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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Melodramatic Moral Decisions, August 18, 2003
This review is from: Life of Her Own [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Contrary to what some other reviewers have written, I happen to find this movie quite enjoyable and a prime example of the "Happiness At What Cost?" theme that was explored in many outstanding films of the 30's, 40's and 50's. A few that come to mind are DODSWORTH (Walter Huston), ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO (Bette Davis) and THE SHINING HOUR (Joan Crawford), all of which dealt with people having to ask the question: Do I grab my one and only chance for true love, even though others may suffer for it, or do I follow the noble course of action and sacrifice my own happiness so that the feelings of others will be spared? This film certainly doesn't measure up to any of those classics, but it's still a very entertaining drama. The moral/ethical decision, in this case, involves lonely Lana Turner trying to choose whether to force her lover Ray Milland to leave his wife (an invalid confined to a wheelchair) or to let him go and leave his marriage intact. Soap opera? Maybe, but it's great stuff to watch on a cold winter afternoon.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Must see if you like Ann Dvorak, July 28, 2006
This review is from: Life of Her Own [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Didn't expect much from this movie as Lana Turner isn't really my cup of tea. More of a Joan Crawford/Bette Davis fan. But really enjoyed the movie and thought Turner quite good and believable when she'd show her hard edge. And yes, a girl like this would be attracted to Milland's goodness/unavailability.
Liked ALOT her moral dilemna and really found myself on the edge of my seat whether she's succomb to the evil guy....who really was also good. And Ann Dvorak! She is a tragic hoot. A great performance by her.
Yeah, the story is pretty dumb...but the performances are really good.
Clothes, my particular passion....ok....Lana was a bit thick in the waste to carry them off.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Turner and Milland in a Fine George Cukor soaper, June 5, 2006
This review is from: Life of Her Own [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This 1950 soap opera is not one of Lana Turner's best-known films but it is one of her best movies. This glossy king-sized film literally opened a new era and new career for Lana, no longer the sweater girl of the forties but now a mature but still glamorous woman specializing in lush morality plays, reaching her apex in the genre at the end of the decade with PEYTON PLACE and IMITATION OF LIFE. A LIFE OF HER OWN is very much in the tradition of those films but had the added bonus of having the legendary director George Cukor at the helm who gives this story more taste and discretion than the somewhat overrated Douglas Sirk in similiar, more celebrated films. Lana stars as a small-town girl who comes to New York with a letter of introduction to a major modeling agency, there she befriends fading model Ann Dvorak who briefly (VERY briefly) takes Lana under her wing. Lana rises quickly to the top of the modeling game and finds herself in a fling with married businessman Ray Milland that isn't so easy to shake off.
This movie is a very engrossing soap with fine performances by Turner and Milland and a showy if brief supporting turn by 1930's starlet Ann Dvorak as a boozing glamour girl on the way out (note the remarkably discreet scene where she bangs on the door of a neighborhood pharmacy after closing hours for "cigarettes" and emerges with not only a carton of smokes but a mysterious second package suggesting liquour was not her only vice.) Also featured in smallish but well played parts are Tom Ewell (in a rare non-comic role), Jean Hagen, and Barry Sullivan, suprisingly successful playing a sleazy playboy. While no classic, "A Life of Her Own" is a remarkable production with a talented cast and director making a truly human story that might have been lurid and false in less capable hands.
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