MovieChat Forums > By Love Possessed (1961) Discussion > This was a mess!

This was a mess!

posted 16 years ago by mojo2004
8 replies | jump to latest

Man was this awful.I kept watching to see if it got better but it didn't.Nothing went on the entire picture.Every one was bland and what was the plot?? Fifteen minutes after the movie starts we find out all the principal characters are miserable but they don't do anything.Things happen from out of nowhere.Ugh it's dreadful.Mitchell,Bell Geddes and Hamilton are father,daughter and grandson.You never hear Bell Geddes and Hamilton speak to each other even when they are in the same scene yet she says she loves him.Hamilton not once says grandfather although they are a rich blue blood family all working in the same law firm and Hamilton ends up in deep legal trouble.Hamilton does interact with his father Zimalist but it's still awful.I was embarrassed for this cast.the person that did the score should be shot!

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] artistathome 7 years ago

I agree. it sure was a mess.

[–] Fleur_de_lis 7 years ago

Agreed. On paper, this film should have been great camp at a minimum, but it couldn't even manage that.

[–] lwalker-04596 7 years ago

I just saw this on the classic movie channel and unfortunately it was everything you said. What a waste of a talented group of actors. And ditto about the movie score!

[–] bnwfilmbuff 7 years ago

Typical late 50s early 60s overly melodramatic soap opera. There's no reason to care for any of these characters. There's just layer upon layer of pitiful situations.

[–] montano8 7 years ago

Agreed, this movie was brutal to watch, I kept laughing every time the overwrought and overly loud score soared. Ouch!

[–] Adam60z (3750) 4 years ago

Hi mojo, hope you're still here after 12 years, but anyway I agree. Just watched this piece of junk because it had an all star cast and liked the era (1960s). I mean it's hard to imagine a film more ill-conceived. The script was all over the place and half baked, they compensated with overly dramatic dated violin music. The only reason this might have been worth seeing is to see Yvonne Craig play a "tramp", but she only had a few minutes of screen time. The rest, yes, even with legends like Jason Robards, was totally worthless.
However, there is one thing this film is known for: it was the first in-flight movie ever shown. TWA showed it in 1961 to 1st class passengers. I would definitely have flown coach!