Lively, entertaining reviews of, and essays on, old and newer films and everything relating to them, written by professional author William Schoell.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE

Sean Connery and Lana Turner as lovers
ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE (1958). Director: Lewis Allen.

"Odd, how the presence of someone you love can make a whole place beautiful."

In 1945 London reporter Sara Scott (Lana Turner) falls in love with BBC journalist Mark Trevor (Sean Connery). Unfortunately, Mark tells Sara that he is already married. Sara will never find out if Mark would have stayed with Sara or gone back to his wife, Kay (Glynis Johns), because he's killed in a plane crash shortly after his disclosure. After some time recuperating from her grief in a sanitarium, Sara travels to Cornwall where Mark lived and in a rather contrived development winds up meeting, and then living with, Mark's widow and his young son, Brian (Martin Stephens). The plot is pure soap opera, but it does present an intriguing situation, if only the characters were more dimensional (especially Sara) and if the script rose above its fairly trite level. Turner is okay, but she only indicates whatever her character is feeling without really exploring it, but Glynis Johns [The Vault of Horror] is excellent as Mark's widow. Although Sean Connery [Marnie] was "introduced"in this film, he'd appeared in several movies before this, and gives a more than satisfactory performance as Mark, convincingly making love to Turner, who was ten years or so older at the time. Barry Sullivan [Night Gallery] has the thankless role of Sara's boss, who has been in love with Sara for some time, and was even engaged to her before she met and fell in love with Mark. Sullivan is meant to be a stoic type who keeps his emotions to himself, but he adds no nuances or complexities to his performance, albeit his part is also underwritten. Johns and Connery come off the best, with a nod to little Martin Stephens, who is very good and charming as Brian.

Verdict: "Another Movie" -- or script --  might have helped, but this has its moments. **1/2.

2 comments:

angelman66 said...

Hi Bill, I bet I will like this one more than you do...I am a huge fan of Miss Turner, she can do no wrong in my book; can't believe I have never seen this one with Connery. Something to look forward to!
-Chris

William said...

Yes, this one you gotta grab! I prefer Turner in "A Life of Her Own" -- I think that's the title -- but she isn't really bad in this as such. She and Connery make a more effective and believable team than you might imagine. Some critics found Connery wooden, but I thought he was fine.