I had to stay up late to do some work at my computer the other night, so I watched this on TCM, often my default channel. Jean Simmons was a wonderful actress who got a whole lot of projects not worthy of her talents, and the movie featured a lot of other good performers--John Forsythe, Teresa Wright, Nanette Fabray, Shirley Jones, Lloyd Bridges. (Singer Bobby Darin, billed here as "Robert," was decent in some movies but laughable and largely unrecognizable here as a gigolo.) And Richard Brooks made some good movies, both as director and writer. But despite all the talent involved, the film was quite frustrating. All the women are obsessed with keeping their looks so they keep their husbands, and none of them seem to be able to imagine having a career--I mean, I know feminism was considered rather radical at the time, but these women certainly needed it! Seeing them kvetch at the spa, I yelled at the TV, "Go to a NOW meeting!" (Or at least do some volunteer work to get a clue about people outside your social class.) And the unmarried woman, Shirley Jones, has not supported herself with a job but made a life as a kept woman. Granted, the professional opportunities for women were limited, but there were some...I don't think this is exactly an accurate picture of the time (I lived through it, although I was just a kid). Anyway, I got frustrated with all the whiny rich women, and also with the fact that, like a lot of movies in the 1960s, this one was trying to be somewhat "hip" but just not succeeding. Sort of the hip '60s filtered through old-Hollywood conventionality...and I love old Hollywood, but by the late '60s a new sensibility was needed. Anyway, at least Simmons got out of her rut at the end...but then, my sister, who watched most of the movie with me, thought the character really had nothing to complain about. So, two different views, but both of us had our frustrations. I do love the Michel Legrand song, so that was a plus--and I found this worth watching just to see where it went wrong!
Review of The Happy Ending
