A Rage to Live

1965 "The story of Grace Caldwell Tate really began in the back seat of a car... ...and went from man...to man...to man..."
6.3| 1h41m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 20 October 1965 Released
Producted By: United Artists
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Grace Caldwell, a young Pennsylvania newspaper heiress living with her widowed mother, has trouble restraining herself when it comes to the amorous attentions of young men. As word starts to spread about her behavior, Grace becomes a major source of heartache for her mother and a big source of concern to her brother.

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Reviews

Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen
Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.
Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Michael O'Keefe This is a spicy drama based on a John O'Hara novel. Suzanne Pleshette is terrific as Grace Caldwell, a newspaper heiress that has a problem with her sexual desires. Not really a problem for her; but an embarrassment for her family. Her many trysts threaten to destroy her wealthy family's image. While on a vacation with her widowed mother Emily (Carmen Matthews), Grace can't wait to have a fling with a young waiter. This causes her mother a fatal heart attack. This beautiful nymphomaniac promises to end her sexually wild ways after marriage. But, she's got to have it when she wants it; affair after affair. Even old friends are not safe from her wanton desires. No doubt about it, Miss Pleshette is very desirable. Walter Grauman directs a very solid cast that includes: Bradford Dillman, Ben Gazzara, James Gregory, Peter Graves, Bethel Leslie, Mark Goddard, Ruth White and Aneta Corsaut.
jjnxn-1 This is soap opera pure and simple about a woman who in more enlightened times would have been viewed as a person with a crippling disorder that would require treatment but for our purposes here is a wanton slut. Suzanne Pleshette was a superior actress so she is able within the confines of the script to present her character as someone who is ruled by urges she can not control. There are minor attempts at some insight into her problem but they are quickly tossed away in favor of sensationalism. Good supporting cast including in a small role a rare on screen role for Brett Somers Klugman from Match Game. For those who enjoy trashy cinema with quality actors enacting silly situations with earnest professionalism.
blanche-2 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.
Gary M. James I caught "A Rage to Live" on the fly while switching channels. The film was not very good. I thought it was a lower-grade version of the lush, trashy, morality tales like Butterfield 8. (Both movies were based on novels by John O'Hara.) Suzanne Pleshette does her best as the nymphomaniac who tries to overcome her insatiable appetite towards men. What got to me while watching this movie was how many of these actors appeared in other TV programs. Starting with Ms. Pleshette (The Bob Newhart Show) Bradford Dillman, who plays Pleshette's husband (according to IMDb, he's appeared in over 90 TV programs), Ben Gazzara (Run for Your Life), Peter Graves (Mission: Impossible), Mark Goddard (Lost In Space), James Gregory (Barney Miller), Virginia Christie (Mrs. Olsen in the Folger's Crystals coffee commercials of the 60s and 70s), and, in an uncredited role, Brett Somers (Match Game, The Odd Couple). Even director Walter Grauman is known in television as a workhorse. He's credited with directing over 200 television movies and shows.In the end, I did not have much fun watching this turgid drama but it was lot of fun playing TV trivia.