evening1 On the surface this is a tearjerker about an extramarital affair.But Lana Turner also turns in a thoughtful performance touching on more difficult themes including fears about getting old, selflessness, and self-respect.The affair between Lily and dapper, married Steve (Ray Milland) is convincing, although they never are shown so much as kissing in this black-and-white weepie from 1950. However, nothing much has changed in the dynamics of trying to be happy at someone else's expense.It's interesting to see the beautiful Ms. Turner not winning the man in the end. Here she winds up lonely but stronger and wiser. I don't mind a message now and then and this one's a goodie.

dbdumonteil As usual ,George Cukor directs his actresses masterfully;not only Lana Turner -who was rarely as good as here ,except for Sirk's ,Garnett's and Minelli's works)but also Ann Dvorak as a jaded aging model and Margaret Philips as the disabled wife who steals every scene she is in;on the other hand ,Ray Milland does not seem to be very interested in his part (I could mention at least ten movies in which he is much better than here ).The script is average- for Cukor whose standards were often high-, borrowing from an older movie by John M.Stahl ,the prince of the thirties melodrama :"when tomorrow comes "(1939) later remade by Sirk as the mediocre "Interlude"; the trick of the sick wife was a bit hackneyed even in 1950.This is a rather talky movie,with an interminable final conversation between Turner and Barry Sullivan to make the viewer understand that now the model is in the same situation as Mary,which we already knew.

bkoganbing A Life Of Her Own casts Lana Turner as a small town girl who with her beauty goes to New York for a career as a model. She's got the looks, but has she the character for the profession? She reports some six months after the agency that Tom Ewell runs called for her. It was a simple matter of economics, Lana just didn't have the train fare from Kansas. But very much like Lana Turner in real life, discovered in Schwab's Drugstore in Hollywood because of her beauty and made a film star, Turner becomes a success in the modeling profession.Anything's better than life in Kansas and Turner's after more than a career. She meets Ray Milland who is a mine owner from Montana back east to raise some money with the help of lawyer Louis Calhern. Of course the inevitable happens as it usually does in these films, but the problem is Milland is slightly married to Margaret Phillips.Here's where the film gets real sudsy. Phillips is a paraplegic as a result of an automobile accident. The subject is rather delicately handled with the Code still in place, but the clear inference is that Milland is not enjoying any kind of sex life any more. So he's more than willing to get involved with Turner.The Code parameters both limit how the subject is handled and the inevitable outcome of the film which I won't reveal. George Cukor directed A Life Of Her Own and the film is definitely missing his usual flair for 'women's' pictures. And the film is clearly Lana's with the rest of the cast in support.Some younger players at MGM like Jean Hagen and Phyllis Kirk play other models, but Ann Dvorak in one of her last films has a couple of scenes as an older woman trying to make a comeback in a profession that lives and dies on youth. She only has a couple of scenes, but they've got some real bite to them. I wish we had a lot more of her in the film.A Life Of Her Own is not one of the better films for Cukor, Turner, or Milland, but it's entertaining enough given the Code parameters it was made under.

MarieGabrielle I loved Lana Turner in" The Postman Always Rings Twice", and was interested to see her portray what was considered a top model in the 1950's.She basically portrays a bored woman from Kansas who comes to NY to "become someone".She meets Ann Dvorak as Mary, who is a top model on her way down,presumably from getting too high too fast, and drug use. Some of her scenes are the most memorable as she reflects on the void and banality of her profession.It is a double-edged sword once a girl has reached the top.7urner does not see this, climbs her way to the top and has an affair with married executive Ray Milland.He does not come off as a sympathetic character, his wife is disabled.Some of the scenes with Turner as his mistress are a bit forced,and hard to believe. Chalk this up to the time period, as the reality of her situation could not be portrayed.Overall worth seeing for Lana and performance by Ann Dvorak.8/10.