A Life of Her Own

Never a good idea when making a movie to kill off your best character twenty some odd minutes in. Referring, of course, to the unhappy, aging, neurotic, dipso model played to self destructive, sardonic perfection by Ann Dvorak. When she throws herself out of a top story apartment window a lot of the quality and all the energy of this film goes with her. Did you notice, for example, how Isobel Lennart's dialogue, so sharp and insightful when Dvorak is around, turns mushy and labored? And how George Cukor's directorial pacing seems to be off a tic or two once Ray Milland (rhymes with bland) and his dull love interest character enters the picture? Gone is the breezy tone of the first fifteen minutes when Lana Turner's character gets a crash course from Tom Ewell in Modeling 101 and the tension inherent in the nightclub scene with sleazy Barry Sullivan, Dvorak, Turner and nice but not too nice Louis Calhern.

Bottom line: It's not the worst Cukor film ever made (that dubious distinction goes to "Chapman Report") but we're a long way from "Adam's Rib" or even "The Actress", for that matter. Give it a C.

PS...Milland as a copper baron from Montana is about as convincing as John Wayne playing a librarian.

Lana Turner heads an excellent cast in "A Life of Her Own," a 1950 film directed by George Cukor. Its other stars are Ray Milland, Louis Calhern, Margaret Phillips, Barry Sullivan, Tom Ewell, Ann Dvorak, and Jean Hagen.

Both the beginning of the film and the end are the best parts; the in between is incredibly slow. Turner plays a young woman from Kansas who comes to New York to break into the modeling business. She meets what could be her future if she's not careful: a washed up, alcoholic, desperate has-been, beautifully portrayed by Ann Dvorak. No need to tell you what happens there - you've seen it a million times.

As her career progresses, Turner meets a married millionaire, Steve, played by Ray Milland. She knows he's married and it starts off platonically enough. But, as we learn what seems like hours later, he's a lot more than married.

This is a great cast, right down to the smaller roles, which includes Phyllis Kirk, one of my favorites, and Hermes Pan, who so often worked with Fred Astaire on choreography.

Turner is excellent and has some fine dramatic scenes; Milland is handsome and sympathetic as her boyfriend. Margaret Phillips, as his wife, does a marvelous job, and Tom Ewell is a joy. Actually, everyone is very good.

Alas, there's not much of a script here and you know what's going to happen along the way. The very end shows Cukor's directing mastery. Given what he had to work with by way of a script, it's a very well done movie. I shudder to think what it would have been like in someone else's hands.

Lana Turner goes into the modeling world hoping to get discovered. Along the way, she meets Ray Milland, who's a married man, and of course they start having feelings for each other. Ann Dvorak (from Paul Muni's "Scarface") is great in a supporting role. In fact, some would say she steals the show, because the viewer thinks of her even when she's not on the screen, due to circumstances I'm not going into. Barry Sullivan, who was frequent costar of Lana's, is on hand with his shoulder for Lana to cry on.

For such an unknown movie of Lana's, one would think is just a hum-drum black-and-white movie. But, "A Life of Her Own" is a very well-written and insightful film which provides a mature approach to a woman's life at an older age, who is trying to find herself and what she really wants out of life, and what she doesn't want.

An added plus which most reviewers have already alluded to, is the great music score to this film. It makes Ray and Lana's scenes feel very intimate. But when reality hits and she meets the wheelchair-bound wife. it does get rather depressing and downbeat. But the ending is very soothing, as she "is herself" with Barry and visits the view one more time of Ann Dvorak's old apartment building and where she doesn't want to wind up. It's a shame to think only Lana fans would be attracted to this film. It's one for all those who want something intelligent and for people, who though older and not quite settled, are still yearning for "a life of their own."

A LIFE OF HER OWN (1950) TCM It's 1950, it's pure melodrama, and it's anchored on the star being and staying gorgeous from beginning to end. No one does this better to me than Lana Turner and she does it again here. Someone else can spill out the plot. I mainly want to add that I watch very few dramas, and I was so hooked from the beginning that I passed up a potentially good mindless romcom for this. So Lana, her beautiful clothes, and fine acting sucked me in again, but I don't mind because she was in top form here despite the script not being up to the standard of "Imitation of Life" which is one of the greatest melodramas ever. I seriously doubt I'll ever watch this movie again, but if you love melodramas and Lana Turner, then this is a classic to see at least once.

Lana Turner plays a woman who leaves her small town to go to New York to get into the modeling business.

It's a magazine-fiction type of story that is given some depth, intelligence, and color by George Cukor's direction.

Cukor does all sorts of nice things with the milieu, the supporting cast, the situations, and the performances of the leads, perhaps to obscure the fact that this isn't a very compelling story.

Predictably, Lana's character gets involved with a married man (Ray Milland). Her lover's long- suffering wife (Margaret Phillips) is bedridden. The man cares about his wife, but also about his girlfriend. He nearly goes off the deep end worrying about it all.

Ann Dvorak in a supporting role as an aging, bitter model steals the show, more or less, though a little of her (and her role) goes a long way. We also get to see Barry Sullivan, Tom Ewell, Jean Hagen, Betsy Blair, Richard Hart, Louis Calhern, and many others. The supporting cast is really great.

By the way, Ray Milland was a replacement for Wendell Corey, who reportedly was fired after making a snide remark when Lana was late to the set (for an apparently legitimate reason having to do with her wardrobe). Supposedly, Corey told Turner that Barbara Stanwyck (with whom he had recently starred) never kept a cast and crew waiting. Since there were rumors Lana had had an affair with Stanwyck's husband, Robert Taylor, the crack seemed especially pointed. At any rate, Lana refused to work with him after that.

A Life Of Her Own was one of two pictures produced by MGM's influential Voldemar Vetluguin, a former editor of Redbook magazine. The other was East Side, West Side (1949).