Diary Of A Mad Housewife (1970)

I found it.

I have watched it over 30 times.

Used to have a tape of it....haven't seen it in years though.

Would like to see it again and see it has held up.

LOVED it.

Not of the same caliber, another obscure early 70s must-see NY movie is The Possession of Joel Delaney, with Shirley MacLaine and Perry King. Shot mostly on the UES and Washington Heights, it ends at Fire Island Pines in a blithering mess of camp and trash.

I'll have to check that one out, R3.

Shirley was really trying to get with the NY movie scene in the early '70s, but couldn't really make it happen .

Desperate Characters was another one. It was just depressing.

Saw it numerous times when it was first released, having read the book. Frank Langella was smoking hot and Carrie Snodgress should have had a much more successful film career afterwards.

Yes [R4}, I saw Desperate Characters about three years ago and it is gloomy alright! All I recall was Shirley's dimly-lit brownstone in Carroll Gardens, a cat that was a metaphor for something, and a scene where she boards a subway in midtown.

I watched Desperate Characters about years after it was released as a late movie on tv. I couldn't turn away from it, depressing as it was.

This was one of those movies "we" ("we" = my college clique) watched over and over on TV. I watched it on youtube and was surprised to see how much more explicit the unedited-for-TV version was.

Great performances from eccentric (by today's standards) performances.

"With a touch of grenadine?"

The movie might have been better if the Richard Benjamin character had been a little less revolting.

"How about a little old role in the hay?".

"Tina!!!!"

TEEN!!!!

"Would you like to take me to lunch?"

"Oh, God...you don't expect me to go through all that, do you?"

I remember it as a great title with a movie that doesn't live up to it.

[quote]The movie might have been better if the Richard Benjamin character had been a little less revolting.

Having read the book, the story makes more sense when you see them before the relationship went sour.

I agree, Benjamin could have been toned down...but he was funny.

The two version thing is so strange. The TV version has whole other scenes that weren't in the VHS version.

[quote]I remember it as a great title with a movie that doesn't live up to it.

Oh, no...it lived up to it.

Interesting tidbit:-

There are a lot of published interviews with John Lennon & Yoko....and there's a reference to them having seen the movie on their first visit to NY together.

Saw it, fell in heavy lust with Frank Langella.

Actually I think I'm confusing it with Up The Sandbox. I don't remember Mad Housewife, it's possible I once like it but forgot.

[quote]The TV version has whole other scenes that weren't in the VHS version.

That seemed to be common with so many Universal movies in the 1970s. There are a bunch of TV cuts with footage not in the theatrical releases.

your mother wants to have a poodle party

Carrie Snodgress was excellent, so vivid and original.

Great movie. There is a high quality torrent on RARGB. Frank Langella looked almost native american. Crazy.

The humor is very New York Jewish even though it's never referred to...much like the other NYC classic of that time, Heartbreak Kid.

Desperate Characters is available for rental on Amazon.

When Sondgress realizes that Frank Langella's character is really gay (a fag is what she calls him), some thought it was the worst kept secret in the movie.

Read the book, (Housewife) saw the film then at some point I had it on a video tape and saw it again. It was a wonderful film. Desperate Characters was one of the most depressing movies I'd ever seen. I saw it once and that was enough. Shirley looked like hell in it too.

The book was excellent. It really gave you an idea of the pressure to be part of the “in” crowd in NY professional society, and how shallow and phony it was. I felt so bad for Tina, living with that jackass husband and having that affair with a prick .

But at least in the book you knew them when they got along. In the book they hate each other from the start and why they're together doesn't really make sense. He's SO horrible to her.