The Group

Men totally dominated the world in the 1930s and women would never be considered equals. Through this film, you see all the hopes and dreams of the women crushed by men in various ways.

Widescreen, Technicolor and the best round up of girls since "The Women". What more could you ask? All the girls are great, but Jessica Walter is outstanding as she changes from self-assured sexy-romantic to a gossiping sexually repressed Bitch! No one else at that time could have played that part so beautifully. The movie addresses some women's issues that were not commonly discussed back in the 60's. Abuse, mental illness, pregnancy, drugs. Candice Bergen, Shirley Knight, Elizabeth Hartman, these are all stage trained actresses, and the lovely Joan Hackett who died much too soon but while she was here always gave a top notch performance. Script/dialogue, camera work, all first class.

but this film is interesting for the cast, and the time period it depicts. Also the costumes are rather amusing. I have not yet read the book although several reviews have mentioned the time warp factor. Candice Bergen is in an early role as member of an elite group of Vassar graduates. Joan Hackett, Joanna Pettet, Larry Hagman (as her alcoholic husband), Hal Holbrook, James Broderick, Jessica Walter (as swinging single gossip in the NY publishing world), Kathleen Widdoes, Carrie Nye, Elizabeth Hartman and several other notable appearances make for an interesting cast. Some of the dialog will take you back to a different time. The controversy of breast over bottle feeding, Republican vs. FDR Democrat (there are some pretty amusing scenes between Priss (Elizabeth Hartman) and her pediatrician husband, a Republican, who says after her second miscarriage this will give him a bad reputation in the hospital (!). Obviously, the book may be more interesting, and less histrionic. Jessica Walter is very good, and amusing; wish she had done more films in the 80's and 90's (She was great in "Slums of Beverly Hills", with Alan Arkin, as well). I do not watch regular television although several have mentioned she is very good in the Ron Howard comedy "Arrested Development". At any rate, a good escapist film, which I would not completely dismiss as soap opera, since there are skilled actors and some worthwhile dialog. 8/10.

Just watched for the second time in my life this Sidney Lumet adaptation of Mary McCarthy's novel "The Group", this time on Netflix streaming. It's about eight women who graduated from Vassar in 1933 and their trials and tribulations during that time and subsequent years through the beginning of the second World War. Among those women, the standout for me was Shirley Knight as Polly who goes from an affair with a publisher boss (Hal Holbrook) of one of her friends to falling for a doctor (James Broderick) she works for. She also willingly suffers a father (Robert Emhardt) who's eventually diagnosed as manic depressive. Emhardt's performance is perhaps the most enjoyable to me since he talks up a storm and says such inappropriately funny lines! It was also fascinating to see Larry Hagman play a role here not too different from his later iconic evil character of J.R. Ewing on both versions of "Dallas" only here, he's not such a fun person to watch. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that the Richard Mulligan and Joan Hackett characters were awkward to each other but the actors would eventually marry in real life not long after. Oh, and Candice Bergen, for all her reputation of not being much of an actress during her early career, acquits herself nicely among her more trained co-stars in the few scenes she has here. In summary, The Group perhaps comes on a bit fast at the beginning to really get an understanding of what's going on and who these people are but eventually it slows down enough that you do get to know and mostly like these people as the film progresses. In the words of many of the characters of this film, "Who'd a thunk it?"

One of Sidney Lumet's first directing attempts is a brilliant, powerful and undeniably courageous motion picture - not at all a sprawling frenzy of feelings strung by hammy performances and corny dialogues, this film is a rather organized , neat telling of eight graduates from Vassar-like college and their respective lives and times, that in it's own quiet way, became a masterpiece of great beauty, displaying strong, formidable performances by Pettet - as Kay Strong, a lovely young lady whose promissing future is teared to shreds as her cruel Play Writing husband ruins her life and slowly corrompts her mental sanity -, Hackett - as Dottie Renfrew, whose heart is broken by young, hip bohemian, that steels her virginity and commits herself to a futile, selfish fate - and Hartman(One Of The Most Wonderful Actresses That Ever Lived, And Whose Life Was Brought To A Horrid Ending, As She Comitted Suicide, Jumping Off Her Apartment Window) - as a pure , fragile young girl that has agonizing experiments with pregnancy and breast-feeding, as well as other cast members, like Bergen, Widdoes, fascinating Knight and Walter. This is adapted from Mary MacCarthy's brilliant novel, launched at the same time as 'Valley Of The Dolls', Jacqueline Sussan's hideous all-american best-seller - although' they both treat of feminine sagas, they are surely not to be confused.