BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

MartinHafer "Where Love Has Gone" is a bad movie. The characters are pretty much one-dimensional, the acting is about as subtle as a baseball at upside your head and the script is salacious and sleazy...yet, this film is incredibly entertaining because it's so over-the-top! Subtle, this movie ain't!! The film begins with a killing that I am sure was modeled after the true-life killing of Lana Turner's husband by her daughter from a previous marriage. Though the details aren't 100% certain, it sure bears a lot of similarity to the start of this film. It was a HUGE and very sensational story back in the 50s--and now the tale is being brought to the screen--in a story that has many, many changes from the original true tale.The next portion of the film is a long flashback. Susan Hayward lives with her very rich and extremely controlling and manipulative mother (Bette Davis). She's very unhappy yet she doesn't leave...though she longs for change. When a guy comes into her life (Chuck Connors), Hayward is smitten. Why? Because when Davis tries to wrap him around her finger, he tells her to take her money and stuff it! However, he has no idea that this is what made Hayward love him.Shortly after they marry, Connors' self-esteem is in the toilet. Behind his back, she made sure he'd fail in business and would be forced to work for her company. As a result of this, Connors is disheartened and starts to hit the bottle. And, because he's no longer the virile man who stood up to Davis, Hayward has contempt for him and his weakness--and their marriage fizzles. Soon, he's drunk all the time and she's whoring about with one boy-toy after another. Not surprisingly, they divorce--and the rest is history. These jerks apparently created the poor girl killer (Joey Heatherton) and the rest of the film is about the family trying to pick up the pieces. Who is best to raise this teen killer--the highly unstable and oversexed mother, the ex-alcoholic or the evil controlling mother? How it all ends is,....well....incredible! The plot idea isn't terrible. The problem is that the writing NEVER approaches subtlety or grace-and the ending is just WAAAY over the top!! It's full of screaming, sleaze and, well, a few more doses of sleaze! It's also hilariously preachy. The PRETENDS to be a morality tale to teach parents not to neglect their poor kids, but it's a very, very thin sort of veil for a bucket of steaming..., um,...soap. But it's also very entertaining and you can't keep your eyes off it--like a funny train wreck (if there could be such a thing). And, a lot like "Peyton Place".By the way, if you care, DeForrest Kelley is also in the film in a supporting role. And, oddly, he comes off the best of any of them--playing the role like he's NOT a combination of constipated and intensely mad!

Bolesroor When I was a kid in the 80's, every woman came to the beach equipped with three things: sunglasses, sun tan lotion, and a trashy paperback novel as big as my head. "Where Love Has Gone" reminds me of one of those novels: melodramatic, convoluted, and somewhat absurd.This is not to say it's a bad movie, but it's definitely a guilty pleasure, an acquired taste... The people most likely to watch this film today are fans of Bette Davis, fans of Susan Hayward, and Star Trek fans enjoying the appearance DeForest "Bones" Kelly before he was stationed on the Enterprise. I fit into all three categories and still I must admit I was less than impressed with the film, which tells the tale of a domineering society mother who creates and destroys her daughter's marriage for the "good of the family name." The acting is over-the-top, the dialogue is stilted, and the story is about as cheesy as they come. The movie's finale- a shocking courtroom confessional- bears little resemblance to anything that has ever happened here on Earth.But maybe that's the charm of this movie… maybe it wasn't made for the time capsule or for intense critical examination. Maybe it was only made to pass an afternoon in 1964, and maybe that's enough. Just like those paperbacks: It may not be the greatest novel ever written, but you have to admit it's great to be at the beach.GRADE: C-

wendellfountain Since this is 2011, one can tell the quality of the film has deteriorated significantly; however, the terrific cast made it worth watching. After writing, starring, directing, and producing a low budget movie (Grazia) myself, I have a true appreciation of the challenge. One can easily see why this is an American movie classic, because Susan Hayward, Bette Davis, Mike Connors, and even Joey Heatherton made the movie an unforgettable work of art. For me, Susan Hayward has always been one of my favorite actresses. Mike Connors, later to be Mannix on TV, is a fine actor in his own right. The fact that the film was based on actual incidents lends credibility.

phillindholm And that's not ALL poor Joey Heatherton's lost, in this lurid melodrama adapted from the Harold Robbins novel. Produced by Schlockmeister Joseph E. Levine (''The Carpetbaggers'') ''Where Love Has Gone is a VERY thinly disguised dramatization of the Lana Turner/Cheryl Crane/Johnny Stompanato case in which he was supposedly stabbed to death by Lana's daughter Cheryl. Here, the central figure is a famous sculptress (Susan Hayward) who resents her domineering mother (Bette Davis) and spends most of her time in the sack with various low-life lovers. Heatherton is her neglected teenage daughter, whose estranged father (Michael Connors) flies to her defense when she is accused of the murder. This leads to a lengthy flashback which shows, in detail, the courtship, marriage and eventual divorce he and Hayward endure.And, back in the present (where no one involved looks a day older, let alone wiser) things get worse, as one sordid revelation after another leads all of this to it's laughably melodramatic conclusion. Davis, who reputedly didn't like the script (or Hayward either, for that matter)and sporting a white wig and very thick eye makeup,reads her lines like an elocution school teacher, while Hayward bellows hers so loudly that people who saw this in a theater could probably hear them in the bathroom.And it's Hayward we have to thank for this exercise in excess, because she insisted the script be filmed as written-refusing any changes. Heatherton, trying (and failing) to look 15 yeas old, does little more than pout her way through her part, while occasionally delivering some howlers: ''Oh, Daddy, what's wrong with me? I love all the wrong people-and I HATE all the right ones!''. Oh Yes, and blaming the loss of her virginity on ''Horseback Riding''?. Connors, a few years away from ''Mannix'' is just there. ''Star Trek's'' DeForest Kelly is around as a sleazy art critic, while Film Noir bad girl Jane Greer (making a comeback after a heart operation)is a reserved, but concerned probation officer.And it's Greer, along with Anne Seymour (''All The King's Men'')as a psychiatrist, who give the best performances.This was pretty Hot Stuff for 1964, though less so these days. Despite the box office success it had, it's largely forgotten now.A new DVD has just been released by Olive Films, And the plush Technicolor production is something to see-remastered for the first time in all it's Widescreen Glory. And in spite of (or ,maybe because of) it's Producer attempt to cash in on what was really a very seamy incident in Hollywood History, the film is very entertaining, and a time capsule from a bygone era.