Touches You

Load of rubbish!!

Crappy film

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

If the only reason (or the no.1 reason) you give a wonderful film sequel a bad review, is because none of the original cast returned - aren't you totally missing the point? This is a great film with with a great cast and a good message against bigotry, racism, censorship, hypocrisy and small town insular small mindedness. I enjoyed it immensely and recommend you watch it!

It certainly isn't the old fuddy duddys of Peyton Place, the Vermont town where scandal is still rocking them years after a young girl killed the stepfather who raped her. Like Miss Gulch of "The Wizard of Oz", society seems to be run by the domineering Mrs. Carter (Mary Astor), a vindictive widow who not only despises her son Ted's (Brett Halsey) new wife (Luciana Paluzzi) but uses Selena Cross (Tuesday Weld), the subject of that scandal to try and drive a quick wedge between them all the while going out of her way to prevent a reunion between the girl from the wrong side of the tracks and her spoiled son. Sitting back and watching is Constance McKenzie Rossi (Eleanor Parker) whose daughter Allison (Carol Lynley) has gone off to New York to prepare to have her book published. Influenced by the publisher (Jeff Chandler) to re-write and add more truth to the fictionalized tale of what happened years ago, Allison creates a new scandal and eventually her step-father, principal Mike Rossi (Robert Sterling) is fired for adding the book to the school library and balking at the board's demands that it be removed.The veteran Mary Astor dominates the film with her strong performance as the nasty Roberta, a woman so hard that she has no qualms about destroying her own son rather than see him happy with a woman other than herself. This is an ironic role for Astor who in real life had her own share of scandals which she wrote about in a scandalous diary. The role of Constance has been turned into a supporting one for the veteran Parker (who has recently passed away as of this writing) and is not nearly as flashy as what Lana Turner played in the original. She has one scene with Lynley that is practically identical to one between Joan Crawford and Ann Blyth in "Mildred Pierce". Director Jose Ferrer may not physically appear but his voice is very apparent as one of the minor characters.A beautiful song by Rosemary Clooney brings out the lushness of the landscape (set between Thanksgiving and Christmas) and appropriately sets up the melodrama. There's one truly strange scene which is never resolved between Selena and the ski instructor (Gunnar Hellström) where Selena all of a sudden flashes back to the rape and reacts as strongly as if she had been taken back in time. The movie is far from perfect, and while equally as much of a guilty pleasure as the original, it is missing the strong story detail of the original. A fascinating visual of Allison arriving in New York by train is followed by a detailed view of a New York publishing house that leads to many telling facts of that industry that may seem laughable now that there are too few publishing houses for every ambitious writer, and far too few actual books being released.

Alison (Carol Lynley) from the first movie has her book being picked up to be published. She goes to NY to talk to publisher Lewis Jackman (Jeff Chandler). Even though he's older she falls in love much to the alarm of her mother Connie (Eleanor Parker). Roberta Carter (Mary Astor) is thrilled when her son (Brett Halsey) comes home from college...but is upset that he has a wife (Luciana Paluzzi). Selena Cross (Tuesday Weld) meets "cute" with Swedish ski instructor Nils (Gunnar Hellstrom) but her past comes back to haunt her.Just dreadful sequel. The book was bad too but this movie is even worse! It makes bewildering changes, some characters are left out completely and it ends with plenty of loose ends dangling. It starts out great with Rosemary Clooney singing but quickly falls apart. Bad acting doesn't help. Lynley (who was a wonderful actress) gives a lousy performance as Alison (although the terrible script doesn't help). Chandler is (to be nice) totally bland as her love interest. The scenes between them working on her book are boring and drag. Halsey is handsome and Paluzzi is beautiful but both give bad performances. Hellstrom is good but disappears and reappears with alarming infrequency. Also the story has a strange jokey attitude that's totally at odds with the material. Badly directed by Jose Ferrer too.So why am I giving it two stars? There are three reasons--Eleanor Parker (a VERY underrated actress) is great as Connie; Tuesday Weld (another underrated actress) is affecting as Selena; Astor is just incredible as Roberta. She single handedly brings this movie to life. There are a handful of OK sequences and there is a great town meeting at the end. But, all in all, this is badly cast, deadly dull and not worth seeing at all.

Compared with the original and it's brilliant cast, this sequel is a bit of a mess. Too much of Miss Lynley goes to New York and falls for very bland Jeff Chandler. Who cares. Also, the lack of a kindly Dr. (Lloyd Nolan in the first) strips the town of it's heart.But, on the positive side, Mary Astor is terrific as the ultimate soaper opera version of the evil, possessive, rich, self appointed queen-of-the town. Some great verbal sparing with her new daughter-in-law. And even in defeat, her final, dignified speech is frighteningly prophetic 35 years later. I watch a lot of movies, and this performance took my breath away. Wow!!!!! She is to Soap Operas villains what Alan Rickman is to Action villains.