Directed by:
Richard BrooksScreenplay:
Richard BrooksCinematography:
Conrad L. HallComposer:
Michel LegrandCast:
Jean Simmons, John Forsythe, Shirley Jones, Lloyd Bridges, Teresa Wright, Dick Shawn, Nanette Fabray, Bobby Darin, Tina Louise, Karen Steele, Eve Brent (more)Plots(1)
Suburban housewives console themselves with pills and alcohol to tolerate their spouses' infidelities in The Happy Ending. Mary Wilson (Jean Simmons) is married to Fred (John Forsythe) and she prepares for their 16th wedding-anniversary party with tranquilizers and booze. The guests are clients of Fred's, a successful tax attorney. Harry (Dick Shawn) and wife Helen (Tina Louise) are two of the guests. Helen offers herself to Fred, as Mary entertains thoughts of bedding down with the playboy Sam (Lloyd Bridges) or a young gigolo (Bobby Darin). Agnes (Nanette Fabray) is the level-headed housekeeper who wryly observes the proceedings, and Shirley Jones is on hand as one of the guests. Mary ends up in the hospital in need of a stomach pump after a half-hearted suicide attempt. After the incident, her incredulous husband shallowly suggests that she needs a hobby. All is not well in the suburban Shangri-La in this feature, that tends to sympathize with the female characters. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Jean Simmons
UK
Best movies:
The Big Country (1958)
Hamlet (1948)
Spartacus (1960)
John Forsythe
USA
Best movies:
In Cold Blood (1967)
...And Justice for All (1979)
Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)
Shirley Jones
USA
Best movies:
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
Bedtime Story (1964)
Gideon (1998)
Lloyd Bridges
USA
Best movies:
Hot Shots! 2 (1993)
Hot Shots! (1991)
Roots (1977) (series)
Teresa Wright
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Rainmaker (1997)
The Little Foxes (1941)
Dick Shawn
USA
Best movies:
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
The Opposite Sex (1956)
What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966)
Nanette Fabray
USA
Best movies:
Miracle of Fatima (1952)
The Band Wagon (1953)
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
Bobby Darin
USA
Best movies:
Pressure Point (1962)
Come September (1961)
If a Man Answers (1962)
Tina Louise
USA
Best movies:
Producers' Showcase (1954) (series)
The Trap (1959)
The Hangman (1959)
Karen Steele
USA
Best movies:
Marty (1955)
Westbound (1959)
Ride Lonesome (1959)
Eve Brent
USA
Best movies:
The Green Mile (1999)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Airport (1970)
Erin Moran
USA
Best movies:
Who's Minding the Mint? (1967)
The Happy Ending (1969)
Dear God (1996)
John Gallaudet
USA
Best movies:
In Cold Blood (1967)
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
Pickup on South Street (1953)
Queen Elizabeth II (a.f.)
UK
Best movies:
Braindead (1992) - a.f.
The Brain (1969)
A Private Function (1984)
Richard Nixon (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
American Gangster (2007) - a.f.
The Doors (1991) - a.f.
All the President's Men (1976) - a.f.
Humphrey Bogart (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Casablanca (1942)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Clark Gable (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Teacher's Pet (1958)
It Happened One Night (1934)
William O'Connell
USA
Best movies:
Black Eye (1974)
Josey Wales, hors-la-loi (1976)
Big Bad Mama (1974)
Barry Cahill
Canada
Best movies:
Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
Straight Time (1978)
...tick... tick... tick... (1970)
Nanci Roberts
USA
Best movies:
North Dallas Forty (1979)
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
The Happy Ending (1969)