A Life of Her Own (1950)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

George Cukor

Writer:

Isobel Lennart (written by)

Release Date:

1 September 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe.

Cast

Lana Turner	...	Lily Brannel James
Ray Milland	...	Steve Harleigh
Tom Ewell	...	Tom Caraway
Louis Calhern	...	Jim Leversoe
Ann Dvorak	...	Mary Ashlon
Barry Sullivan	...	Lee Gorrance
Margaret Phillips	...	Nora Harleigh
Jean Hagen	...	Maggie Collins
Phyllis Kirk	...	Jerry
Sara Haden	...	Smitty
Hermes Pan	...	Specialty Dancer

Also Known As:

The Abiding Vision (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Goofs:

Continuity: Lily James appears as "Top Model" on the cover of a Life magazine being read by Jim Leversoe. The scene immediately dissolves to the cover of the same Life magazine in a plane with Steve Harleigh, but the cover shot of the Life magazine on the plane is an entirely different pose (but the same outfit and hairdo).

Quotes:

Mary Ashlon: Nobody can help anybody.

Dull drama with bad chemistry of Turner and Milland...

Nothing much happens in A LIFE OF HER OWN to make anyone understand why a director as famous as George Cukor would bother to direct this potboiler after reading the script. And even more questionable is why MGM chose this script for Lana's return to the screen after a two-year absence. She's supposed to be a young woman who sweeps into the big city looking for a model agency that will hire her and immediately clicks as a top fashion model even though she lacks the fresh-faced beauty anyone would expect in a New York model. So much for credibility.

Nor can one understand why there is absolutely no chemistry between LANA TURNER (beginning to look matronly at 30) and RAY MILLAND, who had already seen better days at his home studio, Paramount. The characters they play, a model and a successful, married businessman, are cardboard through and through with nothing about them to stir the interest in a long soap opera with a bittersweet ending.

ANN DVORAK has a brief role at the start, but as soon as she meets her fate we get a sluggish introduction to RAY MILLAND's character and the film simply goes on and on at great length until it's disclosed that he has a crippled wife at home that Turner feels needs his attention more than she does, before she walks off nobly into the night.

This kind of stuff wouldn't have been fashionable even fifteen years prior and it just meanders all over the place before it gets to that final scene. Not recommended for fans of Turner or Milland.