D: King Vidor. Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey, Kent Smith, Robert Douglas, Henry Hull, Ray Collins, Jerome Cowan. Ambitious but confused version of Ayn Rand philosophic novel, spotlighting an idealistic architect's clash with compromises of society; cast does what it can with the script.

D: Robert Rossen. Broderick Crawford, Joanne Dru, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge, John Derek, Shepperd Strudwick, Anne Seymour. Brilliant adaptation (by director Rossen) of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prizewinning novel about the rise and fall of a Huey Long-like senator, played by Crawford in the performance of his career. He and McCambridge (in her first film) won well-deserved Oscars, as did the film, for Best Picture. Campaign montages directed by Don Siegel.

D: Mark Robson. Lana Turner, Hope Lange, Arthur Kennedy, Lloyd Nolan, Lee Philips, Terry Moore, Russ Tamblyn, Betty Field, David Nelson, Mildred Dunnock, Diane Varsi, Barry Coe, Leon Ames, Lorne Greene. Grace Metalious's once-notorious novel receives Grade A filming. Soap opera of life behind closed doors in a small New England town boasts strong cast, fine Franz Waxman score. Original running time: 162m. Sequel: RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE. Later a hit TV series. CinemaScope.

D: Elia Kazan. Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn, Lloyd Nolan, Peggy Ann Garner, Ted Donaldson, James Gleason, Ruth Nelson, John Alexander. Splendid, sensitive film from Betty Smith's novel about a bright young girl trying to rise above the hardships of her tenement life in turn of the century Brooklyn, New York. Perfect in every detail. Dunn won an Oscar as the father, an incurable pipe dreamer; Garner received a special Academy Award for her performance. Screenplay by Tess Slesinger and Frank Davis. An impressive Hollywood directorial debut by Kazan. Remade for TV in 1974 with Cliff Robertson and Diane Baker.

D: Paul L. Stein. Constance Bennett, Kenneth MacKenna, Basil Rathbone, Rita La Roy, Louis John Bartels, ZaSu Pitts. Upscale divorce lawyer MacKenna gets out of an embarrassing case through a quick marriage of convenience to plain-Jane secretary Bennett. Then she, alone on her "honeymoon" cruise, meets handsome stranger Rathbone and blossoms. Pleasantly blonde romantic comedy.

D: Jack Conway. Constance Bennett, Adolphe Menjou, Robert Montgomery, Marjorie Rambeau, Anita Page, Clark Gable, Hedda Hopper. Bennett rises from dire poverty to a life of luxury after becoming the mistress of advertising mogul Menjou, but finds heartbreak when she falls for reporter Montgomery. Watered-down adaptation of notorious play about high-priced call girls starts out great, then turns into a standard romantic triangle melodrama to satisfy the Hays Office. Gable has a small, but strong role in his first film as an MGM contract player.

D: Paul L. Stein. Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, Lew Cody, Robert Williams, Hedda Hopper. McCrea falls in love with Bennett, but when he learns she has ''known'' other men he sends her away. Will true love prevail? Tiresome soap opera is notable only for risque pre-Code plot elements and an all-too-brief sequence at a huge Beaux Arts ball.