A Rage to Live (1965) is a soap opera with staying power. I haven’t read the John O’Hara novel from which it derives, but the movie is straightforward and entertaining. Addicted to physical closeness, Grace Caldwell (Suzanne Pleshette) worries her mother and brother with her potential sluttiness. She likes different flavors of men, but finally loves and marries the dapper Sidney (Bradford Dillman). Rough Roger Bannon (Ben Gazzara), however, tells her he has long been crazy about her, this being of course a threat to Grace’s marriage. So is a suspicious wife (Bethel Leslie). The big guns are aimed at Grace for her “rage to live.” What disappoints is a lack of true resolution at the end of this non-artistic lark.

Pleshette is cool—coolly restrained—and emotionally convincing. Dillman just goes through the motions, but Gazzara and Leslie are quite sapid.

Directed by Walter Grauman.