Where Love Has Gone (1964)

Directed by Edward Dmytryk and based on the trashy potboiler by Harold Robbins (THE CARPETBAGGERS) which shamelessly exploited the Lana Turner/Johnny Stompanato scandal. When a 15 year old girl (Joey Heatherton) kills the lover of her promiscuous socialite mother (Susan Hayward), the girl's father (Mike Connors) returns to try and pick up the pieces of the dysfunctional family, which includes a domineering matriarch (Bette Davis), in an attempt to save his daughter. The film moves forth in a deadly earnest, stolid manner with none of the lurid fun of Dmytrk's film of Robbins' THE CARPETBAGGERS. Davis brings some much needed elegance and class to the project while the other actors (Heatherton in particular) flounder in the morass of John Michael Hayes' delirious dialogue. Edith Head did the stylish costumes, Jack Jones croons the Oscar nominated title song while Walter Scharf gets the blame for the anemic score. With Jane Greer, DeForest Kelley, George Macready, Anne Seymour, Whit Bissell, Anthony Caruso and Ann Doran.