Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) Queer Film. Eleanor Perry. A+

DIRECTOR: Frank Perry

The final collaboration between director Frank Perry and his screenwriter wife, Eleanor, was also their finest. Diary of a Mad Housewife, adapted from Sue Kaufman’s bestseller, is a razor‑sharp portrait of upper‑middle‑class suffocation. Carrie Snodgress is magnificent as Tina Balser, a woman who receives no respect from anyone in her life—least of all her petulant, status‑obsessed husband (Richard Benjamin, then at the height of his acting career) or her equally self‑absorbed lover (Frank Langella, making a striking film debut).

The film’s one sour note—very much a product of its era—is the revelation that Langella’s character is gay, a lazy narrative device meant to “explain” his cruelty and emotional sadism toward Tina.

Snodgress is breathtaking, delivering a performance of such wounded intelligence and quiet fury that she should have walked away with the Oscar for Best Actress. Instead, she lost to Glenda Jackson in Women in Love.

Adding to the film’s countercultural texture is a cameo by Alice Cooper and his band, who appear during a raucous party sequence performing “Ride with Me Baby.”

NOW STREAMING ON YOUTUBE

https://thebrownees.net/85-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1968/

https://thebrownees.net/85-queer-films-from-the-new-hollywood-1968-1980/

The Swimmer (1968) Eleanor Perry (B) – TheBrownees

Last Summer (1969) Eleanor Perry (A) – TheBrownees

Eleanor and Frank Perry – TheBrownees