I loved the book and am going to finally buy a copy of the VHS tape on Ebay. I've never seen the movie. Isn't it bizarre though that this movie is never on TV? At least not that I've seen. Not on regular TV, cable, Turner Classic Movies, etc. I wonder if there's some legal reason it can't be shown or something. Weird?
share[deleted]
I actually first saw the movie on Bravo years ago when they did cool art flicks for their Friday night 5 star cinema. I loved how twisted it was, and I still haven't seen anything as weird as it(I mean that in a good way). But something happened and now it is westerns or big blockbusters that they show. Your best bet is to buy it on Amazon or Ebay, as netflix doesn't have it yet and I doubt your local rental house will have it.
shareTVO's Saturday Night at the Movies will be airing this movie along with Repulsion sometime in October. It includes an interview with Frank Langella and Richard Benjamin.
shareI don't know what TVO is.
Anyway, right now the PG version is available on YouTube. It is cut into 7 different parts!
Watch it now or download it using downloading software (such as RealPlayer) because other versions have been removed from YouTube before.
Even though I have a VCR/DVD combo, I can't afford to spend $30 on a used VHS tape ("new" VHS tapes go for over $100!) so I checked YouTube and it is still there, but probably not for long if Universal finds out! So I downloaded it!
It's the film company's fault. I would gladly pay for a DVD version but they refuse to release it. It's also never shown on TV anymore (although I do remember watching it many years ago on New York television.
This PG version was clearly taped off of television but the quality is pretty good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqqZQ_9PWws
Good luck with your hunt for this tape. I haven't foundone in a year. It is supposedly only available on NTSC - ie US configuration.
I want something's flesh!
BTW I did get it on Ebay for about $20, and it is great and worth it. Richard Benjamin is perfectly repulsive and Carrie Snodgress is the perfect harried housewife. My only complaint is that it was over all too soon. I would have loved even more scenes from the book and even more character development. But great nonetheless.
shareCongrats, cconnelly on getting one of the great movies of its time. Richard Benjamin is always one of my favorite actors, but his Jonathan is one of my most-hated characters. Ahhhhhhh.... I too would have loved more from the book.
The first time I saw this movie was actually on TV--a CBS primetime showing, in the early-to-middle '70s. I searched for years before finally finding a (used) VHS copy in the middle '90s. I keep thinking that, maybe just as "Lord Love a Duck" and "If A Man Answers" made it to DVD, this will, too. Till then, I'll cherish my VHS copy and hope that you all find one--this is a movie not to be missed.
shareThis will give away my age considerably, but I first saw this film at the time of its first Theatre showing, which according to Imdb was in 1970. It seems odd now that it could have been as late as '70 in that it was the very first "Big Theatre" production in which I ever witnessed a very revealing topless scene of Carrie Snodgress! Now of course, nudity is pretty standard and in fact I recently saw "Shortbus" in the very same theatre. It was a pretty good film of a lovely young lady who was very bored with her husband and her marriage, and thus becomes involved with a literati. I'm curious as to whether or not the video has the semi-nude scenes? Of course, it was hardly as shocking as my viewing of "I Am Curious Yellow" some ten years before in NYC!!
Since you brought it up, I am very very curious about you seeing I Am Curious back in the day. Yellow is one of my very favorite movies :)
What was the general opinion on Curious back when it was released? I know it was labeled obscene, but the actual audiences who saw it-- was it considered to be good or bad? Did people like it? Did a lot of people go see it? Or did it hit a certain demographic of people like it should have in the first place?
What did you think of the nudity? It was released in '67 so nudity was not at all common on film. It must have been shocking.
I hope you see this! If not, no bother :)
It has been shown on tv. About fifteen years ago I taped it off of normal, free TV. That is the copy I watch even today when I want to see this movie.
shareMe, too. I recorded it from normal, free TV and that is the copy I watch. It was on a lot in the 1980's and it quickly became a standard for my friends and I, providing many quotes. (Teen-AAAHHHHAA!!!!) We used to watch it every Thanksgiving. If you've seen it you know why.
I have actually seen two versions of this movie. Initially, I saw a cut version that was shown on regular T.V. and this is the one I recorded. A few years later I rented it and strangely enough the cut version is better! It contains scenes that are not in the "uncut" movie. Tina goes to see a psychiatrist (a loathsome man who tells her to give up painting and become a good wifey), and is shot from her point of view, lying down on a couch so that the doctor's face is shown upside down. Very cool. Very effective. It also has some great scenes with the maid (Wilona from "Good Times") I can't imagine why these scenes were not included in the "uncut" version. The "uncut" version contains some nudity and some swearing but all in all not a better version.
"I told you a million times not to talk to me when I'm doing my lashes"!
i first saw this movie on TV, and it was the version with the 'upside-down' psychiatrist that you mention. i've seen that version on TV a number of times subsequently.
when i finally saw DOAMH at the theatre (in New York City, in one of those theatres that show strictly old movies) i was amazed at how different THAT version was! (for instance, the psychiatrist was entirely missing)
my theory is that when made, the director/producer anticipated the movie being shown on TV, and they realized that too much of Snodgress & Langella naked, making love, and in bed, would have to be cut...so they actually must have shot the psychiatrist scenes (which are COMPLETELY absent from the theatrical version, which i believe is identical to the VHS version) and cut 2 different movies: one for theatres, one for TV.
anyone with differing opinions on this are invited to post.
"Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance"
That must be like what they did for John Carpenter's Halloween: they shot extra footage for the television that is not in the theatrical release.
shareI know. And I find the version with the "upside-down" psychiatrist to be the better version. O.K. so you don't get to see them naked. I understood completely that they got horizontal. But also that version has more dialog with the maid and some other nuances that make it somehow better.
Its great to know that other people have seen this movie and love it as much as I do.
(I always love to watch this around Thanksgiving:..."more gourmet, less classic American.")
"I told you a million times not to talk to me when I'm doing my lashes"!
Hi Karmala2, I to love this film. I was lucky enough to tape it on my computer (Media Center) and burn it to a dvd. It is chopped up though. I removed the commercials but I would love to own the original. When Carrie passed I thought that they would re issue it on dvd.
I would love to hear comments from Frank Langella and Richard Benjamin on the making of such a ground breaking film. I remember seeing this film as a teenager on tv around 1974, late night on a station in Toronto that never used to show edited versions always left the naughty bits in.
Who can we plead with to release this gem on DVD? There are so many awful older films that do get released, why not a treat like this one.
Pat
The sole reason that I first watched the film was because the Alice Cooper band was in it. I soon realized it wasn't really worth watching for them. I taped it from TV the second time I saw it (I believe it was A&E that aired it) in '94. I transferred Cooper's scene to another tape but unfortunately, I surmise the full TV print eventually got taped over (if I still have it, I dunno where it is). I later bought the home video release and was shocked that the movie was radically different -- and Cooper's scene was severely truncated. Leonard Maltin's movie book has a blurb that says something like "an alternate version was prepared for television." Unlike the aforementioned additional scenes in HALLOWEEN (which were filmed 3 years later), I concur that they probably anticipated that a different cut would have to be made for TV, so they filmed accordingly. I seem to recall a few scenes with profanity and nudity that were virtually identical -- but sanitized -- in the TV version. Of course, I'm going off memory and unless that tape surfaces, I can't compare.
Sadly, I too thought the TV print was better than the video/theatrical print. If it ever makes it to DVD, it'd be cool if they included both versions... but I won't hold my breath.
Oh, Patricia, I dunno who actually owns the rights for it (God knows, rights seem to change hands so often) but the video version was released by MCA.
Agreed. If they can release (or telecast, c'mon TCM) a version that combines the two versions, that would be an event, in my book. I somehow feel that within the coming year we will see this movie surface again, due to some weird synchronicity, or the fact that the powers that be peruse the internet with some regularity.
Let's cross our collective fingers.
(Well, maybe not. I have a feeling that if this little gem hits the airwaves, it will be subjected to some horrible remake.)
"I told you a million times not to talk to me when I'm doing my lashes"!
The Alice Cooper band was in Housewife? What scene was that?
I have the VHS copy as I said but I can't remember if some of the deleted scenes you are all talking about, were in there (I actually just watched the movie again and re-read the book though, so I can't be sure if my book memory is getting confused with my movie memory).
It is years since I've been able to see this great film, but from memory Alice Cooper is at the party where she first comes across Frank Langella.
Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear.
I saw this in a theater in London in 1971 and loved it. It's a shame there has been no DVD.
I remember seeing the TV cut with different footage, although it's been a long time. The ideal DVD release would include both versions.
The TV cut was probably made originally because of censorship worries. American TV was somewhat more prudish than today, although network TV remains vulnerable to possible legal action. Cable is considered differently because you have to pay for it.
We report, you decide; but we decide what to report.
I have the television version on tape also. Saw it so many times that I finally saw the theater version and it looked like two different movies. I prefer the television version over the theater one.
shareI don't have definitive answers as to why DoaMH is absent from TV and DVD--nor do I know all the details regarding the two (or more?) versions of the movie that exist; however, I remember my mother complaining bitterly about the television premiere of the movie and how they cut it to ribbons and ruined it. I also recall reading an article a year or two later about the difficulty in broadcasting R-rated feature films on network television (I think the article was called "Son-of-a-buck! What Have They Done to 'The Godfather'?"). The article cited "Diary of a Mad Housewife" as an example of a film that network censorship rendered unintelligible.
There are a lot of movies that seem "to fall through the cracks." Since "Diary..." is of its time, and doesn't have superstars in the cast and didn't win an Oscar for best picture, my guess is that whichever company owns the home video rights just doesn't see a profitable market for the movie on DVD--which is really a shame!
I've never seen the "longer" version--the one with the psychiatrist and the extra scenes with the maid, but I'd love to see it. Ideally a complete version would be released on DVD with all the scenes, but with nothing censored. Though if the original theatrical cut did NOT include the extra scenes, I might prefer them as a bonus feature--or perhaps with optional "seamless branching."
My own current copy is one that I stitched together through YouTube clips!