A Rage to Live (1965)

A woman's sexual compulsions threaten to destroy her marriage.

Director:

Walter Grauman

Writers:

John T. Kelley (screenplay), John O'Hara (novel)

Stars:

Suzanne Pleshette, Bradford Dillman, Ben Gazzara

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Suzanne Pleshette	...	Grace Caldwell Tate
Bradford Dillman	...	Sidney Tate
Ben Gazzara	...	Roger Bannon
Peter Graves	...	Jack Hollister
Bethel Leslie	...	Amy Hollister
Carmen Mathews	...	Emily Caldwell
Linden Chiles	...	Brock Caldwell
James Gregory	...	Dr. O'Brien
Ruth White	...	Mrs. Bannon
Mark Goddard	...	Charlie Jay
Sarah Marshall	...	Connie
George Furth	...	Paul Rutherford
Virginia Christine	...	Emma

Storyline

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, Brock. One evening, at a Christmas party, Grace meets Sidney Tate, a gentleman farmer. They fall in love, and he asks her to marry him. Grace accepts, but only after making it clear that there are some things about her past she's not at all proud of. Sidney is taken aback by Grace's candid admission, but still wants to marry her. Grace promises to be faithful to Sidney; it's a promise she has every intention of keeping, until a former casual acquaintance, Roger Bannon, re-enters her life.

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Plot Keywords:

nymphomania | hairy chest | bare chested male | cuckold | based on novel | 

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Taglines:

Take it easy Grace...! Think of a good lie to tell your husband. Tell him you're late because the car broke down ...tell him anything!

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 November 1965 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

John O'Hara's A Rage to Live

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rage Productions,The Mirisch Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The on-screen epilogue is taken from Alexander Pope's 'Epistle II - To a Lady - Of the Characters of Women' (1735):

"Wise wretch! with Pleasures too refin'd to please; With too much spirit to be e'er at ease.....You purchase pain with all that joy can give. And die of nothing but a Rage to live."

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Quotes

Grace Caldwell: All right, you win. You get your dull little story off your big manly chest, but you make it fast, huh?
Roger Bannon: Right.
[pause]
Roger Bannon: From the first time I saw you -- and that was five years ago, when I worked for Lanigan and Doyle -- I haven't been able to stop looking. Not that I wanted to stop. Looking at you became one of the big pleasures of my life. Maybe the biggest. It got so I had you memorized. But I didn't realize that until I was overseas for a while. Then, all the other things began to get hazy. ...

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Soundtracks

Rage To Live
Music by Art Ferrante and Lou Teicher
Lyrics by Noel Sherman
Performed on two pianos by Art Ferrante (as Ferrante) and Lou Teicher (as Teicher)

User Reviews

Gazzara! Mamma Mia!

Movie adaptations from John O'Hara never really get it right. Either they're not frank enough or they sentimentalize or they just plain don't have the budget to put his world on screen. He's very specific about the historical moment when his stories take place. "A Rage to Live" (like "From the Terrace" and "Butterfield 8" as well) is transposed to a later time. It really might have helped if it could have shown us the changing manners and mores of a very specific Pennsylvania world. What I mainly remember it for is one of the two flat-out sexiest performances by a male in the movies that I can readily recall. The other one is Ray Danton in "Too Much, Too Soon." Gazzara is hotter than blazes in his part. A few years ago, when the actor Harry Reems was extradited to Tennessee for appearing in a porn film shot elsewhere that just happened to be sold there, Gazzara was one of his most vocal defenders. He was no kid, Gazzara, but he said "I work out every day. My body is in WONDERFUL shape. And if I want to do a porn film, I want the right to do one." Any surprise that he was so sexy in this film, or in "The Strange One"?