Richard Chatten What a disappointment! Suzanne Pleshette playing a nymphomaniac sounds like fun, but to judge from the end result John O'Hara's 1949 novel has been so bowdlerised its hard to understand why they bothered to film it in the first place, other than the fact that 'Butterfield 8' had just been such a hit; but it's even less explicit than that. The word "slut" is liberally sprinkled throughout the film, but although we're told that there are plenty of others we actually see very little sign that there have really been that many lovers - and even less love; and it seems to be the men who always hit on her first. She actually seems to be suffering from the much more common female problem of not being able to say 'No' to jerks rather than clinical nymphomania. If only nasty Ben Gazzara had left her alone, and if Peter Graves' wife hadn't been such a belligerent lush, life would have continued to be peachy for the lovely Ms Pleshette and she would have lived happily ever after with hubby Bradford Dillman, her lovely child and her Oscar nominated wardrobe.As is often the case with material like this the most interesting characters are the women, and there are entertaining cameos by Brett Somers and Bethel Leslie as two vengeful harpies; the former as the disapproving mother of Pleshette's first real squeeze, Mark Goddard (best remembered as Don West in 'Lost in Space'), and the latter as Graves' jealous wife whose drama queen antics end up bringing the whole edifice crashing down.

jbarnes-10 Grace Caldwell is a child of privilege. Her family owns every business in town,she is beautiful,classy,smart and headstrong. She's also the town slut! Suzanne Pleshette gives a tour De force performance as Grace. The clean teen girl with the dirty little secret. We first meet Grace as a pretty high school senior. All alone in her huge mansion after school, she emerges from the shower to find one of her older brother's friends watching her from the doorway. Watch this scene carefully, this guy is playing pocket pool like a champ as he watches her towel off! How did this get by the sensors? He forces himself on her, and after a bit of resistance, Grace gives in to her passions and she gets her first taste of forbidden fruit.We next find Grace in the back seat of a car in her own driveway during her own Halloween party. Her mother is frantically looking for her. Once found, Grace emerges from the car,amazingly unruffled. She tells her shocked mother she "just needed some air" then she waltzes into the house as graceful as a queen. This girl has NO shame! Next she's back with her brother's statutory rapist friend sneaking into his house while his parents are gone. Down in the cellar they go to the family room for some heavy petting, when surprise!the boy's mother IS home and she is Brett Somers! Brett plays the dog face shrew of a mother like a diva, screaming and yelling, calling Grace every name in the book! Grace once again leaves the situation like Greta Garbo. Above it all and shocked that this ugly dog face of a woman would question her morals. Later, the boy then gets the crap slapped out of him by his father, after hearing about his rape of a minor.That night Brett Somers calls Grace's mother and tells her the shocking story. You can see the pain and shame on Grace's mothers face. She confronts Grace, who of course denies the entire event with shocked indignation! "I won't stay in a house where I'm not believed" Grace screams as her mother helplessly looks on. After a more calm discussion the two make up but on her way back down stairs Grace's mother has "a spell" and falls to the floor.The family doctor is called in and Grace's mother tells the doctor her daughter is a Nympho! The doctor tells Grace's brother Brock and Brock calls Grace into the Den for a little brotherly advise. "Mother thinks your a tramp!" he states while smoking a pipe and looking far too old to be a recent college graduate. "I need it" Grace painfully admits, "I need to feel wanted and loved". "That isn't love" her brother lovingly tells her. This scene is actually quite touching in its candor. You can tell her brother loves her and wants to help her. That is all your going to get out of me, for the rest of the story you need to see it because it just gets better and trashier, actually quite shocking for a film in 1965!

whpratt1 This story starts off with a young girl named Grace Caldwell Tate, (Suzanne Pleshette) who is attacked and forcefully raped and does not report the matter but assumes this is a normal procedure between a girl and boy. Grace begins to have other encounters with men and causes all kinds of problems in her home and mostly her mother and brother. Jack Hollister, (Peter Graves) married Grace and they have a little boy and Grace continues to have an affair with Roger Bannon, (Ben Gazzara) and this film continues to go on with Grace never able to say a simple word like "NO", and leave "Me Alone". This is a mental sickness that can be corrected, but the person involved suffers horrible consequences. Great acting by Suzanne Pleshette and the entire cast. This is a very sad story and these type of people need help.

oliverpenn "A Rage to Live" had beautiful, haunting theme music which crept in at just the right moments. The story of Grace Caldwell, a beautiful young girl with a "problem," not unlike most men, everywhere, she loved sex and had no control over her actions. She was a nympho.Women like Grace are scorned and hated by other women, because men are so drawn to her type -- women who crave sex just like men. There wasn't a lot of "dating and cat and mouse" with a girl like Grace. A brief look into her eyes and the next stop was the bedroom.Personally, I felt sorry for Grace after her marriage to Bradford Dillman and the birth of her child. She seemed truly happy. Into her life walks Ben Gazzara, with a bulging crotch and sexy Italian bravado. Much too much for Grace to resist, especially when he tells her that he has the hots for her. Obviously, Grace is not getting the KIND of sex she craves: cheap, tawdry, motel sex with strange men. Well, that's what she got with Ben, but he was mentally "off" and easily fell in love with Caldwell. Trying to break off the affair with Gazarra, she tells him, "You knew what this was. I have a husband and child that I love." His response, of course, is to call her a "dirty slut" and a "rotten, filthy whore!"Ben is not the only man that is after Grace. Every man she comes across "knows" her and "her kind." Unfortunately, it's difficult for her to say "no." Even on a vacation with her mother, who has a bad heart, Grace sneaks out in the middle of the night to have tawdry sex with a hotel worker. She copulates with a college buddy of her brother's, plus, it was insinuated that she had "entertained" other men.The ending is sad, especially because her husband deserts her after a drunken, jealous wife accuses Grace of "sleeping" with her husband (Peter Graves.) After calling Grace a "tramp," the woman breaks down in tears and tells Bradford that her husband "admitted it!!!"Susanne Pleshette was wonderful. Her performance was as good as any other actress's in 1965, certainly better than Liz Taylor's in 1960's "Butterfield 8." Perhaps if Grace had been a prostitute, the role would have been more appealing to the Academy. They just LOVE giving Oscars to actresses who play ladies of the evening. Nymphomania, obviously, is too strong for their coffee.Too bad Susanne didn't become a major movie star -- she certainly had the looks and the talent.I'd love to have this on DVD. And, that THEME music was lovely.