who edited this?

I agree, I wondered if parts of it had been edited for television and then remembered that I was watching it on TCM, so that theory is out..

Revenge is a dish that best goes stale.

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I think it was difficult to cram this lengthy, detailed book with several main characters into a movie format. Someone decided jarring cuts was the way to go, but it is jarring. Despite the fact the movie was candid for 1966, sexual content and other controversial material was left out. This book would make a better mini-series than movie - the jarring cuts from scene to scene could be avoided.

Pauline Kael watched the pre-production and filming of the movie, and wrote that the more crowded scenes especially were not staged very thoughtfully, and so they didn't come together well in editing the footage together.

She also said many of the actresses were immersed in a sort of "Method" approach to performing (then in vogue, especially as many of these were stage-trained, New York artists), which added tons of long pauses to the scenes, and those had to be cut around.

Also, the older actors playing the parents of the various girls poured so much acting and technique into their brief scenes (in the hopes of standing out) that they stood out, alright...but as as OVERLY HISTRIONIC. So those parts had to go.

In short, Kael wrote that the general footage wasn't filmed carefully enough to provide for smoother editing. Sidney Lumet always shot his film very very quickly, after a short rehearsal period, and this can sometimes leave gaps in stuff that might have been covered with a lengthier shooting schedule.