Lana Turner first made her name in the forties as a glamorous seductress in films like "The Postman Always Rings Twice", but in the late fifties and sixties she tended to specialise in "women's pictures". These were romantic melodramas predominantly aimed at a female audience with a strong female character, generally played by a big-name Hollywood star at their centre. The male characters, and most of the other female ones as well, were defined in terms of their relationship with her. Turner was often cast in the sort of parts which a few years earlier would have been taken by actresses like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. "Another Time, Another Place" is an example, as are films like "Peyton Place", "Imitation of Life" and "Madame X".
Those three films were all American, but "Another Time, Another Place" was made in Britain. Turner plays Sara Scott, an American newspaper reporter working in London during the Second World War. The film is less about her journalistic work than about her romantic life. She is torn between love for two men, her American editor Carter Reynolds and Mark Trevor, a British reporter for BBC radio, eventually choosing Mark, even though she knows that he is married with a young son. Shortly after the war, Mark is killed in a plane crash, and Carter persuades Sara to take a ship from Plymouth back to New York. She takes this opportunity to visit Mark's home town in Cornwall where she meets his widow, Kay, and even takes a room in Kay's house without revealing her true identity.
Although Mark is supposed to be Cornish, he is played by Sean Connery with his normal Scottish accent. Cornwall was presumably chosen because of its proximity to Plymouth, so it would not have been possible to change the plotline to make Mark a Scot. Connery also seemed too young for the role; he would have been 28 in 1958, making it difficult to accept him as the married father of a nine-year-old son. Connery's isn't the only dodgy accent in the film; the South African-born Sid James was never convincing as an American newspaperman.
It is a long time since I last saw "Peyton Place", but I would not rate "Another Time, Another Place" as highly as "Imitation of Life" and "Madame X". Both these films have their weaknesses, but they also have their strengths. The strengths of "Imitation of Life" are the direction of Douglas Sirk, especially his subtle use of colour, and its use of the melodrama form to explore serious social issues, especially racism. The main strength of "Madame X" is its powerful ending, which suddenly transforms what had previously been a dull, plodding film into something worth watching. "Another Time, Another Place" doesn't have anything comparable. It lacks the strong ending of "Madame X"; indeed, its ending, in which Sara goes to live with Kay, a development never really explained, is one of the weaker elements of the film.
"Another Time, Another Place", which is in black-and-white also lacks the visual attractiveness of "Imitation of Life", although some of the shots of the Cornish coast are well done. Unlike that film, it does not have any real social comment. It is a melodramatic weepie of the type that was popular in the forties and fifties but which today looks faded and dated. 5/10.
Those three films were all American, but "Another Time, Another Place" was made in Britain. Turner plays Sara Scott, an American newspaper reporter working in London during the Second World War. The film is less about her journalistic work than about her romantic life. She is torn between love for two men, her American editor Carter Reynolds and Mark Trevor, a British reporter for BBC radio, eventually choosing Mark, even though she knows that he is married with a young son. Shortly after the war, Mark is killed in a plane crash, and Carter persuades Sara to take a ship from Plymouth back to New York. She takes this opportunity to visit Mark's home town in Cornwall where she meets his widow, Kay, and even takes a room in Kay's house without revealing her true identity.
Although Mark is supposed to be Cornish, he is played by Sean Connery with his normal Scottish accent. Cornwall was presumably chosen because of its proximity to Plymouth, so it would not have been possible to change the plotline to make Mark a Scot. Connery also seemed too young for the role; he would have been 28 in 1958, making it difficult to accept him as the married father of a nine-year-old son. Connery's isn't the only dodgy accent in the film; the South African-born Sid James was never convincing as an American newspaperman.
It is a long time since I last saw "Peyton Place", but I would not rate "Another Time, Another Place" as highly as "Imitation of Life" and "Madame X". Both these films have their weaknesses, but they also have their strengths. The strengths of "Imitation of Life" are the direction of Douglas Sirk, especially his subtle use of colour, and its use of the melodrama form to explore serious social issues, especially racism. The main strength of "Madame X" is its powerful ending, which suddenly transforms what had previously been a dull, plodding film into something worth watching. "Another Time, Another Place" doesn't have anything comparable. It lacks the strong ending of "Madame X"; indeed, its ending, in which Sara goes to live with Kay, a development never really explained, is one of the weaker elements of the film.
"Another Time, Another Place", which is in black-and-white also lacks the visual attractiveness of "Imitation of Life", although some of the shots of the Cornish coast are well done. Unlike that film, it does not have any real social comment. It is a melodramatic weepie of the type that was popular in the forties and fifties but which today looks faded and dated. 5/10.