Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Hot 888 Mama " . . . to the meaning of young love: Drain-O," boosts the narrator of the trailer for BY LOVE POSSESSED, in the clearest indication that this misclassified "melodrama" was originally released in 1961 as a screwball comedy. There was a time when someone could have called Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney or Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland "two of the screen's finest young stars," but NO ONE ever said such a thing about Susan Kohner and George Hamilton with a straight face! Furthermore, during this slap-stick BY LOVE POSSESSED flick, Ms. Kohner finds Mr. Hamilton's character so insipid and lacking in sex appeal that she does herself in by drinking a can of Drain-O off-screen. The rest of the cast simply observe at such a usually sad occurrence that Susan's role was as a Detweiler, and "Detweilers always off themselves." So after Susan's tragic-comical disappearance, they simply go about their business for the rest of this farce without missing a beat. The fact that Ms. Detweiler was the richest gal in town, and that she willed her fortune to her kindly guardian lawyer (who's been embezzling steadily from every trust that he controls) can only work as a plot device in the Darkest Recesses of Black Humor. As Mr. Hamilton plays a rich kid debating with HIS lawyer dad whether he nailed "the Three Elements of Rape" with his "let's play 'Veronica says'" one-night stand chick, BY LOVE POSSESSED morphs into something perhaps better titled BY EVIL POSSESSED.

bkoganbing By Love Possessed is your high gloss soap opera 50s early 60s style. Had it been done at Universal it would have had Douglas Sirk directing and Rock Hudson in the lead. Here we have Efrem Zimbalist starring and John Sturges who's a bit lost in this genre directing.Possibly Sirk passed on this one. The drama centers around the law firm in a most conservative small town. Senior partner is Thomas Mitchell who does not look well at all, possibly at the beginning of his final illness and his partners are son-in-law Zimbalist and Jason Robards. Zimbalist is your hail fellow well met and a bit stuck up Ivy League type, a bit thick in his dealings with wife Barbara Bel Geddes and son George Hamilton.As for Robards he's married to Lana Turner, but he's not been up to that challenge recently. This was still the era of the Omnipresent Code and impotence and its causes are not spoken of by polite movie characters. Turner turns to Zimbalist for some action.Young Hamilton repeats his sensitive youth character from his role in Home From The Hill in the previous year. He's got good, but neurotic girl Susan Kohner on the string, but his hormones cry out for the town teen tramp Yvonne Craig. She and her mother Claire Carleton are the ones you really remember from this film, their performances have some real bite to them.Efrem Zimbalist was starring in 77 Sunset Strip at the time at Warner Brothers and they were hoping to transition him to a big screen name like they did with James Garner. That was not in the cards for Zimbalist, but he did get to co-star with a screen legend in Lana Turner.Not his fault, but the way Zimbalist's role was written I could never develop a rooting interest for him to overcome and deal with his problems. Quite frankly, he's a fathead. Turner also seemed a bit off kilter for a screen sex symbol in this film.But Lana's fans will love her.

jhkp Adult drama which in other hands might have been soapy or turgid. Of course there is something to be said for a lurid melodrama. This just doesn't happen to be one.It's about a suburban Massachusetts law firm and the interrelationships of the partners and their families. Lana Turner is top billed. She gives a quiet, rather different performance (for her). She plays a gentle drinker, a touching figure. She's well paired with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., as her husband's law partner, whom she turns to when hubby (Jason Robards, Jr.) proves emotionally unavailable. (Zimbalist, in turn, is married to Barbara Bel Geddes. George Hamilton plays their son. George is involved with Susan Kohner, the ward of the third and final law partner, Thomas Mitchell.) Zimbalist gives a nice performance. Never a flashy actor, he's perfectly cast here in a conservative role, a man with a conscience and a man of character. The story is told very well and without undue histrionics or flamboyance. The one thing that doesn't seem to work is the subplot involving Yvonne Craig as a trampy chick Hamilton gets involved with, who refers to herself in the third person. For me that just seemed unreal. Unfortunately, this segment is central to the plot.A certain amount of the film was shot on location. The opening is downtown Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and the elegant homes are in Groton.The story takes a while to build. The first half hour is not especially gripping. After all, it was made to be seen in a theater, where you bought your ticket and settled in, not on TV, where you can change the channel. The screenplay (by Charles Schnee, using a pseudonym) tends to merely sketch in a lot of things. Apparently it was based on a large book. It's like you feel you have to go back and read that book. Occasionally, the motivations of the characters seem to need more explanation. On the other hand, this works, from time to time, it keeps you guessing, which is in itself, interesting and a reason to keep watching.

sunchicago There's nothing better than Lana's voice when she's being quietly emphatic about whatever ... she can purr with the best of them and takes you back to her earliest days in film. Otherwise, the movie seems to jump all over the place as far as plot/who we really want to focus on. In many ways Zimbalist and Robards should have switched parts: to see Hamilton get riled up each time he has a conversation with the incredibly passive Zimbalist is laughable. Great '60s period piece, great cast - the inimitable Thomas Mitchell (Pa O'Hara from "GWTW"), Everett Sloane and Barbara Bel Geddes ("Miss Ellie" from "Dallas") add to the fun of this soaper (I agree with the review that says "Sirk - without Sirk") and it was a good find.