Rent Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970)
3.7 of 5 from 63 ratings
1h 35min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Superbly directed by Frank Perry (The Swimmer, Play It as It Lays), with a scathing screenplay by Eleanor Perry (David and Lisa, Ladybug Ladybug), 'Diary of a Mad Housewife' tells the story of Tina Balser (Carrie Snodgress) a frustrated housewife trapped in an unhappy marriage to an insufferably controlling, status-obsessed bore (Richard Benjamin). Tina seeks solace in a fling with an abusive lover, the arrogant writer Georg Prager (Frank Langella), who treats her like a sex object, leading to therapy and further unhappiness.
- Actors:
- Richard Benjamin, Frank Langella, Carrie Snodgress, Lorraine Cullen, Frannie Michel, Lee Addoms, Peter Dohanos, Katherine Meskill, Leonard Elliott, Valma, Hilda Haynes, Donald Symington, Alley Mills, Alice Cooper, Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton, Ja'net DuBois, Dennis Dunaway, Kurt Garfield, Jason Holt
- Directors:
- Frank Perry
- Producers:
- Ronald H. Gilbert, Frank Perry
- Writers:
- Eleanor Perry, Sue Kaufman
- Genres:
- Classics, Comedy, Drama
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 01/08/2022
- Run Time:
- 96 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.85:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Two presentations of the feature: the original theatrical cut (96 mins, High Definition); and the long-unseen alternative TV version (91 mins, Standard Definition)
- Theatrical cut audio commentary with actor Rutanya Alda and film historian Lee Gambin (2022)
- TV version audio commentary with Frank Perry biographer Justin Bozung (2022)
- A Confident Approach (2011, 6 mins): archival interview in which actor-turned-director Richard Benjamin reflects on working with some of the great American filmmakers
- Feminine Mystique (2022, 31 mins): video appreciation by award-winning editor and filmmaker Chris Innis
- Original theatrical trailer
- Larry Karaszewski trailer commentary (2020, 4 mins)
- Radio spots
- Image Gallery
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Reviews (1) of Diary of a Mad Housewife
Mad, as Charged - Diary of a Mad Housewife review by griggs
Frank Perry completes an unofficial trilogy of American discontent — The Swimmer, Last Summer, now this — and the terrain barely shifts. Suburbs, status, the quiet throttling of herself.
Carrie Snodgress is extraordinary as Tina, enduring a husband whose social climbing you feel in your molars, and a lover — Frank Langella, magnificent — who offers escape but delivers only a different contempt. The film is frank about what women were told to want in 1970, and franker still about what it cost them.
A scene or two lingers past the point of bruising, but Snodgress builds Tina from the inside. The fury is always there, always just out of reach. Mad? Wouldn’t you be?
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.