Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: "PEYTON PLACE" on DVD

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-08-2004, 03:07 PM:

Kids who never read a book in their lives were reading Grace Metalious's "PEYTON PLACE" during my junior year in high school back in 1956-57. I also read the book and enjoyed it very much. I remember how explicit it was about rape and incest and how I had to read it behind my parent's back because of the sordid reviews the book was receiving in the newspapers as well as radio and TV. After reading "PEYTON PLACE", I learned about the movie they were going to make based on it and wondered how will they be able to do it when the motion picture industry was still controlled by strict codes regarding sexual materials. Although there were no nudity and crude language found in today's films, 20th Century Fox managed to pull it off and created a great film that still preserved the actual mood of the original novel. "PEYTON PLACE" opened in December 1957 and was still playing at the Kuhio Theatre here in Honolulu when my senior class had it's banquet in Waikiki a few months later in May. After the function, several of my classmates and I went to the Kuhio and enjoyed the film very much. Not only was the film great, but it has always held a special place in my heart because of the memories of that wondeful evening I had enjoyed with my friends before we graduated a few weeks later.

Although I already have "PEYTON PLACE" on laserdisc, I was looking forward to the DVD because of the extras Fox had included on the disc. The movie itself is on one side of a double sided disc and the extra material is on the opposite side. The extra stuff includes a AMC Backstory on the film as well as trailers and Fox Movietone newsclips on the premiere and a Photoplay magazine award. The movie features a commentary by two of the film's cast, Terry Moore and Russ Tamblyn and is very enjoyable and informative. The movie is in it's original 2.35.1 CinemaScope ratio and is 16X9 enhanced. Parts of the film look faded but there are many other segments that look great. I consider the picture quality a little bit better than the laserdisc. The film's original four track mag stereo soundtrack is reproduced in Dolby 4.0 and still retains it's original directional sound in the front soundfield and is wonderful.

-Claude

[ 03-09-2004, 03:01 AM: Message edited by: Claude S. Ayakawa ]