Lana Turner

** CONTAINS SPOILERS When HOLLY PARKER, a San Francisco shop girl, marries wealthy CLAYTON ANDERSON, it seems like a fairy tale, especially when he drives her up to the family mansion, complete with staff. Claytons domineering, possessive mother, ESTELLE, affects happiness for her son, but shes jealous and suspicious of Holly, suspecting that shell damage her ambitious sons rise in politics. The first few years of the marriage pass with relative success, and they have a child, CLAY JR., and although there are moments of joy, Holly begins to resent the large amounts of time that her husband spends away on business. Subtly manipulated by Estelle, Holly keeps up her social obligations, soon drifting into an affair with PHIL BENTON. When she tries to break it off with Benton, he becomes violent, accidentally falling down his apartment stairs to his death. Panicking, Holly flees the scene, leaving behind evidence that she was there. At home, Holly runs into Estelle, whose private detective knows of Hollys presence at the scene of Bentons death. Holly wants to tell the truth to Clay, whos out of town, but Estelle warns that it will destroy his career if Holly is accused of murder. Offering an alternative, Estelle demands that Holly fake her death in a boating accident and disappear to Europe, where a bank account will be set up for the rest of her life. Holly agrees reluctantly, says a tearful farewell to both husband and child, then goes ahead with the plan. In Europe, Holly tries to start a new life with a pseudonym and new hair-do, but the pain of separation follows her everywhere, and she soon collapses in the snow, found by pianist CHRISTIAN, who takes her to his villa. Holly convalesces, and although a warm relationship grows between her and Christian, she knows she can never marry him. Indeed, she eventually leaves him, referring to herself as "dead." Holly becomes an alcoholic, eventually landing in a cheap Mexican motel. There, she meets DAN SULLIVAN, a con man, who soon suspects the truth of her past. When he tries to manipulate her into a blackmail scheme against Clayton Anderson û now a New York gubernatorial candidate û a horrified Holly refuses. When Dan insists, Holly shoots him fatally. Arrested for murder, Holly slips into catatonia, refusing to speak, booked under the name "Madame X." Her case is turned over to a young public defender, who she does not realize is her son, Clay Jr., grown up! Clay Jr. feels an unaccountable love for this mysterious woman, and he tries her case. Meanwhile, Clay Sr. and Estelle watch from the courtroom, gradually suspecting that Madame X might be Holly. Holly/Madame X, meanwhile, addicted to absinthe, is gravely ill, barely able to endure the arduous trial. Holly soon finds out who Clay Jr. is, feels proud of what he has become, but doesnt divulge it to him, preferring to keep alive his memory of a fine, upstanding mother. She talks of a son she has abandoned, never telling Clay Jr. that hes the one. Meanwhile, Clay Sr. and Estelle also realize who Madame X is, but keep silent. Collapsing in court and carried to a back room, Holly tells Clay Jr. that she loves him just like a son, then dies in his arms. A devastated Clay Jr., uncertain why he feels such love for a virtual stranger, feels theres no use going on with the trial, but Clay Sr., knowing the truth but keeping Hollys secret, tells him its more important than hell ever know û indeed, without

Rich playgirl Kit Jordan (nee Katherine Lawson Chandler) is in Acapulco vacationing with her current husband, Pete Jordan, formerly an American beach boy working the Acapulco shores for rich women. Meanwhile, the body of one of Pete's fellow beach boys, Billy Andrews, washes to shore. On his wrist is a bracelet engraved with "Love is thin ice." The police investigate whether it was murder or suicide. Conflict arises when Billy's old girlfriend, Carol, makes a play for Pete, and beach boy Hank tries to score with Kit, and the stability of the marriage is put to the test. —K. Jackson <kjackson@moon.jic.com> The dead body of a young man is discovered washed ashore the beach in Acapulco, the victim identified as American Billy Andrews. His death, which Lt. Riccardo Andrade is investigating, points to it being a possible suicide. The focus then moves to the circle in which he was known to travel as a beach gigolo, he among the stable of men who prey upon primarily middle age, wealthy female tourists. The center of this circle now revolves around the married Jordons, Kit and Pete, the latter who used to be among those gigolos and the former who used to use their services and who "dated" Billy before she met and married Pete. They now provide guidance to any of the beach community who needs help. While Pete does not take advantage of Kit and her money, Kit is more dependent on him emotionally, she arguably unable to handle it if he were ever to leave her. The king of the gigolos is now Hank Walker, who mentors another younger man, Chuck Austin. Hank not only uses sex to make money, but uses it to make money in a worse way in blackmail if the opportunity arises, his latest target being middle age American Margot Eliot, who is more aware of the situation than Hank may realize. Hank also has his sights set back on Kit, as a local source of money in seeing the easy street in which Pete seems to live. Also arriving onto the scene is Billy's former girlfriend, American Carol Lambert, in her search for him. As a bond of sorts forms between Pete and Carol, the question then becomes if the Jordons' marriage can withstand this intrusion, especially on the somewhat shaky foundation on which it was built. —Huggo

Lola Meredith (Lana Turner), a widow with a six-year-old daughter, named Susie, has come to New York City in hopes of becoming a famous actress. But after several weeks, she has found no work and lives in a cold-water flat. One summer day, Lora loses Susie on the Coney Island beach but finds her safe with Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), a young black woman who is also a widow, and Annie's mixed-race light-skinned eight-year-old daughter Sarah Jane. Susie and Sarah Jane become quick friends, as do Lora and Annie. Since Annie has no place to live, she offers to become Lora's servant and nanny. Lora cannot afford to pay her, but allows Annie and the delighted Sarah Jane to move in. On the beach, Lora also meets Steve Archer (John Gavin), an aspiring photographer who takes a picture of the two girls. He attracted to Lora and courts her. Meanhile, Lora looks for jobs while Annie takes care of the kids, does the housework, and takes on menial jobs to help pay their rent. But Annie worries about Sarah Jane who tries to pass as white because she is embarrassed about having a black mother. Lora lies her way into the office of agent Allen Loomis (Robert Alda) to try to hire him to land acting jobs. He realizes that she is a fraud, but promises to make her a star if she will do everything he tells her, no mater how low. Lora doesn't want to be cheapened and walks out on him. When she tells Steve what went on, he tells Lora to hold onto her dreams. However, when Steve sells the photo of the girls, he takes a job with a magazine and asks Lora to marry him and give up acting. She accepts his proposal, but changes her mind when Loomis gets her a job with famous director David Edwards (Dan O'Herlihy). As a result, Steve and Lora break up. When Lora tells Edwards what is wrong with her small scene, he is impressed and gives her the lead role. Lora is a success and she soon becomes Edwards's lover. Ten years later, Lora has become a big acting star by appearing in all of Edwards's Broadway plays. Lorna, Annie and their two daughters now teenagers 16-year-old Susie (Sandra Dee) and 18-year-old Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner) all move in together in a large, lovely house in Manhattan. But, surprisingly, Lora is unfulfilled with her life. She breaks away from Edwards and starts in a working-class play with low-income. Steve comes to visit Lora to her celebration party after her latest play, Annie, Sarah Jane and Susie are all happy to see him. Lora hints to Steve that she would like to get back together with him, but her work obsession drive them apart. Susie is also becoming disenchanted with her mother for not spending more time with her. She goes to Annie with her problems. When Lora goes abroad to Europe to star in a movie, Steve takes care of Susie, who falls in love with him. When Lora returns and it becomes evident to Susie that Steve loves Lora and they'll marry, she and her mother have a falling out. Meanwhile Annie's health deteriorates as Sarah Jane draws away from her. Sarah Jane tries to pass herself off as white by dating a local high school boy, but when the white boyfriend finds out that he is actually mixed-race, he physically beats her up and dumps her. Sarah Jane goes into a deep depression and takes a job as a dancer in a sleazy nightclub until Annie informs the manager that she's black to get her fired. Afterwords, Sarah Jane tells Annie that she doesn't want to see her ever again and flees town. Steve tracks Sarah Jane to Las Vegas where she is working as a local showgirl. Now extremely ill (presumbably from cancer) Annie travels to Las Vegas to visit Sarah Jane. She promises to stay out of Sarah Jane's life, but tells her daughter to come back to New York to visit her or Lora if she ever needs help. Sarah Jane hugs her mother goodbye and appears sad to see her go. A few weeks later, Annie dies and Lora is heartbroken that her best friend has passed away. Just as Annie wanted, there is a glorious funeral, attended by thousands of mourners. A tearful and guilty Sarah Jane appears and runs up to her coffin, admitting to everyone that she is Annie's daughter and that she is black. Sarah Jane rides off with Lora, Susie and Steve back to their home.

An American war correspondent falls in love with a BBC reporter, but their relationship seems doomed from the start. In London, 1945, BBC radio correspondent Mark Trevor broadcasts to his listeners the details surrounding the disarmament of an unexploded German V-2 rocket. He is soon joined in the field by Sara Scott, a foreign correspondent for The New York Standard . The two journalists have been lovers for three weeks, and although Sara declares her undying love for him, Mark is hesitant to state his true affections for her. Later, in her hotel room, Mark tells Sara how he grew up in the small English village of St. Giles and joined the BBC prior to the outbreak of World War II, but Sara points out that eleven years are missing from his life story. After Mark finally professes his love, Sara confesses that she is engaged to her boss, American newspaper publisher Carter Reynolds. Before she can break her engagement, however, Mark admits that he is married. Carter then arrives in London on his way to Paris, and quickly recognizes the sudden alienation of Sara's affections. He offers to take her with him to Paris or back to New York, but the heartbroken Sara insists on staying in London until she can settle her personal life. Following the German army's surrender in Italy, Mark is transferred to Paris, but before he leaves, he and Sara have one final meeting at which they proclaim their eternal love to each other. The next morning, Carter rushes to be with Sara before the BBC announces Mark's death, as he was just killed in an airplane crash. Sara then suffers a nervous breakdown and is institutionalized in a nursing home for six weeks. With the war now over, Carter offers to send Sara home on an ocean cruise following her convalescence, but she decides takes a train to St. Giles before setting sail for America. Arriving in the seaside town, Sara is unable to find any accommodations, as the post-war surge in tourism has filled all the local inns, but she meets Mark's young son Brian by chance and is soon invited to dinner by her dead lover's unsuspecting widow Kay. Though Kay offers her lodgings for the night, the grief-stricken Sara cannot stand being surrounded by Mark's things and bolts from the home. The next morning, Sara is found on the docks unconscious and is carried back to Kay's house, where she is ordered to rest by the local physician. Kay then convinces Sara to stay on in St. Giles and write a book about Mark, still unaware that Sara was her husband's mistress. Later, Sara is shocked to see Alan Thompson, Mark's childhood friend and co-worker, who somehow survived the plane crash that took her lover's life. Though he promises to keep her secret, Alan asks Sara to leave St. Giles before Kay learns the truth about her relationship with Mark. Meanwhile, back in New York, Carter is informed by Dr. Aldridge, Sara's physician at the nursing home, of her current whereabouts, and he rushes to St. Giles in hopes of bringing Sara home. Upon their first meeting, Carter and Alan quickly realize that they are in similar positions, as they both love women who are in love with the same dead man. Following an evening at the cinema, Kay questions Alan about her husband's final weeks, and she soon surmises that Mark was having an affair. Learning this, Sara confesses all to Kay, but tells the widow that Mark had ended their affair and was planning to return to his wife and child. The next morning, Kay, relieved, rushes to the train station to say goodbye to a thankful Sara, who then promises to send Brian a photograph from the top of the Empire State building.

In London, in 1887, prominent physician Henry Jekyll incurs the ire of his older colleagues because of his experiments and views on the possibility of separating the good and evil aspects of man's nature. Hanry is deeply in love with Beatrix Emery, the daughter of Sir Charles Emery, who likes Henry, but is concerned over his radical ideas and open display of affection for Bea. Henry throws himself into his work and has enough success experimenting with rabbits and guinea pigs to make him confident that the serun he has developed will work for humans. Hoping to try the serum out on Sam Higgins, a man who went mad after being in a gas works explosion, Henry rushes to the hospital but discovers that Higgins has just died. Henry then decides to take the serum himself and is briefly transformed, in both thought and countenance, into an evil alter ego. After taking an antidote to turn himself back to normal, Henry tells his butler, Poole, that strange voice he heard was a "Mr. Hyde". Just then, Sir Charles, accompanied by Bea, comes for a visit and announces that he will be taking Bea to the Continent to give Henry time to consider his position. Despite his loneliness during Bea's absence, Henry refrains from further experimentation until he gets a letter from Bea explaining that their trip is being extended because of Sir Charles' health. After taking another dose of the serum, Henry again turns into Hyde and goes to a music hall, where hees a baramid Ivy Peterson, an beautiful, sensual young woman whom he rescued from an attacker some weeks before. When summoned to Hyde's table, Ivy does not recognize him as Henry, but becomes frightened and screams, causing a brawl to erupt among the customers. Hyde later secretly asks the proprietor to fire Ivy and, despite her reluctance, insists on taking her home in a carriage, where he forces himself on her. Some time later, Bea is concerned that Henry has not written to her in weeks, but hides her worries from her father, who decides that she and Henry may marry, after all. Meanwhile, Ivy, who has been set up in a flat by Hyde, lives in constant fear of him. Her friend Marcia is shocked when she accidentally sees welts on Ivy's back, and when Hyde suddenly comes to the flat, he behaves particularly cruelly toward Ivy. Soon Henry learns that Bea has just returned and determines never to take the serum again. He then sends an anonymous gift of fifty pounds to Ivy and melts down the key to the street entrance of his laboratory, which "Hyde" has been using. That afternoon, Henry meets Bea at a museum and is overjoyed that Sir Charles now agrees to their imminent marriage. When Henry returns home, Ivy is waiting in his patient's room because Marcia and her boyfriend had recommended him. Ivy recognizes Henry as the man who was once kind to her, but momentarily has an uneasy feeling about him. When she shows him her scars and he realizes what Hyde has done to her, Henry is ashamed and soothingly promises her that she will never see Hyde again. That night, as Henry happily strolls across the park toward Bea's house, he suddenly turns into Hyde, without having taken the serum. He then goes to Ivy's flat and finds her celebrating her freedom from him. He repeats words that she had spoken to Henry, she becomes hysterical with fright and screams, but he strangles her to death before the neighbors can summon the police. He then rushes to the outher door of the laboratory but realizes that the key was destroyed. Poole will not admit him through the front door, so, in desperation Hyde goes to Dr. John Lanyon, Henry's good friend. After demanding the medications that work as an antidote, Hyde transforms back into Henry, to John's shock and horror. Henry reveals everything to John, then goes to Bea to break their engagement. She refueses to accept that they cannot be married, and he leaves, then returns as Hyde. She faints, but her initial scream has roused Sir Charles, whom Hyde then beats to death with his walking stick. Now desperate, Hyde pushes past Poole at Henry's front door and goes to the laboratory to take more antidote. As Sir Charles's body is examined by the police, John sees Henry's cane and realizes what must have happened. He then takes the police to Henry's house where they break down the door of the laboratory just after Hyde has taken the antidote and turned back into Henry. Henry says that Hyde was there but left, but in his anxiety under John accusations that he, indeed, is Sir Charles's murderer, Henry quickly transforms back into Hyde. While attempting to fight off the police and flee, he is mortally wounded, and as he dies, his demeanor changes back into Henry.