The Group (1966)

It's 1933, and eight young women are friends and members of the upper- class group at a private girl's school, about to graduate and start their own lives. The film documents the years ... See full summary »

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writers:

Mary McCarthy (novel), Sidney Buchman (screenplay)

Stars:

Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett, Elizabeth Hartman

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Candice Bergen	...	Lakey
Joan Hackett	...	Dottie
Elizabeth Hartman	...	Priss
Shirley Knight	...	Polly
Joanna Pettet	...	Kay
Mary-Robin Redd	...	Pokey
Jessica Walter	...	Libby
Kathleen Widdoes	...	Helena
James Broderick	...	Dr. Ridgeley
James Congdon	...	Sloan Crockett
Larry Hagman	...	Harald Peterson
Hal Holbrook	...	Gus Leroy
Richard Mulligan	...	Dick Brown
Robert Emhardt	...	Mr. Andrews
Carrie Nye	...	Norine

Storyline

It's 1933, and eight young women are friends and members of the upper- class group at a private girl's school, about to graduate and start their own lives. The film documents the years between their graduation and the beginning of the World War in Europe, and shows, in a serialized style, their romances and marriages, their searches for careers or meaning in their lives, their highs and their lows.

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Plot Keywords:

marriage | maternity ward | friendship | baby born | literary | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 March 1966 (USA)

Also Known As:

A csoport

Filming Locations:

Horn and Hardart Automat - 200 East 42nd Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Famartists Productions S.A.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

150 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Joan Hackett's film debut.

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Goofs

Kathleen Widdoes, as Helena, arguing politics with Norine, says, "The whole class voted for Roosevelt," when she means "the whole group". Pauline Kael, who was watching the filming and following the script, wrote that she pointed this mistake out to director Sidney Lumet, but he never corrected it.

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Quotes

Harald Peterson: That was something, that funeral.
Lakey: Well, w2hat would you have done? You can't throw a body down an incinerator, it's not a manuscript.
[pause]
Lakey: Yes, I heard about that.

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Connections

Featured in The 77th Annual Academy Awards (2005)

User Reviews

Busy, bustling, chatty character study-cum-soaper...several stand-out performances

Film producer Sidney Buchman also took on the enormous task of adapting Mary McCarthy's well-loved novel to the screen, that of eight Vassar graduates in 1933 who take different paths in life but who always manage to stay in touch. Buchman and director Sidney Lumet almost pull it off, despite insurmountable story obstacles, some awkward and/or frivolous performances, a self-defeating length, and a persistent claim from professional critics at the time that maybe a female screenwriter should have been hired to adapt McCarthy's prose (Pauline Kael of The New Yorker was the most vocal in this area). With much criss-cross editing between apartments, hospitals, and places of employment, it's nearly impossible to determine how many years pass in the course of the story--and this episodic structure leaves Candice Bergen's Lakey and Mary-Robin Redd's Pokey with hardly any screen-time. Joan Hackett as Dottie makes a very appealing impression in her early scenes (falling for heartless womanizer Richard Mulligan), but then she too disappears. There's far too much of Joanna Pettet in the overtly-showy role of Kay (and with her comes Larry Hagman, doing nothing new in the impossible role of Kay's hard-drinking, womanizing husband). Elizabeth Hartman as Priss and Shirley Knight as Polly end up doing the finest acting work, with Knight practically carrying the film's final third, but then the screenplay is tipped towards our liking those characters the most (if Jessica Walters' gossiping Libby was revealed to have half a heart, we might feel the same towards her). The scattershot humor is there, but it's always undercut by sourness--which is then replaced with grimness. If Buchman was inappropriate as the writer, Lumet was equally a questionable choice as director. He keeps the pacing lively, but the film is without vitriol, without nostalgia. **1/2 from ****