Anderson's movie is derivative.It looks like lite Douglas Sirk: the spoiled kid sister (played by Susan Kohner who worked with Sirk) is not unlike Marylee (Dorothy Malone) in "Written on the wind" ;besides ,Ruby's funeral will fatally make you think of that of Annie in "Imitation of life" ,a black choir singing "Free at last" replacing Mahalia Jackson.The screenwriters also borrow from Kazan's "splendor in the grass" as far as the two leads' fate is concerned.And the baby trick was used a hundred times or more in the thirties and forties melodramas (notably Bette Davis' "the big lie" and "the old maid" ;Olivia De Havilland' s "to each his own").
Having said this,one must credit Natalie Wood for making the best of the stereotyped part of a go-getter;Robert Wagner's moody looks work wonders too when he plays the trumpet and in the scene when he backs Pearl Bailey's impressive vocals.
This is the kind of movie they don't do anymore;this is the kind of story which could go on and on and on and on;in a word,it's the perfect soap opera ,and it still exists today in the form of the TV series.
Like this?try these.......
Peyton Place Mark Robson 1957
Imitation of life Douglas Sirk 1959
Having said this,one must credit Natalie Wood for making the best of the stereotyped part of a go-getter;Robert Wagner's moody looks work wonders too when he plays the trumpet and in the scene when he backs Pearl Bailey's impressive vocals.
This is the kind of movie they don't do anymore;this is the kind of story which could go on and on and on and on;in a word,it's the perfect soap opera ,and it still exists today in the form of the TV series.
Like this?try these.......
Peyton Place Mark Robson 1957
Imitation of life Douglas Sirk 1959