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.

I used to be hooked on black and white films, usually ones involving some femme fatale, but I hadn't watched one in years. So maybe that's partially why I got so much enjoyment out of this. It was great to relax to at the end of the work week. I simply found it entertaining, so much so I told my sister about it so we can talk about it.

If I disliked anything, it was the fact that Grace was clearly forced into activity (there's a more appropriate word for that) in the beginning even though she went along with it (likely so she wouldn't get hurt, no matter how the movie framed it). I don't like the judgment placed on her for doing things everyone knew good and well young men were doing at the time as well. For who were young women doing it with if not them? Yet society only judges the women. So, I didn't like that, but I understood the mindsets at the time, and I appreciated that they skipped the whole ostracization bit. Don't get me wrong, I HATE cheating. It's one of my most hated things.

So I felt bad for her husband because he seemed like a good guy (though I got worried for a second there when it seemed like he was gonna hit her but knocked something over instead -- still not cool), and I appreciate that he pointed out the fact that, no, he doesn't deserve praise just for being true but he stayed true because he believes in it. I also like that they didn't do the predictable thing at the end by having Grace get shot. If the film had come out in the 40s and not the mid-60s, she likely would have.

I feel like this: Grace was taken advantage of as a minor, and as often happens, she became promiscuous thereafter. I'm not saying it's solely due to that, but there's a moment when she's outside of her party and she looked disturbed by what she's doing. It's brief, but it told me something.

Still, though, she got the ending she deserved. Because I don't believe in the kind of love in which my partner can cheat on me either.

S/N: This has made me curious about the book.

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 slut 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.