A Life of Her Own (1950)

Lana Turner, Ray Milland, Tom Ewell, Louis Calhern, Ann Dvorak ... see more  , Jean Hagen , Barry Sullivan , Margaret Phillips , Phyllis Kirk , Sara Haden , Hermes Pan , Dorothy Abbott , Richard Anderson , Whit Bissell , Madge Blake , Carol Brannan , Carol Brewster , Frankie Darro , Kenne Duncan , Elizabeth Flournoy , Kathleen Freeman , Beverly Garland , Gertrude Graner , Sam Harris , Percy Helton , Robert Emmett Keane , Meredith Leeds , Queenie Leonard , Walter McGrail , Maura Murphy , Kerry O'Day , Sarah Padden , Hilda Plowright , Tom Seidel , Beverly Thompson , Dorothy Tree , Joan Valerie , Geraldine Wall , Bunny Waters , Wilson Wood , Harry Barris , Arthur M. Loew Jr. , Bridget Carr , Kenneth Garcia , Alice Wallace , Sally Cooper

Lana Turner stars as an ambitious model who seeks her fortune in New York City. She is befriended by over-the-hill cover-girl Ann Dvorak, whose performance carries the story until she commits suicide ... read more twenty minutes into the film. Turner promises herself that she won't end up burned out like Dvorak, but as her fame grows, she is inexorably drawn into the hectic social whirl that sealed Dvorak's doom. Enjoying the favors of wealthy Ray Milland, Turner seeks out Milland's wife (Margaret Phillips), hoping to convince the woman to give up her husband. When she meets the crippled Mrs. Milland, Turner is made painfully aware of the length and breadth of the woman's love for her husband. Turner pulls out of the relationship, and we are encouraged to believe that hers will be a much happier and more fulfilling life than that of the unfortunate Ann Dvorak (ironically, in real life Ann Dvorak's final days were relatively contented ones, while Lana Turner spent her twilight years wondering where the looks, the men and the money had gone). Though not so noted in the credits, A Life of Her Own was inspired by The Abiding Vision, a novel by Rebecca West. Bronislau Kaper's musical score was later recycled for the 1951 MGM romantic drama Invitation. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi