Peyton Place: A Nice Place for a Creep to Live

If you’ve never heard of Peyton Place have no fear. At this late date, fifty two years after the film’s initial release, the Lana Turner feature isn’t often mentioned in passing conversation. With that being understood, though, David Lynch used to film as a sort of theoretical basis for his Twin Peaks series that was eventually expanded into a theatrical presentation on the big screen.

What Lynch’s work did was to set up a traditional and idyllic small town – in the Northwest as opposed to Peyton Place’s Northeastern setting – but have each of its inhabitants truck in some unseemly stuff. It wasn’t the first time such an idea had been proffered on the big or little screen, but Lynch, being vocal as he was about Peyton Place’s influence, was able to expose a new fan base to the ‘50s drama.

There’s no murder to begin Peyton Place even as Lynch used the killing of Laura Palmer as a jumping off point to his series – just wait for it though. The story features a slew of characters – kinda like a Mayberry, except that there’s double dealing, incest and unhappiness rampant in the town.

Pretty early on viewers and Allison, the film’s main character (kinda), are privy to witnessing the rape of Selena Cross at the hands of her drunken, vagrant step father. Oddly enough, coinciding with the rape is a poignant sounding of a train whistle as the conveyance pushes through a tunnel. The contrast was most likely lost on viewers of the ‘50s, but it’s a pretty blatant sexual image.

As surprising as that single scene was, the second half of the film gets a bit more lusty as the school’s new principal takes a liking to Allison’s mother – Constance (Lana Turner). But as the Turner character has a secret, she can’t bring herself to find love again. Bummer.

In a surprising twist, after most of the men in town hit the road as WWII kicks off, Selena’s step father returns after having been chased out of town by the doctor who “assisted” with a miscarriage stemming from that familial rape. Lucas has apparently been off in the Navy, which has afforded him the ability to get good and soused. Arriving on Christmas, he instantly finds Selena to be more enticing than even before. The two tussle and knock over the Christmas tree – hopefully that image didn’t escape viewers – before Selena beats Lucas to death with the wooden leg of a table.

Peyton Place culminates in a lengthy trial which seems to have only one end – Selena being convicted of murder seeing as she’s hidden the sexual abuse of her step father from everyone but that pesky doctor. Having sworn him to secrecy, though, the final few minutes of the film and the trial are given over to his testimony. What are the repercussions going to be in this quant town when and if everyone finds out that Selena’s been spoiled?

The answer to that isn’t the point of the film, but the damning words of the doctor, related to the town’s people is.