20th Century Fox seemed to make a bunch of CinemaScope melodramas in the 1950s - tales of infidelity and angst in the middle classes, often based on best sellers: The View from Pompey's Head, The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, Ten North Frederick, Peyton Place.
This was written and directed by Philip Dunne, who made several said films, and was based on a play which wasn't that popular. You actually wonder why they made it - perhaps because it has a pretty good central female role, the title character, who has been divorced twice and returns to her small town. Apparently Susan Hayward was set to play it, and really she probably should have... instead they get Jean Simmons, who I've never been wild about, although some people love her.
The movie falls between two stools - it's not insightful and skilful enough to be an actually good movie, and not enough happens for it to be trashy fun.
The potential is there for either. The set up is promising ish - a twice divorced female lead returning to a small town... that has novelty. Everyone thinks she's a slut, especially mom... you could do something with that. She's torn between a professor she loved and a local boy... that's great.
But it all feels underwhelming. Star power is badly lacking - you've got Simmons, Jean Pierre Aumont and Guy Madison, plus Judith Evelyn as mother and Evelyn Varden as Madison's mother.
Varden is the one who really clicks - she plays the role as a controlling bitch. You know where she's coming from, you get the character.
Evelyn's character is more confusing - she's kind of ashamed of her daughter and it's all kind of her fault, but the punches are pulled. She gets too close to Varden's character at times but when she's different she's just bland. Maybe she needed to be more passive aggressive.
Madison is too handsome, too wealthy, too understanding, too perfect. Really he needed to be dull or less good looking. I know it's Hollywood but he's too much of a viable candidate. You never get why Simmons would go for Aumont, with his funny head and lecherous ways. Aumont needed to be dangerous, sexy, a bad boy... Madison a good dull boy. Or an older guy... that could've worked... someone a bit old, insecure about Hilda. Or really young. It just needed more differentiation.
And there's no meat to the drama. Varden has a heart attack but she deserves it. Simmons tries to kill herself but fails. She doesn't cheat. It needed more story. Or just needed to be better done.
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