Peyton Place

Peyton Place looks like a quiet New England town, but the respectability of its leading families hides a great deal. Constance MacKenzie, who runs a dress shop and raises her daughter Allison alone, keeps a close watch on her own behaviour because of a past she wants to forget. She is drawn to Michael Rossi, the new school principal, while Allison, eager for a freedom the town denies her, falls for Norman Page, a young man dominated by his mother. The town's darker side is felt most sharply by Allison's friend Selena Cross, who suffers at the hands of her drunken stepfather, Lucas. What begins as gossip and small-town hypocrisy grows into violence and a public reckoning.

Mark Robson directed this adaptation of Grace Metalious's novel from a screenplay by John Michael Hayes, with Jerry Wald producing. It was Robson's seventh film as director, made between The Harder They Fall and The Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Lana Turner plays Constance, Hope Lange is Selena, and Lee Philips appears as Rossi, alongside Lloyd Nolan, Diane Varsi as Allison and Arthur Kennedy as Lucas.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.2 from around 7,200 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.7 from a much smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 7 out of 10 from 20 reviews places it close to the audience score on IMDb. Its running time of 157 minutes reflects the breadth of the novel it condenses.