Another Time, Another Place (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Lewis AllenRelease Date(s)
1958 (March 25, 2026)Studio(s)
Lanturn Productions/Kaydor Productions Ltd (Imprint Films/Via Vision Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: B+
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: B-
Review
[Editor’s Note: This is a Region-Free Australian Blu-ray import.]
As romantic melodramas go, Another Time, Another Place (1958) is pretty decent. Adapted from Lenore Coffee’s 1955 novel Weep No More, it’s a rather emblematically late-1950s production insofar as a) star Lana Turner, like virtually everyone under long-term contract at MGM, was recently released from that studio after 18 years, Turner striking out on her own; and, b) though made in England by a British director with a mostly-British cast, the film was financed by Paramount, using earnings that legally had to spent there.
Until the final scenes, which are not very credible, the movie is involving and well-made, though in one sense the big draw for it today is that it was the first major film role for actor Sean Connery. He gets an “and introducing” credit, though he’d already appeared in five movies before this, most notably Hell Drivers the year before.
Shortly before the end of the Second World War in Europe, American newspaper columnist Sara Scott (Turner) is deeply in love with BBC Radio reporter Mark Trevor (Connery), who as the story opens is reporting live from a London neighborhood were an unexploded V2 rocket is nervously being defused by a bomb squad. She’s engaged to her wealthy American boss, Carter Reynolds (Barry Sullivan), but plans to call it off in order to marry Mark. However, on the night he’s scheduled to fly to Paris with colleague Alan Thompson (Terence Longdon), he reveals that, in fact, he’s actually married. Nevertheless, so strong is their passion they tentatively plan to work through this little difficulty upon his return.
However, Mark’s plane crashes en route, killing him, sending Sara into an emotional tailspin and a stay at a sanatorium. Carter believes she’d be better off returning to New York ASAP, but instead she impulsively decides to visit Mark’s seaside hometown in Cornwall. Overcome in front of Mark’s home, she’s taken in by his unsuspecting widow, Kay (Glynis Johns) and her son, Brian (Martin Stevens, of The Innocents), they completely unaware of Sara’s intimate relationship...
Sara’s morbid obsession with a dead man is compelling and believable, if told in very 1950s terms. Carter, as well as Sara’s co-worker/confidant, Jake Klein (Sidney James, very good in a straight, pre-Carry On dramatic role) worry about her mental health, but for the movie audience, Sara just seems to be taking extreme measures to work through her grief, though the toll this might take on Kay does make Sara appear callously self-centered, especially when she proposes collaborating on a book of Mark’s on-the-scene reports. Somehow, it all hangs together, at least until the climax, the audience aware of only three possible outcomes: Kay accidentally learns of Sara’s relationship with her late husband, Sara finally leaves for New York without Kay ever finding out, or Kay confessing to the relationship. The film version of the novel requires some incredible naiveté on the part of Kay which is absurdly, almost laughably unbelievable, and this damages Another Time, Another Place, at least a little.
The production, however, is quite polished, filmed as it was in VistaVision, and the locations in Polperro, in Cornwall, are rather beguiling, similar to those in the long-running dramedy Doc Martin. Of course, it’s really a star vehicle for Lana Turner, whose immediate film prior to this, Peyton Place, and Imitation of Life, made immediately after, were both monstrous hits that kept her in leading roles for another ten years.
Connery, of course, is ruggedly handsome and okay in the part the entire story pivots around, though his thick Scottish burr—which he tries to hide a little, without much success—makes him a bit improbable as a BBC Radio voice, and he sounds anything but Cornish. Interestingly, both Turner and Johns were considerably older (by nine and seven years, respectively); Turner is photographed, dressed and made-up like a glamourous movie star, whereas Connery looks like he came directly from the working-class pool of hardened truckers in Hell Drivers but they make an interesting pairing. Amusingly, in Connery’s later Thunderball (1965), there’s a funny in-joke, lost on many viewers today, where one of 007’s sex-hungry conquests pleads to go to bed with him again, “Anytime—any place!” to which James Bond responds, “Another time. Another place.”
Also noteworthy was that Another Time, Another Place was made while Turner was dating mobster Johnny Stompanato, none too pleased when he realized his girlfriend was doing love scenes with the likes of Sean Connery. Stompanato threatened Connery with a gun, who instinctively grabbed it away from the gangster. Scotland Yard sent him packing back to the U.S., but six months later, when he threatened to kill Turner and her family after much physical abuse, Turner’s 14-year-old daughter Cheryl fatally stabbed him. Another Time, Another Place was in release at the time.
Australia’s Imprint label has released to Blu-ray an excellent encoding of this black-and-white, 1.85:1 VistaVision production, apparently mastered from the original horizontal 35mm negative. The image is impressively razor-sharp throughout with inky blacks. The LPCM 2.0 mono is likewise strong, and optional English subtitles are provided on this Region-Free disc.
The lone extra is a good, brand-new audio commentary featuring film historians Lee Pfeiffer, Tony Latino, and Paul Scrabo.
It may not be great cinema, but Another Time, Another Place is pretty good with many interesting components, and the video transfer of this super-sharp VistaVision release impresses. Recommended.
- Stuart Galbraith IV