The Restless Years

The year after the scandalous Peyton Place was made into a movie, a complete rip-off was released in the form of The Restless Years. If you like the genre of small town scandals, you can definitely check it out. It'll give you everything you're expecting: melodrama, teenage sexual angst, needless conflict, alcoholism, illegitimacy, secrets, and shame.

Teresa Wright plays the Lana Turner part to Sandra Dee's Diane Varsi. Teresa is very overprotective over her daughter, especially when it comes to boys. When Sandra wants to try out for the school play, will all the heightened dramatics corrupt her? John Saxon is the new boy in town, and his father James Whitmore wants him to become friends with the "right people" so he can become more successful in his business. John is far more interested in the scandal-tainted Sandra, even with her emotional problems that flare up whenever she's alone with him.

For die-hard fans of Peyton Place, this will come in a very distant second. If you don't really care about which story came first, and you just like juicy teen drama, you might really like this movie. It's extremely dated, but that can be part of the fun. If you like Sandra, she's very sweet and innocent in this movie. It's hard to imagine her ever growing up!