 | Portugal:17 (censored version)

Company:

Joseph E. Levine Productions

Trivia:

At the last minute, the producers wanted to add a scene where Bette Davis' character goes insane and slashes a portrait. Davis resisted, saying it was out of character for the role. The producers attempted to sue her but Davis won the case.

Quotes:

Valerie Hayden Miller: When you're dying from thirst, you'll drink from a mudhole.

Soundtrack:

WHERE LOVE HAS GONE

If you like unintentional camp, look no further

This movie is regarded today as an unintentional camp classic. Having seen Edward Dymitryk's black comedy "Bluebeard", I think the director might have been in on the joke, but I'm not so sure anybody else was. As others have said, this is loosely based on the real-life Hollywood scandal where Lana Turner's teenage daughter Cheryl Crane stabbed Turner's gangster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato to death in a domestic violence incident. Somehow this movie manages to make the real incident even sleazier by positing an actual sexual relationship between the daughter and the gangster. Susan Hayward gives a very earnest (and, thus, unintentionally campy) performance as the Lana Wood character. She's made a scupltress here rather than an actress, which is hilarious because, while a vapid bimbo can be an actress, it usually takes some depth to be a sculptor. But even more hilarious her manager (Dr. McCoy--I mean DeForrest Kelley) claims that her "talent" is based on her behaving like an "alley-cat". Well, the real Lana Turner could reportedly alley-cat with the best of them, but it never seemed to do much for her acting.

Speaking of alley-cats though, Joey Heatherton is severely miscast as the daughter. Even if she could act, Heatherton was 20 then and looked even older. (They should have cast Tuesday Weld, but a good performance would have stuck out like a sore thumb here). Heatherton was a minor sex symbol of the era, who could fill out a mean sweater and reputedly slept her way through the entire Rat Pack. I did find her kinda sexy, but I also kinda wanted to strangle her (OK, not just kinda) because she has a horrible screechy, petulant voice that make nails on a chalkboard seem sonorous (she's slightly better in "Bluebeard" where she at least busts out her bust after aurally torturing the poor viewers for the entire movie). And speaking of torture, Betty Davis gives a performance as Hayward's domineering mother that somehow manages to seem both incredibly hammy and lethargically phoned-in.

The male actors really don't have a chance against three generations of scenery-chewing harpies, but they try. DeForrest Kelley gets to earnestly deliver some real unintentional howlers (between this and "Night of the Lepus" maybe he should have stuck to the small screen). Mike Connor's plays the nice-guy father/ex-husband--a character who was conspicuously absent in the real-life Turner tragedy. This is not as enjoyable as "Bluebeard" (Heatherton and her sweaters really don't make up for a whole bevy of naked Europe-babes), but if you like unitentional camp look no further.