A LIFE OF HER OWN
US, 1950, 104 minutes. Black and white.
Lana Turner, Ray Milland, Louis Calhern, Barry Sullivan, Anne Dvorak, Tom Ewell, Jean Hagen, Phyllis Kirk, Margaret Phillips.
Directed by George Cukor.
A Life of Her Own is a glamorous ‘women’s picture’. It is a star vehicle for Lana Turner, twenty-nine years old at the time, but already the star of such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice, Green Dolphin Street and The Three Musketeers. Ray Milland had won an Oscar for The Lost Weekend five years earlier. They are an unexpected and unusual romantic team.
There is a very strong supporting cast. George Cukor, veteran and celebrated film director, made Adam’s Rib and Born Yesterday at this time.
The film is franker and more outspoken in its theme of an adulterous relationship than might have been expected of a 1950 film. However, it also offers a strong moral tone towards the end (spoken by Louis Calhern) and the couple have to face the reality of the consequences of their relationship. The heroine also has to face the reality of success in her modelling career and it not being enough – and reasserting the will to live.
1.A popular MGM glossy women’s picture of 1950? In its time? Appeal – despite the look and the style of the period?
2.Black and white photography, New York City, the glamorous world? The musical score? Popular songs?
3.The title, Lily at the beginning, her hard life in Kansas, the struggle, the saving of the money, her going to New York to be a successful model, her drive? Superficial beauty? Tom recognising strength of character? Her having to make decisions, the experience with Mary, with Steve, with Lee? It almost getting the better of her? Her final determination to have a life of her own?
4.Lily’s career, going to the agency, the encounters with Tom, watching him teach, listening to his advice, the other agencies, the encounter with Mary, observing her, being with her before she died, the gift of the shoe (and later smashing it)? Her career taking off? Success?
5.Steve, his friendship with Jim, the dinner, his being from Montana, mining, rich? His dates, phone calls, the outing, the meal, helping with the young man and his car? The affair? Setting up Lily, the apartment? The assumption that they were married? His return, the gift of the brooch, Jim not including the card, her anger? His return, her ignoring him – and then succumbing? The effect of the affair? His birthday, the party, his wife coming? Her drunken party? His arrival? Her determination to explain things to Norah, going with Jim, meeting Norah, seeing her on the floor, the talk, the understanding? Her remembering Mary? Steve and his return, his being with his wife, caring for her, the accident? Her loving him? Lily hearing that his project had gone bust?
6.Lee, dating Mary, the advertising business, Lily calling him a rat? His coming to her at the end – and her moving away from him?
7.The world of modelling, the other models, would-bes? Maggie and her boy, the friendship with Lily and helping her? Jerry and her friendship? Tom and his running of the agency – and his understanding her, apologising to her, trying to warn her?
8.Jim, working with Steve, friendship, his love for Norah, helping her, the moral advice and putting the issues of marriage and breaking of marriage clearly to her?
9.The issues of love, affairs, adultery? In the manner of 1950? The frankness? The breaking up of the marriage, the audience sympathising with Lily, with Norah and her accident? Attitude towards Steve? The decision not to break up the marriage?
10.The finale, the title, Lily on her own, looking at the flat where Mary had committed suicide, crushing the shoe? Walking back into a life of her own?
