Grace Metalious’ once-notorious bestseller Peyton Place is given a lavish - and necessarily toned-down - film treatment in this deluxe 20th Century-Fox production. Set during WWII, the film concentrates on several denizens of the outwardly respectable New England community of Peyton Place. Top-billed Lana Turner plays shopkeeper Constance McKenzie, who tries to make up for a past indiscretion - which resulted in her illegitimate daughter Allison (Diane Varsi) - by adopting a chaste, prudish attitude towards all things sexual.