A Life of Her Own is an entertaining enough little melodrama that might have been more memorable if Douglas Sirk had gotten his directorial hands on it. This isn't to impugn George Cukor, whose direction is solid and gets the job done in an admirable fashion, but this kind of ridiculous romance needs the kind of full-blown, devil-may-care commitment that Sirk excelled at. Even Sirk couldn't have made a classic of Life, the material is simply too weak for that. But he would have found the nuggets in it that really spoke to him and mined them for all they were worth, giving A Life of Her Own some mountainous heights rather than the little hills that Cukor builds up. Things certainly start out promisingly, but as soon as Ann Dvorak bites the dust -- which is less than 20 minutes into the film -- a lot of life goes out of the film. Things are also not helped by an ending that is lame and lifeless. Dvorak is a marvel, making the most out of what is really second rate material, and star Lana Turner suffers in comparison. However, Turner's glamour and appeal see her through the role and she's so stunning -- even with a few extra pounds on -- that one is willing to accept the fact that she's a little too old and too hefty to be playing an aspiring young model. Ray Milland is fine as her love interest, and there's good supporting work from Jean Hagen, Kathleen Freeman, and Margaret Phillips, among others. For fans of the genre, it's not bad and it's worth watching -- but it's not a classic.
