Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) User Reviews

A delicious bestseller makes for an adequate urban comedy-drama

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 16 January 2001]

Carrie Snodgress is wistful, sad, conflicted, fed-up and funny playing harried NYC housewife on the verge of collapse; Richard Benjamin is her anal-retentive husband; and Frank Langella is her uncommitted lover. From Sue Kaufman's book, one of the funniest satiric novels of its era, comes this sometimes-surreal jumble by Frank Perry, who is so concerned with making a monster out of Benjamin's Jonathan that he in turn makes Snodgress' Tina look a little pathetic. The character was feistier in the book, with a (self-contained) deadpan sense of humor that Perry isn't quite able to replicate on film. This Tina has her moments--throwing her ruined Thanksgiving platter against the wall, berating Jonathan for making fun of her in front of the kids--and Snodgress is terrific, really the only reason to see the film. She overcomes the knockabout structure and obvious swipes at indifferent urbanites and makes something touching out of the material. I first saw this on television and admired a couple of scenes with Snodgress and her headstrong daughters (a beauty involved smacking her kid when she deserved it, and then going to apologize). I later rented the video and found a number of those scenes missing. Turns out they had been added to the network version to pad the picture's length from other cuts--mostly sexual ones involving Langella. This is a first: I liked the discards much better than what ended up in the actual movie. **1/2 from ****

Enjoyably Annoying

[monk-12 · 7/10 · 14 February 1999]

If one were to make a list of the All-time Most Annoying Movie Characters, it would properly include only those whom we can enjoy as they annoy. They're the ones who cause you to smile as you squirm, not those who make you reach for the remote. Right alongside DeNiro's Rupert Pupkin, and Honey, as played by Sandy Dennis (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf), ranks Richard Benjamin as Jonathan Balser. His unctuous whine is the best reason to watch this period piece. Carrie Snodgress, as the brunt of his annoying personality, also does a fine job. Frank Langella, playing her lover, is a bit too unlikeable, but it only serves to heighten our empathy for the unfortunate heroine.

The lawyer's wife

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 8 July 2011]

Jonathan Balser is a pretentious man. A social climber, he is usually seen at the right parties in Manhattan where he is trying to pass himself for someone he is not. Jonathan is married to Tina, a grounded woman who does not share her husband's desire to be in the company of all the phonies and celebrities he seems to enjoy. Tina realizes she is in a bad marriage, but in the late 1960s and early 1970s women still depended on husbands for their jobs were to keep the house, take care of the children, be the perfect wife, and hostess for an up and coming star attorney.

Tina is ripe for an affair, or at least for someone who will see her potential as a neglected woman that will be ready for the man who is able to get her out of her shell. That man comes in the shape of George Prager, a writer, who sees in Tina a possible prey. George realizes Tina is starving for affection and sex, which he will be happy to provide. Unfortunately, Tina realizes her mistake in her involvement; George is only using her for his sexual satisfaction, the same way he uses many other women in his circle.

"Diary of a Mad Housewife" was one of the best films of that period. It helped that Frank Perry decided to direct it and had the extraordinary help of his then wife, Eleonor, to do the excellent screenplay for the picture. The original novel was by Sue Kaufman. The Perrys were one of the most original people working in movies then. Among their best efforts were "The Swimmer" and "Last Summer".

Carrie Snodgress is the main reason for watching this film. With her good looks and extraordinary voice, she made a fantastic creation of Tina. Richard Benjamin's Jonathan is one of his best screen works. He captures the essence of the man that wants to socialize with what he thinks is the "in crowd" at all costs. At the end, he is a man that has lost everything because of his unrelenting ambition. A young Frank Langella contributes to the success of the film with his acerbic portrait of George.

A must for serious fans of Frank Perry.

Experiments in editing

[TonyDood · 16 July 2004]

There are two different versions of this movie, one for t.v. and one on video. They're both the same length, but they are incredibly different in tone. On t.v., the movie is about a harried housewife who has a brief (mostly offscreen) affair as part of her attempt to make sense of her life. On video, the movie is a dark portrayal of an illicit affair, emphasizing the sexual dysfunctions of everyone involved. If one reads the book, it is clear that both versions are unsatisfying--the best solution is a "Director's Cut," like the one I made on my own, that incorporates all the scenes and brings the running time up to a tolerable 2 hrs even. This makes it an almost perfect adaptation of the book, and a very fulfilling movie. Here's hoping someone, someday, has the sense to release this great old film on DVD this way.

Career-defining roles for Carrie Snodgrass, Richard Benjamin and Frank Langella, as well as a wonderful blend of humor and drama.

And the little brats are just great: "Why, even the salad isn't normal--mooky oranges and cut up plants!"

I like Tina enough to watch this

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 29 November 2014]

Tina Balser (Carrie Snodgress) is a tired NYC housewife married to the demeaning pompous Jonathan (Richard Benjamin). He criticizes her on everything even in front of their two young impressionable daughters. At a party she got dragged to by her husband, she meets the arrogant chauvinistic writer George Prager (Frank Langella). She has an affair but George isn't much better than Jonathan. Essentially, I like Tina enough to watch this movie despite the annoying Jonathan and the callous George. This movie is a bit of a torture but it's a fascinating one. It's also a movie of its times. It was probably more compelling back in the day.

Brilliant but hard to like.

[MOscarbradley · 7/10 · 19 December 2022]

I honestly thought the opening scene of "Diary of a Mad Housewife" was a dream. Surely, I said to myself, no-one could be as obnoxious as the character Richard Benjamin was playing and if Carrie Snodgress's 'mad housewife' were to murder him, (and their two appalling children), she would be found not guilty. Later she meets and has an affair with Frank Langella; he's equally obnoxious but at least he's better in bed.

This was the film that launched Snodgress' career, (it never really went anywhere), and she did get an Oscar nomination, losing to Glenda Jackson in "Women in Love". She is superb as indeed are Benjamin and Langella but these are the kind of people you really do love to hate and were it not so brilliantly acted, written and directed would probably have been unendurable. A minor hit at the time it has now largely disappeared perhaps because it's not very likeable.

Entertaining Early Entry Into Man-Hating Cinema

[jadedalex · 7/10 · 28 December 2015]

I feel I am being generous giving 'Diary' a seven. The first half of the movie reminded me of the trash of 'Looking For Mr. Goodbar'. Basically, you have a thoroughly annoying, egotistical husband (played by the usually affable Richard Benjamin) married to poor Carrie Snodgress. Although not a crowd pleaser, Ms. Snodgress registers some sort of strange appeal with me in the role.

You can hardly blame Carrie for her adulterous affair with the very young and handsome Frank Langella, but his character is what makes this the man-hating flick that it is, for Langella is his own selfish bastard. At one point, Carrie's character accuses the Langella character of being 'gay'.

My big kick in seeing this film was the appearance of 'The Alice Cooper Band' and their music sounds great, but visually, very little was shot of Alice and his rock band, which was a bit of a disappointment to me.

The ending is an incongruous 'happy' or 'philisophiical' view of life, as it seems to me that it would take a miracle to save this couple's marriage. When I think of 'philosophical' happy endings, I can only refer people to the film 'Alfie', which is in many ways a fine movie, but the dishonest ending of Alfie even glimpsing 'what it's all about' is optimism at its most phony and rings hollow as does this film's finish.

In another curious note, both this film and Diane Keaton's 'Looking For Mr. Goodbar' are rather hard to find, if nonexistent, on DVD. 'Diary' was vaguely entertaining. 'Goodbar' is simply revolting.

A brutal film

[JasparLamarCrabb · 10/10 · 20 December 2014]

Frank & Eleanor Perry's masterpiece of middle class angst stars Carrie Snodgress as a well-healed housewife dealing with the trials and tribulations of a horrendous life. Married to an idiotic, social climbing culture vulture and saddled with two impossibly bratty children, Snodgress seeks solace in an empty affair with a insanely callous writer. The acting is absolutely brilliant, not only by Snodgress but by Frank Langella as the writer and by Richard Benjamin as the nitwit husband. Benjamin does his best work here -- perfect in every way blaming his wife for all of his many flaws. Snodgress, who was Oscar nominated and became a star with this role, gives what has become a legendary performance. The unforgiving script is by Eleanor Perry & it's never made clear if what we're seeing (and hearing) is in Snodgress's mind, which may very well be warping things considering just how brutally she's treated by these two men. The tightly wound direction is by Frank Perry. Gerald Hirschfeld did the cinematography and the astounding production design is by Peter Dohanos. With Peter Boyle (briefly), Katherine Meskill and Lorraine Cullen as Sylvie, one of Snodgress's very bitchy daughters. One of the best and least appreciated films of the 1970s.

A maid needs a maid.

[bbjzilla-25345 · 7/10 · 22 February 2024]

Depression is.

Poor Tina. Lurching from one abusing patriarch to another in the vain hope of feeling.

The filmmakers capture the absurdist view from inside a plainly horrifying marriage with its comforts and familiarities coupled with the bleak panorama of the sexed up unfaithful in all its voyeuristic banality.

Tina's inability to interact with the players beyond surface leads to inevitable communicative dead ends, always judging, preaching or simpering the ghastly characters of misanthropy make as much sense as the proverbial fish on a bicycle.

Perhaps Richard Benjamin's arrogant husband and father is too close to caricature to be realistic but Carrie Snogress keeps things grounded letting her anger and resentment out only in short bursts.

It's all a bit dull until the finale; revelations about her husband and lover and the apocalypse of therapy were spine chilling in all its dissociative glory.

SIlent Reproach is Often Times a Loaded Gun!!!!!!

[dataconflossmoor · 10/10 · 10 September 2002]

Richard Benjamin and Carrie Snodgress are a married couple who are plagued with the preconceived notion that a prerequisite to living in Central Park West means being content with nothing!!!...Richard Benjamin is an attorney who is floundering in his attempt to be accepted into New York's intellectual circles!!!..Carrie Snodgress is a housewife who is fatigued with domestic malaise and always seems to be the scapegoat for her husband's frustrations...As a diversion, she seeks a form of social escapism by way of a gigolo...The relationship is manifested through sophisticated encounter...The gigolo is a precocious punk who gets emotionally abusive to her...As a result the wife (Carrie Snodgress) feels more isolated and confused than ever before in her life...At the end of the film, the wife finds out that her gigolo prefers the boys, and the husband is resolutely defeated by irrational conclusions in every aspect of his life...The lavish parties, the academic pretensions, and the extensive therapy are all urban subterfuges for individual insecurity!!!

The characters and the social situations are extremely well developed, especially in that they bring out the nuances as being the true culprits for this married couple's precarious existence!!!...This film makes avoidable disappointments a very emphatic reality!!... An Excellent!!!Excellent!!!Excellent!!! Excellent Film!!!!

An educated, v repressed young woman who finally wakes up

[purduegrad-47653 · 7/10 · 2 July 2023]

A very educated, repressed young woman plays house in Manhattan. She has a Harvard grad husband and a daughter. This lady, although perfect looking on the outside, is v emotionally repressed. She is a doormat to her very self absorbed, abusive, and critical husband.

Her husband is v selfish and superficial. He just wants to have large parties and show off.

This lady meets a v creative and bold artist at a party one day and ends up having an affair w him. He also becomes abusive, and she scolds him. She finally stands up for herself.

She then realizes she's had enough of her verbally and emotionally abusive husband and stands up for herself. She tells him all he cares about are his superficial friends. And that they don't care about him.

This movie is about doing things that you think you're "supposed" to be doing. Saying yes all the time and pleasing others. Being nice all the time. Thinking standing up for yourself is bad. Being out of touch w your feelings and what you really want. Going thru life numb and being a Stepford wife.

Movie ends abruptly but it's hinted that she leaves him.

A bit of Rock and roll trivial history

[sguphx · 10/10 · 30 May 2005]

Singer songwriter Neil Young was watching this very movie on TV in the early seventies. He fell in love with Carrie Snodgrass,eventually meeting her and having a son with her. They never married. The incident was immortalized in song on his legendary Harvest album in 1972. The song is entitled A Man Needs A Maid . The last verse tells the story: "A while ago somewhere I don't know when I was watching a movie with a friend. I fell in love with the actress. She was playing a part that I could understand.

A maid. A man needs a maid. A maid." Lyrics by Neil Young Because of this song I searched out the movie and just loved it. When will it be issued on DVD. After reading the review by the experiment in editing guy, I would just love to see his version. I am not sure which version I saw. I think it was the darker version.

Boring movie about boring people

[newpaula2002 · 2/10 · 26 December 2014]

Sorry. Maybe this film was really something back in the 1970's (with Tina's constant topless scenes), but it's just stupid now. Poor Tina with the boorish husband begins an affair with a stranger who turns out to be a loser too. I agree with the ending. She has an eight room apartment in Manhattan; what's she got to be upset about? Her only mistake was not divorcing her abusive husband before he squandered all of their money on a vineyard in an attempt to join the cool crowd. Even her two children are obnoxious. This is a very bleak film. No great sets, or scenery, and all of the characters are awful. Absolutely nothing happens in this film. I thought the hubby might come around and be human once he got the wind knocked out of him, but if she's in therapy, then I guess not.

Glimpse of a New York of not so long ago that now exists only in memory

[darnell-2 · 5 November 1998]

This highly entertaining and memorable film provides a glimpse into a New York of not so long ago that now exists only in memory. But Diary of a Mad Housewife ultimately succeeds on the strength of its actors, particularly Snodgress, who plays a Smith graduate-turned prisoner of a Central Park West apartment inhabited by her overbearing, pitifully ambitious husband and spoiled daughters. Her performance is somehow flat and anemic but compelling at the same time--a combination that seems to have been consciously emulated by Chloe Sevigny in The Last Days of Disco.

Bejamin is perfectly cast as the insufferable husband, adenoidally petulant and demanding. When Snodgress's patience is finally exhausted, she takes up with Langella, a glowering animal presence as a bad-boy writer whose selfishness, it turns out, rivals and even exceeds Benjamin's.

The husband and wife represent two people whose lack of use for their education has led them astray: Snodgress finds herself in a state of frustration with the humiliations of her housewifely duties, and Benjamin, unappreciated in his office, comes up with ill-fated schemes for self-expression and social advancement.

All in all, the film brings The Feminine Mystique to life in unexpectedly original and diverting ways.

I've known a man who is just like Jonathan.

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 25 July 2005]

With the feminist movement on the rise, they obviously had to make a movie about a woman in an abusive relationship, and "Diary of a Mad Housewife" does a good job with it. Tina Balser's (Carrie Snodgress, RIP) husband Jonathan (Richard Benjamin) is the biggest jerk in the world. Any bad qualities that a person could have, you can bet money that Jonathan has them. So, Tina starts having an affair with George Prager (Frank Langella), only to find out his secret.

As it is, I've actually known a man who is almost exactly like Jonathan. To avoid any lawsuits, I won't say his name, but he is one creepy person. This movie could almost be based on him (but obviously it's not). A really good movie, even if it is a little dated.

Pitch-Black Comedy Mainly in the Sense that It Leaves No Opportunity for Tears

[jzappa · 9/10 · 24 February 2011]

The film heroes who involve me most aren't saints, or even rebels. They're everyday people who are accosted by wrong done to them and face their predicament: Frank Perry's film is about a stunningly tolerant young woman who has by some means gotten herself married to the most arrogant imbecile in Manhattan. He's narcissistic, heartless, self-unaware, childish and bitchy. He backs "his" kids against his wife. He thinks her a household drone, suited to chores during the day, and, perhaps, a "little roll in de hay" at night. He debases her in the presence of others, as he does himself, too, by his unashamed status-seeking. Does she loathe him? Not precisely.

Set in chic Central Park West and the East 50s among vigilant and quite well-heeled people, this engrossing oddity is to considerable degree about the routine and the material environment of its principals. Benjamin, a law partner, seeks recognition by that exclusively New York influential society that exists by and for the distinction of its style and the legal tender of its judgments. To this end, he buys art and wine, attends openings, reads Variety and cruelly directs his wife.

Snodgress, attractive, straight-haired, blonde, Smith, civilized, mild, tormented not just by her husband but also by a pair of repugnant daughters, finds respite of sorts in the bed of Langella, a writer whose fallacy is that he's without misconceptions and who's as fanatical with his sex as Jonathan is with his wine cellar or Eskimo bird nonchalantly flaunted on the coffee table. While her world is mad, Tina is rather commonsensical. She's not even, to recognize the jibe in the title, very overtly outraged as she must be, and at the end her triumph, minor and very awkward, are the conquests of greater emotional and psychological stability, bringing about awareness over action.

Frank Perry and his screenwriter wife's provocative, offbeat film is keen to jiggle around with its concept of personality, actually to see those ideas as a deception in their own right, in its beautifully dramatic performances, and in its steadfastness to its visual restraint.

Among the cast, Snodgress, lean, with a hoarse voice and an astuteness that persistently saves her from sentimentality, has the benefit, as the point-of-view character, of being followed but never precisely clarified, as opposed to Benjamin and Langella. Both men are characterized by their fixations, and both in due course helpless without their sufferer's indulgence. It seems for that reason all the more notable that they've both intensified their performances, Benjamin for caricature and Langella for personal ambiguity in a skillfully multifarious take-off, beyond the promise of their written roles.

The Perrys' spiritual awakening is a film of interiors, with hardly any outer walls, which it deals with not so much with an eye for precise nuance as with a readiness to work through hemmed-in places. Mainly in the scenes between Snodgress and Langella, in an East Side apartment in which the afternoon sunlight over Queens and the river looks virtually as exquisite as in life, Perry has positioned his actors within a thoughtful geometry formed by the interaction between walls, furniture, faces, bodies and the facilitating confines of the movement within the frame. In these scenes, and some others, Diary of a Mad Housewife eludes its genre, its comprehension of affairs and intentions, and becomes the class of current and well-structured predicament that indicates great filmmaking.

This movie changed my life

[mls4182 · 10/10 · 24 July 2020]

She is the only sane one in the movie. Her husband is a truly stupid, arrogant and abusive fool so dense he isn't aware of his own insecurity. Her lover is just about the same. Her children are so rotten you want to pay them to go out and accept candy from strangers. Her social life is full of boring wanna bed and phonies. She keeps her sanity and decency all through it.

The next time you have to deal with an abusive person, think of the characters in this film and remember their faults and motivations.

Tiresome

[Kakueke · 3/10 · 20 November 2001]

This movie had something to say, certainly. But what is going on does not merit 95 minutes, but more like 20. Granted, Carrie Snodgrass, as Tina, and Richard Benjamin, as Jonathan, put on fine performances. But we are bombarded with the same thing, over and over. Also, is it realistic to think even a "not liberated" woman would put up with Jonathan's endless do everything, egotism, and petulance, for anything resembling that length of time? Tina's facial expressions and body english in reaction are good, but again, how many times do we need it? Moreover, if a character is very distasteful, such as Jonathan was, the same type of distastefulness becomes exponentially annoying to the viewer--have him do some other bad things. The lack of depth in the spoiled kids adds to the tedium.

The affair with George puts a dent, and a little excitement, into the monotony. He also turns out to be extremely selfish, but that is more dramatically meaningful, adding to the movie's bite, than would be a Prince Charming coming in and sweeping her off her feet. However, without revealing the detail, let me state that the group psychotherapy coda doesn't work well as an anticlimax. Something more interesting could easily have been thought up -- it is just blah.

What was needed was variation on a theme, and a little variation, period. Archie Bunker had some of the same characteristics for his endless years on TV, but after two or three years he evolves, changes, under different circumstances, with different characters. Would people have continued to like it if the intense stuff of those early years just continued, on and on? For "Diary of a Mad Housewife", a few more subplots, and angles, would have served very well. Lacking this, we are subjected to quite boring fare.

A Four Star Sleeper

[rwint · 18 August 2001]

Brilliant, perceptive look at isolation. Story works on multiple levels from offbeat comedy, to drama, satire, and even feminist viewpoint. It's all rather low key, but slowly builds for a strong impact. Centers around a upper middle class New York housewife who becomes increasingly frustrated at the alienation from her husband, children, and his friends. For a escape she has a affair with a man (Langella) that seems exciting and different, but in the end treats her just as poorly. Ultimately she comes to the conclusion that under the facade he and many others are just as disconnected. Film works on the basic perception that isolation is a definite reality of modern living. Terrific ending puts it all into perspective. Takes some good satirical jabs at the 'upwardly mobile', also has good color detail and a interesting visual style. Snodgrass's performance is excellent in a rather difficult role. Forced to put on a 'happy face' by her obnoxious ,social climbing husband she is still able to convey her frustrations to the viewer through body language, voice tones, and facial expressions. A four star sleeper and one of Frank and Eleanor Perry's most complete work. For TV some scenes were taken out while others added making it slightly different from the theatrical version. For instance in the TV version Snodgrass meets Langella while walking her dog. In the theatrical version she meets him at a party.

A Great Film!!

[knirtej · 10/10 · 1 March 2006]

"Mad Housewife" is a great satire on the state of male female relationships in the late 60's.

Carrie Snodgrass plays a educated yuppie who enters into an affair with novelist Frank Langella as an escape from her infantile husband, played by Dick Benjamin.

Snodgrass trades her dud for a stud but never gets the love and respect she really craves.

Suffice to say she is just as unhappy by the end of the film as she was at its beginning.

See it if you can but it is hard to find.

One of the GREAT movies of a great decade

[mwillhoite-684-953169 · 10/10 · 20 August 2013]

This remarkable film seems to be unavailable, and I can't imagine why. Frank Perry was a fine director who never seemed to strike out, and gave us several memorable films in the 'seventies. The three leads have never been better, the direction and portrayal of the period are spot-on, and the viewer is drawn into the action immediately. Richard Benjamin is a revelation; never before and never afterward did he nail his character to the wall so splendidly. Frank Langella matches Benjamin in loathsomeness and yet one can see the lead female's fascination with him. Carrie Snodgress was a terrific find. why did the movies not do more with her? And more to the point, WHY ISN'T THIS MOVIE ON DVD?!?! Supposedly it was once on VHS, and a few copies seem to be circulating, but DVDs are now the way most of us see movies now.

It's not just the housewife who's mad. It's the entire world surrounding her.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 8 June 2022]

This is the type of film that makes misogynists hate the leading male characters more than the woman. Richard Benjamin had me laughing at him hysterically because everything that came out of his mouth was just ridiculously absurd, and like others who have written here, I have met people exactly like him. As for the character Frank Langella plays, he's an overconfident smug egotist, certainly not my ideal of the type of person to have in a chair with just because of relationship you are in has tons of issues. Snodgrass too is quite flawed, unable to stand up to her two children who totally abuse her verbally, and I don't think anyone would blame her for totally walking out on this poor excuse for a family.

As written by Frank and Eleanor Perry, this is an honest look at the human condition where everybody is greatly flawed and often annoying to the point where you just want to go live in solitary confinement and never leave. A hysterically funny scene with the all too honest babysitter had me both laughing and crying because once again, I've been counted people like this, the types that you can't escape from unless you run faster than them. In short, this is a film about human neediness, and not in a way to where it's mutual.

Carrie Snodgress, deservedly nominated for an Oscar for performance, plays a real person, so troubled and unsure of how to get out of her rut. Benjamin is a verbal bully, and Langella demanding and pretentious, and yet they were two of the most entertaining idiots to watch continuously make fools of themselves. I bet back when this was released, the biggest insult anyone could ever say to someone was that they reminded them of either the Benjamin or Langella character from this film. I usually don't like films where I don't like any of the characters, but I had such fun watching them here that I have to say in spite of everything, this is a very good movie and a must see, probably because it's so ridiculously true to life, even 50 years later.

Terribly dated and sexist

[redjackco · 5/10 · 18 April 2021]

Many great films of the early 1970s have survived well, but this one is terribly dated and sexist. Instead of wasting your time on this, watch "Patton", "MASH", "Five Easy Pieces", "Catch-22" - all released in 1970.

Insanity comes quietly to the structured mind

[judge9090 · 30 March 2003]

Richard Benjamin would drive anyone crazy in 'Diary of a Mad Housewife'(1970).Benjamin and wife Carrie Snodgrass are an upper- middle class New York couple, he totally absorbed with social climbing and Ms. Snodgrass bored to death with her isolated life.Director Frank Perry(David and Lisa) does an excellent job directing this sometimes funny, sometimes sad film of a materialistic, yet emotionally empty lifestyle.Script by Eleanor Perry.

even distressing especially from Richard Benjamin

[christopher-underwood · 9/10 · 18 August 2022]

A very amusing and even funny story that is sometime just too difficult with some of the dialogue. Brilliant writing all the time even if it is a little too of gruelling, even distressing especially from Richard Benjamin as the part he has is so good it is scary. He so wants to impress other people and so makes his wife frantic. It is also terrible that he mocks his wife in front of the children. Carrie Snodgress finds something at least in an affair with Frank Langella but in the end both the men seem to send her crazy. Snodgress is splendid and if she seems just a little too mad it is so well done and as first with Langella also so well, even if she gets a little hysterical. Of course although we think Benjamin certainly as mad he is consumingly ambitious. At the end it crashes down and a moment of reality means that perhaps the couple will survive.