A Rage to Live

Suzanne Pleshette has "A Rage to Live" in this 1965 potboiler also starring Bradford Dillman, Ben Gazzara, Linden Chiles, Carmen Matthews, Bethel Leslie and Peter Graves. The film is an adaptation of a John O'Hara novel, and I understand from people who have read the book that it's not a very good one. Pleshette plays Grace Caldwell, a young woman who feels validated and loved only when she's having sex. After an incident with a boy in her home town, Grace's mother (Matthews) suffers a heart attack. The two take a vacation, where Grace takes up with a waiter. While she's with him one night, her mother has a fatal heart attack and dies. Eventually Grace meets Sidney Caldwell (Dillman). They fall in love, and Grace confesses her misdeeds to him; he wants to marry her. They have a son, and for three years, all is well. Then construction worker Roger Bannon arrives to work on the Caldwell property and admits to Grace that he's always wanted her. The two have an affair, which Grace ends, only to have Roger beat up a hooker and call her Grace and talk about what a * she is before he's killed in a car accident. Sidney finds out and wants to end the marriage; she talks him into giving her one more chance. Then she's publicly accused of having an affair with an old friend (Graves) by his wife (Leslie), which isn't true. The end of this film is not very satisfying. We are led to believe that Grace is finished. She probably is - after that public humiliation, it's doubtful Sidney will want to continue the marriage. However, certainly he is assured by the Graves character that nothing went on between him and Grace. So in the end, Grace is doomed because of something she didn't do. Suzanne Pleshette hit Hollywood about ten years too late - she would have had a chance to become a major star before the studios dissolved. She was beautiful with a gorgeous figure, a sexy voice and one other attribute - she was a wonderful, honest actress. Her big career would be in television, and it was a good one, but nothing like she could have had. Here she rises above some overblown material to give a strong, sympathetic performance. The rest of the cast is good. Bethel Leslie as the alcoholic Amy Hollister has some good scenes as Peter Graves' insecure and unreasonable wife. Ben Gazzara does a fine job with an off-the-wall, obsessive character. In the book, Sidney dies before he can divorce Grace, and Grace moves away. I suppose having her cry in the middle of the road was more effective. "A Rage to Live" is good to see for Pleshette and for the way an explicit subject matter was handled in the '50s. With a lesser actress in the lead, it might have seemed very campy.

Grace (Suzanne Pleshette) is an over-sexed teenage debutante when the story begins...so much so that she's earned quite the reputation. However, when she meets nice-guy Sidney (Bradford Dillman) she forsakes her wicked ways and promises to make him a good wife. Well, this is the case...for a couple years. However, Grace not only has a strong sex drive but a strong drive towards sex destruction. Soon, she begins a purely sexual affair with a neighbor (Ben Gazzara). He wants there to be more to it than that...so she drops him and heads off for her next conquest! Ultimately, however, her wicked ways catch up to her and she finds that great husband, home and baby she's worked for slipping out of her fingers. This is an enjoyable, albeit sleazy, soap opera. It's the sort of film that must have seemed pretty steamy back in the day, though by modern standards it's relatively tame. Pleshette and the rest of the cast give it their best and it is quite entertaining trash.

What a disappointment! Suzanne Pleshette playing a nymphomaniac sounds like fun, but to judge from the end result John O'Hara's 1949 novel has been so bowdlerised its hard to understand why they bothered to film it in the first place, other than the fact that 'Butterfield 8' had just been such a hit; but it's even less explicit than that. The word "*" is liberally sprinkled throughout the film, but although we're told that there are plenty of others we actually see very little sign that there have really been that many lovers - and even less love; and it seems to be the men who always hit on her first. She actually seems to be suffering from the much more common female problem of not being able to say 'No' to jerks rather than clinical nymphomania. If only nasty Ben Gazzara had left her alone, and if Peter Graves' wife hadn't been such a belligerent lush, life would have continued to be peachy for the lovely Ms Pleshette and she would have lived happily ever after with hubby Bradford Dillman, her lovely child and her Oscar nominated wardrobe. As is often the case with material like this the most interesting characters are the women, and there are entertaining cameos by Brett Somers and Bethel Leslie as two vengeful harpies; the former as the disapproving mother of Pleshette's first real squeeze, Mark Goddard (best remembered as Don West in 'Lost in Space'), and the latter as Graves' jealous wife whose drama queen antics end up bringing the whole edifice crashing down.

This is a fabulous movie!!!!! If there's to be a modern day RAGE TO LIVE who would play the lead?

This is soap opera pure and simple about a woman who in more enlightened times would have been viewed as a person with a crippling disorder that would require treatment but for our purposes here is a wanton *. Suzanne Pleshette was a superior actress so she is able within the confines of the script to present her character as someone who is ruled by urges she can not control. There are minor attempts at some insight into her problem but they are quickly tossed away in favor of sensationalism. Good supporting cast including in a small role a rare on screen role for Brett Somers Klugman from Match Game. For those who enjoy trashy cinema with quality actors enacting silly situations with earnest professionalism.

Grace isn't that bad. She just meets the wrong men. With the right partner she'd have been pretty normal. This is nothing but unintentional comedy. I know double standards still exist today, but did people really take this seriously in 1965? Strictly for laughs. Watch out for the brief appearance by Brett Somers as a big crouch.

Suzanne Pleshette, who recently died, gave a truly memorable performance in this 1965 film. To say that promiscuity is her problem is to put it mildly. From high school to her married years, she as an attraction for other men that will ultimately lead to her downfall as well as others. Her mother can't take it so she proceeds to drop dead during a vacation with her daughter. Her new former lover, Ben Gazzara, can't take being thrown over. In a drunken rage, he beats up a woman he meets at a hotel only to be killed in a wild chase scene with police. It appears that Pleshette finally finds happiness with husband Bradford Dillman. They have a beautiful son before she takes up with Gazzara. Peter Graves is also effective as an earlier lover with an insanely jealous wife. Though Graves never carried on with Pleshette while she was married, the wife can't be convinced of this. The fault with this film lies at the end. We are left up in the air once Dillman is led to believe that she has carried on with Graves. His running out in a rage is not reconciled. Can Pleshette try to pull a Scarlett O'Hara and try to get him back?

This story starts off with a young girl named Grace Caldwell Tate, (Suzanne Pleshette) who is attacked and forcefully raped and does not report the matter but assumes this is a normal procedure between a girl and boy. Grace begins to have other encounters with men and causes all kinds of problems in her home and mostly her mother and brother. Jack Hollister, (Peter Graves) married Grace and they have a little boy and Grace continues to have an affair with Roger Bannon, (Ben Gazzara) and this film continues to go on with Grace never able to say a simple word like "NO", and leave "Me Alone". This is a mental sickness that can be corrected, but the person involved suffers horrible consequences. Great acting by Suzanne Pleshette and the entire cast. This is a very sad story and these type of people need help.

Grace Caldwell differs from the usual "bad girl" in that she's not trading sex for money, social advancement, etc. Nor is she detached from a "normal" life of home and family. Rather she is an intelligent wife & mother who has a fling on the side just because she's horny, in the manner expected of men. A good film with strong performances by Suzanne Pleshette as Grace & Ben Gazarra as her lover.

A rather sordid topic is given a mostly tasteful, if daring for its time, treatment in this adaptation of a John O'Hara novel. Pleshette plays a young girl who, whether purposeful or not, attracts men to her like bees to honey and decides it's something she likes. Her post adolescence is spent canoodling with boys in the backseats of cars or on family room sofas, much to the concern of her faint-hearted mother Matthews. She starts to skirt scandal when boy-toy Goddard's mother Somers catches them making out, but is redeemed by the love of optimistic and caring college man Dillman. After a rough start, they make a go of things until a) hirsute engineer Gazzara sets his sights on her and b) dignified, but badly-married Graves starts to fancy her as well. Plenty of complications ensue until the melodramatic and ironic ending comes about. Pleshette, while preposterous as a high school student in the early sequences, gives a passionate and sensitive performance, achieving the near impossible which is eliciting sympathy for a reckless nymphomaniac. She looks terrific in her (Oscar-nominated) Howard Shoup gowns and the black and white cinematography loves her eyes. She deftly portrays the sensational fact that her character has a sexual disorder and finds it hard to resist the liaisons. Dillman is also very good, aptly conveying the sensitive and disgusted colors of his role. His hair is lighter than usual (perhaps to contrast with the raven-tressed leading lady?) Gazzara is convincingly obsessive and brutish, not to mention seductive. Graves hasn't got a whole lot to do and doesn't do a whole lot with it. He would soon move on to the career-defining role of Mr. Phelps on "Mission: Impossible." Leslie, as his wife, exhibits unexpected levels of despair, though she comes more than close to unintentional comedy at times. Matthews (who, coincidentally, played Dina Merrill's mom in the film of O'Hara's "BUtterfield 8") is appropriately weary and worried. Gregory pops up as the family doctor, dispensing some interesting and amusing advice when it comes to teen love. Goddard is adorably sniveling. Like Graves, he too would soon be performing his most iconic role on TV's "Lost in Space." Furth, a Broadway fixture, has a small role as Dillman's pal. Christine, as Matthews' maid, was the well-known Folger's coffee spokeswoman in the 70's and Somers, of course, became a staple panelist on "Match Game" several years after this. One can't help feeling that this is a cousin to the earlier "BUtterfield 8", but it's different enough to retain its own level of interest. If this had been filmed in color, it may be better known than it is as many black and white films fell out of favor when it came to TV airings as color TV became prominent in the late 60's. However, the already dicey subject matter may have come across as lurid (by the day's standards) in color. The opening credits feature a striking instrumental title number by Ferrante & Teicher as the names are displayed amongst various rural settings (politely placing the black print against white items like barns or covered bridges or sky, etc…) It's no earth-shaking piece of cinema, but it's interesting for its period approach to sex and captivating thanks to its name cast and the stalwart performance of its leading actress.