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The Group (1966)

Free love, contraception, abortion, lesbianism, and mental illness.

Directed by Sidney Lumet. And what a fucking cast!

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by Anonymousreply 123September 4, 2020 3:26 PM
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by Anonymousreply 1January 6, 2018 10:54 PM

This promo for the dvd claims this was the inspiration for Sex and the City.

The lone comment on YouTube questions whether or not the promoter had ever seen the group.

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by Anonymousreply 2January 6, 2018 11:04 PM

Norman Mailer's catty review of Mary McCarthy's book.

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by Anonymousreply 3January 6, 2018 11:05 PM

Has anyone read the book by Mary McCarthy?

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by Anonymousreply 4January 6, 2018 11:06 PM

Norman Mailer was such a fucking blowhard.

by Anonymousreply 5January 6, 2018 11:08 PM

yummy!!!!!!!!!

by Anonymousreply 6January 6, 2018 11:17 PM

Which one jumps or falls out the window? Joan Hacket?

by Anonymousreply 7January 6, 2018 11:19 PM

Joanna Pettet, who is right this minute the hot topic of conversation on the Alan Bates thread.

She jumps.

Her funeral brings the girls all back together at the end.

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by Anonymousreply 8January 6, 2018 11:22 PM

[quote]R4 Has anyone read the book by Mary McCarthy?

The book was received by critics as if Mary McCarthy (its well respected author) was slumming...but today it reads like heavier literature. It's not a fast read.

An interesting thing about it is the structure, which has all the characters together in the first and last chapters, then linked by sharing chapters between those (like the French play [italic] La Ronde.) [/italic] So I think Dorothy and Helena share a meeting in Chapter 2, then you have Helena and Norine in Chapter 3, then Norine and Kay in Chapter 4 (or whatever), etc. etc. etc.

The character that doesn't really get a chapter is Lakey (played by Candice Bergen in the movie), the rich lesbian who runs off to Europe. (Also, Pokey doesn't get her own chapter, it's given over to her family's butler)

My favorite character is the insufferable, opportunistic Libby (played by Jessica Walter in the film) who dilligently tries out for a literary career even though she's not as gifted as she thinks she is. No one truly likes her. At one point the book says something like, "At Vassar, it had always struck Libby as odd that while she was the most popular member [italic]outside [/italic] the group, she was the least popular member [italic]within [/italic] it.

PS: "Sex in the City" has no similarities to "The Group" at all, aside from being set in Manhattan. They're just using that as a marketing ploy.

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by Anonymousreply 9January 6, 2018 11:22 PM

Thanks, r9. I have always thought of reading the book. The VF article upthread goes over the poor reviews and the McCarthy's relationship with its success.

My favorite scene in the movie, far and away, is the conclusion, when the long-absent lesbian Lakey drives from the funeral to the cemetery alongside the dead woman's lover.

Candice Bergen plays Lakey and Larry Hagman is the lover. That she holds her own against him while retaining her composure against his aggression and insults is really a testament to the movie. She's neither wicked nor corrupt, and most assuredly not sleazy, as he snarls in his jealous tirade. She won't even acknowledge him at his worst.

I wish I had seen this film when I was young, as I'd only seen gay characters that either fit the above accusations or killed themselves believing them to be true.

Lakey holds her head high the whole fucking time. And she's driving.

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by Anonymousreply 10January 6, 2018 11:34 PM

Wow. Kathleen Widdoes.

by Anonymousreply 11January 6, 2018 11:37 PM

Kathleen Widdoes' character Helena is referred to as "a neuter." I don't understand what this is. Would this be asexual in 2017 terms.

It's not frigid, because that's what Jessica Walters' character is. I think.

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by Anonymousreply 12January 6, 2018 11:38 PM

[quote]R10 Thanks, I have always thought of reading the book.

Some of it is really funny.

Some differences in that scene you like is in the book, Harald drives Lakey's car to the cemetery before he bails...and Kay acknowledges in her mind that Kay never slept with her. (She's just torturing the widower.) Libby doesn't cry at the church, because she's, well, [italic]Libby.[/italic] And it's much more ambiguous whether Kay jumped to her death or not. In the film it's pretty clear she did.In the novel, Helena's mother insists Kay could NOT have done it intentionally, as there was a cigarette left burning in the ashtray..."And no young woman would commit suicide in the middle of a CIGARETTE!"

[quote]R12 Kathleen Widdoes' character Helena is referred to as "a neuter." I don't understand what this is. Would this be asexual in 2017 terms.

Yes, that's what they mean. Helena in the book is a wiry, merry, elfin girl...compared to Katharine Hepburn. She has no boyfriend, and would run arount the group's tower suite in college naked because she had no feminine modesty. Kathleen Widdoes doesn't play her like that, though.

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by Anonymousreply 13January 7, 2018 12:01 AM

The structure of the book explains why some of the movie seems so disjointed - with long periods devoted to a couple characters, leaving the others out entirely.

Pauline Kael wrote that waiting for Lakey's return was like waiting for Godot.

I love the suicide-denial via cigarette-in-ashtray!

by Anonymousreply 14January 7, 2018 12:05 AM

Elizabeth Hartman was just getting lots of praise in some other thread here. I forget which one.

I think the actresses were rather cold to Candice Bergen, summing her up as a dilettante sampling acting alongside modeling. Somehow I imagine Joan Hackett to be the ringleader of that exclusionary circle.

Bergen has since said that she understood their reaction to her.

Still, Lakey is my favorite character and Bergen's perhaps my favorite performance.

by Anonymousreply 15January 7, 2018 12:08 AM

Damn! Amazon doesn’t have it. I’ll have to signup to Vudu.

by Anonymousreply 16January 7, 2018 12:13 AM

Re: R13.... I meant to type about Kay's perhaps suicide, [bold]"In the film it's pretty clear she DIDN'T."[/bold]

[quote]R114 I love the suicide-denial via cigarette-in-ashtray!

I know, that's so funny! At the same time (and this is what makes the book good), that belief also makes a [italic]bit[/bit] of sense. Even if you're going to kill yourself, it doesn't mean you want to burn down the whole building!

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by Anonymousreply 17January 7, 2018 12:15 AM

Elizabeth Hartman as Priss?

Mary Robin Redd as Pokey?

Who played Slwept, Grumpy, and Dopey?

by Anonymousreply 18January 7, 2018 12:17 AM

[quote]R115 Elizabeth Hartman was just getting lots of praise in some other thread here. I forget which one.

Elizabeth Hartman was lovely. And talented. So sad [italic]she[/italic] jumped to her death at age 43.

My favorite performance in the adaptation is Joan Hackett as subdued, conventional, but surprisingly great-in-bed Dottie. (And I imagine Jessica Walter as being the bitch on the set to Bergen during filming. Maybe it's the Bluth in her!)

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by Anonymousreply 19January 7, 2018 12:21 AM

Joan Hackett was a wonderful actress. She also died too soon.

by Anonymousreply 20January 7, 2018 12:24 AM

Shirley Knight was also getting a lot of love here recently, on the Endless Love thread, no less.

by Anonymousreply 21January 7, 2018 12:27 AM

The unavoidable parody record.....

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by Anonymousreply 22January 7, 2018 12:34 AM

R13 - pleased you got in to correct the assertion that Joanna pettet’s character in the film appears to have died by accident. Out of memory - it’s been a while! - the scene where she falls is almost comical. She’s kinda crazy and manic by this stage and is on the phone blathering about how important it will be to be able to identify Messerschmidts and the like in the upcoming conflict in the air...and out she goes! I remember thinking at the time it was like a scene out of one of those Carol Burnett soap send-ups - As the World Turns...

Doubt the book or the film had much influence on the actual idea or making if sex and the city. There’re some superficial similarities - so I guess the old book & film people thought comparing them and casting them as precursors to the very popular tv series couldn’t hurt (tho you can bet if the tv series had used that comparison in the run up to airing, they would have been furious and threatened legal action!)

One similarity to me - was the costuming. There was a poster for the film - used on the case of the DVD I have - that I think was done by Tom Tierney - the graphic designer who did those dozens and dozens of paper doll books (could someone start a thread about him/them please?) -

It might have been just another artist copying him - but all the girls of the group are posed looking like exquisite paper dolls in gorgeous frocks typical of their characters. Clearly the outfits and fashion aspect of the film was considered a marketing tool - as was the case with sex and the city and their fabulous ‘only wear an outfit once’ wardrobe choices...

The film almost reminds me of Valley of the Dolls in a way. It’s Hollywood grappling to make a film from a text whose ‘adult content’ causes a bit of a sensation. Yet they don’t wanna offend the censor or the more conservatives - while still getting people in for the controversial stuff. So they try and make it ‘literary’ in feel - and the result is leaden and pretentious. At least in VOTD it slipped over into camp! But then the source material there was never considered literary in anything other than it consisted of printed words on a page...

by Anonymousreply 23January 7, 2018 1:14 AM

I read the book decades ago, when I was a teen, and got the impression it was 'dated' because they graduated in the 1930s (I think). Then when I later saw the movie I was confused about the era in which it was taking place, since back then when they made movies they were vague about timing, and the clothing/hair were not era-appropriate.

by Anonymousreply 24January 7, 2018 1:28 AM

Joanna Pettet going out the window was definitely a wtf moment. Was she on the phone during that crazy scene? I recall it as absolutely nutty.

I don't think The Group would have worked as camp, though. It skirts it from time to time, especially with Jessica Walters' Libby character, but never quite gets there, which I think is for the better. It does feel stodgy at times, but some of the actresses are compelling enough in their roles to keep the film buoyant.

by Anonymousreply 25January 7, 2018 1:45 AM

Is Candice driving an MG-TC in the clip at R10?

by Anonymousreply 26January 7, 2018 1:59 AM

[quote]Joanna Pettet going out the window was definitely a wtf moment. Was she on the phone during that crazy scene? I recall it as absolutely nutty.

The set up is Kay has split with her husband, lost her job because he put her in a mental ward, and is now staying at a womens club courtesy of Helena's mother (i think) who's a member. She's become a bit manic, and is doing her bit for the war effort by noting the types of planes that fly overhead, looking for invaders.

In the book, the characters don't know if Kay was watching airplanes from her hotel window and fell, or if she jumped because everything had become too dismal. In the movie she's on the phone IIRC, she hears an airplane and heads to the window to look at it, then you hear a scream (?)

A touching detail in the book is Kay always dreamed of having a pleated silk Fortuny dress when she was alive, but couldn't afford it. Wealthy Lakey goes out and buys one for her to be buried in. (Libby, in her usual clueless, bitchy way, notes she thinks the color isn't right for Kay's complexion once she's in the coffin.)

by Anonymousreply 27January 7, 2018 2:03 AM

[quote]Who played Slwept, Grumpy, and Dopey?

Candice Bergen was Dykey.

by Anonymousreply 28January 7, 2018 2:33 AM

I did. All three. Then that bastard Sydney completely edited me out.

by Anonymousreply 29January 7, 2018 2:35 AM

I was a teen when the film came out and I remember the Candice Bergen resentment by the cast being more targeted at the press who were all over Bergen because of her astounding beauty and Hollywood lineage rather than the more experienced and respected actresses like Joan Hackett and Shirley Knight.

I also remember the film being a tedious never-ending bore.

by Anonymousreply 30January 7, 2018 2:47 AM

The electricians working on the film described most of the actresses as: "Two aspirin on an ironing board."

by Anonymousreply 31January 7, 2018 3:27 AM

Co-starring Larry Hagman

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by Anonymousreply 32January 7, 2018 3:34 AM

This was a great film, with great actresses!

by Anonymousreply 33January 7, 2018 6:29 AM

As a kid I was absolutely fascinated by this issue of LOOK magazine. Of course based on the cover you'd think "the group" consisted of only Candy Bergen.

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by Anonymousreply 34January 7, 2018 6:36 PM

[quote]As a kid I was absolutely fascinated by this issue of LOOK magazine. Of course based on the cover you'd think "the group" consisted of only Candy Bergen.

She was [italic] of-the-moment [/italic] at the time, as a model - and also a celeb the public had grown up with, having been regularly featured on his radio show as a child, etc.

The other girls, even if some of them were known for acting, were a tiny bit stodgy.

Gotta sell those issues!

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by Anonymousreply 35January 7, 2018 7:44 PM
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by Anonymousreply 36January 7, 2018 7:58 PM

Click to see Jessica Walter in full fur glamour.

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by Anonymousreply 37January 7, 2018 8:39 PM

Elizabeth Hartman.

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by Anonymousreply 38January 7, 2018 8:42 PM

Some great photos.

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by Anonymousreply 39January 7, 2018 8:46 PM

"The electricians working on the film described most of the actresses as: 'Two aspirin on an ironing board.' "

How kind of them to contribute their valuable opinion. I'm sure all the critics were dying to know what the grips thought of the actresses' breasts.

by Anonymousreply 40January 7, 2018 8:54 PM

Despite what was said upthread, the film tried very hard to be true to the fashions of the 1930s. At least, for a film made in the late 1960s.

by Anonymousreply 41January 7, 2018 9:43 PM

I first saw this movie as a child. Even then, watching Bergen playing Lakey, I'd think " I want Candy....I want Candy!!"

by Anonymousreply 42January 7, 2018 11:08 PM

I've said that on previous Group threads r41.

by Anonymousreply 43January 7, 2018 11:44 PM

Candace really was something back on the day! Her acting ability was always rubbished - but no denying the camera loved her and that she had charisma.

And - of the moment! Does anyone else remember the story about Truman capote throwing some big ball in NYC around the time - and it being the big ticket item of the year - everyone wanted to be invited! Think dress code was black and white? And maybe masks involved? Anyway - supppsedky everyone was dazzled by Bergen - she was so good looking in the flesh it was otherworldly. Oh to have been there as an observer...

by Anonymousreply 44January 8, 2018 7:41 AM

R8, she doesn't jump. She falls out of a hotel window doing plane spotting during the war. She's become kind of obssessed with the idea of foreign invasion. Elizaberh Hartman, IRL, jumped to her death.

by Anonymousreply 45January 8, 2018 10:16 AM

I’ve read the book but never seen the movie. That is NOT how I pictured Kay (or Harald).

The book’s entertaining but does read as dated, and oddly earnest yet trashy. I kept getting the feeling McCarthy was making fun of her characters, which seemed unfair as she created them.

by Anonymousreply 46January 8, 2018 11:17 AM

Jessica Walter, drink in hand, to prep for later roles as Lucille Bluth and Mallory Archer.

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by Anonymousreply 47January 8, 2018 11:49 AM

WHET Mary Robin Redd as Pokey?

The actress doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.

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by Anonymousreply 48January 8, 2018 11:58 AM

I tried to watch this the other day, and I barely made it through 15 minutes. It's confusing, I don't care about the characters, and Candice is so beautiful she puts the other women to shame.

Maybe I should just read the book.

by Anonymousreply 49January 8, 2018 12:51 PM

I'd like to read the book and try and imagine movie stars from the early 1930s (when it's set) as they looked back then in the roles.

But who would play them?

Kay (Joanna Pettet): Norma Shearer

Dottie (Joan Hackett): Myrna Loy

Polly (Shirley Knight): Bette Davis

Libby (Jessica Walter): Joan Crawford

Priss (Elizabeth Hartman): Olivia deHavilland

Lakey (Candice Bergen): Miriam Hopkins

by Anonymousreply 50January 8, 2018 1:09 PM

I thought the inspiration for Sex and the City was An Unmarried Woman.

by Anonymousreply 51January 8, 2018 2:58 PM

I assumed it was The Best of Everything.....

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by Anonymousreply 52January 8, 2018 3:02 PM

^Suzy Parker was literally too beautiful for that role. So jarring to see her pictured with mere mortals.

The contrast wasn’t so bad in “Kiss Them For Me” because Jayne Mansfield was such an exaggerated type.

by Anonymousreply 53January 8, 2018 6:08 PM

I kind of have to agree with you r53.

by Anonymousreply 54January 8, 2018 6:16 PM

R53 ^Suzy Parker was literally too beautiful for that role. So jarring to see her pictured with mere mortals.

It tickles me that Suzy Parker, who was not an acclaimed actress in life, is regularly remembered fondly here at DL.

Moment of silence for this tall, delish redhead....

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by Anonymousreply 55January 8, 2018 6:39 PM

Those on this thread who say The Group is tedious or boring, I WILL NOT fuck.

Love this movie.

by Anonymousreply 56January 8, 2018 10:26 PM

Lol R50! Miriam Hopkins as Lakey?

She’s supposed to be mysteriously beautiful and compelling. NOT traits immediately associated with Miriam Hopkins.

I think maybe Myrna Loy could have done it? Frances Dee Was also beautiful - but not that aloof? Could one of the Bennett sisters have done it well?

by Anonymousreply 57January 9, 2018 12:58 AM

Lakey in the books is dark-haired, green-eyed and a bit mysterious. Kay is dark-haired, blue-eyed and wholesome looking--McCarthy's stand-in more or less--so someone who looked a bit like McCarthy.

Polly, pretty wide face, light hair. I think she's described as looking like Anne Harding.

Helena--short, boyish figure, red hair, freckles--she reminds someone in the book of a young, Katharine Hepburn, but I assume without the cheekbones or drah-mah.

Pokey--blond, plump, pretty, horsey athletic type

Dottie--dark eyes, good legs, old-fashioned Boston--I picture her with a bit of a lantern jaw. Maybe it says that somewhere.

Priss--small, flat-chested, not a whole lot about her looks otherwise.

The horrible literary book-agent one--oh, right--Libby--tall, long neck, blonde hair, brown eyes.

Oh, and Norine--dark blond hair, blowsy looking, but attractive.

by Anonymousreply 58January 9, 2018 1:30 AM

We must talk about Mississippi's fabulous Carrie Nye (aka Mrs. Dick Cavett) as the slutty outsider, Norine!

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by Anonymousreply 59January 9, 2018 2:05 AM

Scissor Sisters

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by Anonymousreply 60January 9, 2018 2:10 AM

I would have boned the painter. Repeatedly.

by Anonymousreply 61January 10, 2018 10:46 AM

The Baroness that Lacey brought back from Venice is really a 1960s nightmare version of a vicious lesbian, it is comical!

by Anonymousreply 62January 11, 2018 2:49 PM

I met Larry Hagman a few years before his passing at an autograph show (don’t judge, DL!) Had no interest in “Dallas” or “I Dreamnof Jeannie” but couldn’t resist asking if he had any special memories of “The Group”. He said that he was good friends with Sidney Lumet, who offered him his pick of the male roles — he chose the role of Harald because it was the largest of them. He added, “ That was Candice Bergen’s first film, and she always used to sit on my lap on the set! God, she was beautiful!”

by Anonymousreply 63January 11, 2018 3:14 PM

My God it's Rose Perrini as Helena

by Anonymousreply 64January 11, 2018 3:35 PM

Anybody else remember the lovely Much Ado with Widdoes and Sam Waterston?

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by Anonymousreply 65January 11, 2018 3:57 PM

LOVE THIS MOVIE!

Jessica Walter is a hoot as the bitchy Libby, and Joanna Pettet's is great especially in her big breakdown scenes.

Joan Hackett and Shirley Knight give great performances.

Kathleen Widdoes loud crowing at a cocktail party guest the adding "Rooster bird" before walking away is priceless.

by Anonymousreply 66January 11, 2018 4:03 PM

My chief in the Navy said: "I saw this movie on the ship called "The Women," about this bunch of women. There was now woman in it, you found out at the end, she'd been blown' 'em all!"

by Anonymousreply 67January 11, 2018 4:11 PM

The clothes are on point, but the hair and the makeup was very 60s.

by Anonymousreply 68January 11, 2018 5:40 PM

Presumably they did bone on set because Joan Hackett and Richard Mulligan were married for several years.

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by Anonymousreply 69January 11, 2018 6:12 PM

Jessica Walters looks like Sarah Paulson in OP's link.

Is a remake in the works? Hollywood loves remakes of old films and TV shows, so why not.

by Anonymousreply 70January 11, 2018 6:16 PM

Jennifer Lawrence as the power lesbian.

Angelina Jolie as the Baroness.

by Anonymousreply 71January 11, 2018 6:27 PM

I absolutely loved that nominee Joan Hackett wore earrings she had made out of Christmas decorations/ornaments to the Oscars.

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by Anonymousreply 72January 11, 2018 6:39 PM

Joan Hackett was a beautiful and unique talent.

by Anonymousreply 73January 11, 2018 6:51 PM

Many years ago I had a friend who did wardrobe on something with Hackett. She said she lied about her age.....adding years to it. That way people would think she looked great for her "age".

by Anonymousreply 74January 11, 2018 7:14 PM

R51 WTF? It was Candace Bushnell's columns in The New York Observer that spawned Sex and The City.

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by Anonymousreply 75January 11, 2018 7:20 PM

Oh, for Christ's sake, r75. No one said it was a literal adaptation. Sex And The City held certain similarities to the manner in which scenes were written and filmed of Jill Clayburgh's group of friends meeting for lunch and gossiping about men and sex in An Unmarried Woman. AUW was an unusual movie that had precocious tween girls going to see Wertmüller movies and putting in her allowance into a group fund so a schoolfriend could pay for an abortion.

by Anonymousreply 76January 11, 2018 8:07 PM

Just watched this again for the 100th or so time. I really love it, even though there are some draggy parts..like Polly's dad and Priss' breast-feeding.

Joan Hackett was SO good. Wish she was in it more after her "chapter" at the beginning.

And WHAT was Norine eating out of that jar??

by Anonymousreply 77October 24, 2018 12:36 AM

"Elizabeth Hartman was just getting lots of praise in some other thread here. I forget which one."

Maybe the one about actors who didn't live up to their potential? She certainly didn't, despite all her talent. She really was very unique, had unusual vulnerability. Pauline Kael was a fan of hers. I guess it was mental illness that kept her from accomplishing more in her career.

by Anonymousreply 78October 24, 2018 12:45 AM

I brought the book with me on a recent vacation, and I randomly opened it to a page describing ‘pessaries’ (diaphragms) in excruciating detail. That put me off reading any more. (I had already read it years earlier, and liked the film.)

by Anonymousreply 79October 24, 2018 1:20 AM

Open or closed?

by Anonymousreply 80October 24, 2018 5:06 AM

I’ve read the book many times and I absolutely had Sandy Dennis as Kay the whole time.

by Anonymousreply 81October 24, 2018 8:22 AM

I've never seen a photo of a young Kathleen Widdoes before. So slim and beautiful.

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by Anonymousreply 82October 24, 2018 10:51 AM

Forget the Bennett girls - if the film had been made in the 30's, Frances Farmer would have been a great Lakey.....that voice!

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by Anonymousreply 83October 24, 2018 9:15 PM

Kathleen Widdoes at r47 reminds me of Alison Brie.

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by Anonymousreply 84October 24, 2018 9:40 PM

The movie always sounded like fun; then I watched it....it's endless, 2 1/2 hrs, maybe longer....nothing like as good as "The Best of Everything."

When I was a kid I remember secretly reading the scandalous chapter--I think it was chapter 9--two people having SEX, and the girl is a VIRGIN. Wow.

by Anonymousreply 85October 24, 2018 10:18 PM

I forgot how much I really loved this film. It's the only time I think I believed Candice Bergen as she played a character...she did an admirable job. Joan Hackett, Jessica Walters all of them were so great. Of course, I'm a sucker for the 30s...the cars, architecture, clothes even martini shakers...not to mention all the affectations and social manners. A great film. So nice to see a story that was really about women trying to come into their own without the demonized men to blame l...although the guys in this film weren't the nicest. Again a great film. Thanks for reminding me!

by Anonymousreply 86October 24, 2018 10:36 PM

If you want to see Elizabeth Hartman at her tragic best, watch "A Patch of Blue." Classic Sydney Poitier -- everyone should see it.

Remember, if you watch the link, Elizabeth Hartman is playing a blind girl who rarely gets to leave her slutty mother's apartment (mother played by Shelly Winters).

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by Anonymousreply 87October 24, 2018 11:02 PM

^One of my favorite films, R87. Hartman and Poitier give us the film industry's very first interracial kiss in that movie. 1965. I concur with R87 that it's a very touching film, and one that you should see if you get the chance.

by Anonymousreply 88October 24, 2018 11:16 PM

When I first saw this back in the early 90s, I had the whole remake cast in my head. I think it was:

Libby: Julia Roberts Priss: Julianne Moore Kay: Bridget Fonda Polly: Laura Dern Dottie: Mary Louise Parker Lakey: Nicole Kidman Helena: Phoebe Cates Pokey: Virginia Madsen

by Anonymousreply 89October 25, 2018 5:15 AM

[quote]r16 Damn! Amazon doesn’t have it. I’ll have to signup to Vudu.

You can stream it on Amazon Prime now!

Brush up on those characters and the actresses who play them! Until you can name them all in Helena's painting from their dorm, you're not really gay.

[bold] #SorryButIt'sTrue

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by Anonymousreply 90January 10, 2020 9:41 PM

The Group was hotly anticipated by the public years before it was published especially by the publisher who knew it would be a bestseller. She read a chapter at the 92nd Street Y in the 50’s and that event was well attended. Philip Roth references the book in his short story “Goodbye Columbus.” McCarthy up to that point had been a coterie writer and critic. Divorces and changes in residency kept her from keeping to her publishers timeline. McCarthy married a career diplomat in the State Department and she followed his postings from Poland to Paris where her husband was based until his retirement.

by Anonymousreply 91January 11, 2020 6:38 PM

You can watch the film right now on the Watch TCM app right now.

by Anonymousreply 92January 11, 2020 7:17 PM

There's a series of individual and group portrait Milton H. Greene did (I think for Life magazine) that must have been [italic]the longest day of his life.[/italic] It's seemingly impossible to get all 8 actresses in the shot, looking good.

Invariably there's one of them that's blurry, or blocked. In this shot it's Joan Hackett, stragling along at the rear...

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by Anonymousreply 93January 11, 2020 9:42 PM

Candice Bergen invariably comes out looking fantastic, of course.

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by Anonymousreply 94January 11, 2020 9:44 PM
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by Anonymousreply 95January 11, 2020 9:44 PM
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by Anonymousreply 96January 11, 2020 9:47 PM

Jessica & George....

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by Anonymousreply 97January 11, 2020 10:11 PM

[quote] Free love, contraception, abortion, lesbianism, and mental illness.

And that's just the cast! Wait till you see what the characters are like.

by Anonymousreply 98January 11, 2020 10:53 PM

The author discusses her novel when it was on the best sellers list in 1963

(at the 9:00 mark)

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by Anonymousreply 99January 12, 2020 1:33 AM

1966 also brought us the gritty and trenchant....

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by Anonymousreply 100January 12, 2020 1:45 AM

Which one's the lesbian?

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by Anonymousreply 101January 12, 2020 2:01 AM

Candice Bergen, as per their choice to put her in black leather.

by Anonymousreply 102January 12, 2020 2:05 AM

That was my point, r102.

by Anonymousreply 103January 12, 2020 2:07 AM

[italic]Vanity Fair [/italic]article about the book, below. (They let you access a few free articles.)

[quote] In it's earliest form, McCarthywanted to write about “a group of newly married couples who emerge out of the Depression with a series of optimistic beliefs in science, engineering, rural electrification, the Aga stove, technocracy, psychoanalysis. In a certain sense, the ideas are the villains and the people their hapless victims.” It was a concept novel, with not so much a plot as a plan: the characters conned by progress with a capital P. ... In 1959, McCarthy again applied for a Guggenheim, this time describing the book as a “history of the faith in progress of the nineteen-thirties and forties as reflected in the behavior and notions of young women—college graduates of the year 1933 It is a crazy quilt of clichés, platitudes, and idées reçues. Yet the book is not meant to be a joke or even a satire, exactly, but a ‘true history’ of the times … ”

It's interesting that an author's intent can be nothing like what readers eventually embrace about a novel.

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by Anonymousreply 104January 12, 2020 2:24 AM

[R85], you took the words out of my mouth. "The Group" sounds like so much fun, but it's a long, long slog.

by Anonymousreply 105January 12, 2020 2:26 AM

The police chief who gets a BJ under the podium in Police Academy plays one of the husbands.

JR Ewing is another cad

The dad from Family is another good guy

by Anonymousreply 106January 12, 2020 2:30 AM

Forgot to say Murphy Brown plays a lesbo

by Anonymousreply 107January 12, 2020 2:31 AM

What is it about Joan Hackett's diction that sounds so bizarre? It isn't just mid-Atlantic, lots of actors do that and it doesn't bother me. It's something about the articulation that makes me nuts. It gets in the way of the acting and renders everything patently false. Lee Meriwether does it too.

by Anonymousreply 108January 12, 2020 2:58 AM

It's a great movie, but I find it almost painful to watch because almost all of the men are so horrible.

by Anonymousreply 109January 12, 2020 3:13 AM

Between feeling embarrassed for Joan Hackett's character and flinching at the shrillness of proto-Lucille Bluth, I gave up after 20-30 minutes. That and Mulligan gives me the creeps.

by Anonymousreply 110January 12, 2020 4:10 AM

[quote]r110 Between feeling embarrassed for Joan Hackett's character ...

One difference in the book is Dottie (Joan Hackett) doesn't end up a bitter lush. She practically-minded gives up on wayward Dick (which makes me giggle) and marries an oldewr man from Arizona, but she doesn't become permanantly depressed or anything. And they make Kay's funeral seem as desolate and sparsly attended as her wedding ... when in the book a surprisingly large throng of people show up; students and teachers from college days, people from Macy's and the theater, etc. Even the butler from Poky's parents' house goes.

Sidney Lumet and the (male) screenwriter were working under their invented theme that "College Does Not Prepare Women for Life," and that may be why they wanted to make more of the girls come to unhappy ends. But none of them in the book really face a dismal future (or funeral). Priss has an annoying husband and Helena is alone, but otherwise I think everyone's okay. Even Norine ends up remarrying a super rich banker.

by Anonymousreply 111January 12, 2020 2:56 PM

Candice was stunning.

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by Anonymousreply 112January 12, 2020 7:50 PM

Stunning, I tell you.

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by Anonymousreply 113January 12, 2020 7:52 PM

A little horsey.

by Anonymousreply 114January 12, 2020 8:00 PM

I saw the movie when it came out. Don’t remember much of it. Never read the book, or wanted to.

Hartman in all her photos looks as if she’s about to cry. Had a nasal edge to her voice that was this side of whiny. Even when her character was sympathetic, I kept wanting to slap her.

I don’t recall much of Bergen, though I liked her very much as a different kind of character, an idealist missionary, opposite sizzling Steve McQueen, in “The Sand Pebbles (1967).

by Anonymousreply 115January 12, 2020 11:06 PM

[quote]r115 Hartman in all her photos looks as if she’s about to cry.

Hartman was so sensitive and fragile she threw herself from a building at age 44. She often looked like she was on the verge of tears because she was.

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by Anonymousreply 116January 13, 2020 3:34 AM

It's free on Amazon streaming

by Anonymousreply 117January 14, 2020 6:41 AM

I couldn't get through the book, the film was fine, though. A pleasant surprise to see Kathleen Widdoes in this, (love the scene where she's in a half-lotus pose), before she played Emma Snyder on, "As the World Turns".

by Anonymousreply 118January 14, 2020 8:24 AM

Joanna Pettet retired from Hollywood after her and Alex Cord's son ODed. Cord had taken and spent every penny she ever had. She settled to live in a trailer in the desert and started growing and selling Marijuana. Her friends from showbiz were horrified and thought the FBI might find her, so they convinced Alan Bates who had been her leading man in the play "poor richard" and was absurdly loyal and generous, to rescue her. She convinced him that they always had been in love (even though she never saw his -huge privates , coz' , y'a know, Alan ...) and that he needed to marry her (who wouldn't be lady Bates said she). But Alan was otherwise engaged. He had a very young and very beautiful bf who put a stop to this madness. But Joanna nevertheless arrived in London with everything she possessed -blanche dubois style, and started blanche dubois-ing the place. Until the bf told her to fuck off. Alan was very ill and needed calm. When she understood that there would be no marriage, she asked for a pay off or she would call the tabloids. When Alan was at the London clininc, she blacklisted the bf. She got 150 k. and played nurse for the press (and companion), when the bf had devoted himself to Alan the whole time. Evil human being

by Anonymousreply 119January 14, 2020 8:42 AM

[italic]LEAVE JOANNA ALONE ! !

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by Anonymousreply 120January 14, 2020 7:21 PM

If that's true about Pettet, I hope the truth comes out in the press. How old is the boyfriend? 40s/50s? I suspect there's more to it than Alan Bates being "too nice."

by Anonymousreply 121January 15, 2020 11:57 AM

For what it's worth, the Joanna Pettet entry on Wikipedia says Terence Stamp was the biodad of her kid.

Lovers of this movie can own it on DVD now from Kino Lorber.

by Anonymousreply 122January 17, 2020 5:47 PM

I just saw this, DL, and I have more questions than answers!

The hairstyles alone...

by Anonymousreply 123September 4, 2020 3:26 PM
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