The Group: Based on the Book by Mary McCarthy

Based on the classic novel by Mary McCarthy—born on this day, June 21, 1912—The Group was directed by Sidney Lumet in 1966 and starred Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett, Elizabeth Hartman, Shirley Knight, Joanna Pettet, and Jessica Walter. Candice Bergen was nominated for a Golden Globe for most promising newcomer for her portrayal of Lakey. 

"Eight young women from the Vassar College class of 1933 rush out into the world to find exciting lives, but discover nothing is quite as they dreamed. Rather than blazing trails in art, science and literature, the friends are each variously burdened with disappointing relationships, children, aging parents and unemployment. Kay Strong (Joanna Pettet), the center of the group, gradually loses faith in the promise of their lives and, as war approaches, becomes unhinged."

The material was quite the eye-opener in its day with its frank and sometimes brutal talk of sex and the art of seduction ... what's clearly now seen as sexual assault ... along with the various traumas of young womanhood and the loss of innocence. Not just sexually, but also with the disintegration of one's dreams and the awakening to reality.  This trailer, though, is everything.

Mary McCarthy 

About the book

"Written with a trenchant, sardonic edge, The Group is a dazzlingly outspoken novel and a captivating look at the social history of America between two world wars.

Mary McCarthy’s most celebrated novel follows the lives of eight Vassar graduates, known simply to their classmates as “the group.” An eclectic mix of personalities and upbringings, they meet a week after graduation to watch Kay Strong get married. After the ceremony, the women begin their adult lives—traveling to Europe, tackling the worlds of nursing and publishing, and finding love and heartbreak in the streets of New York City. Through the years, some of the friends grow apart and some become entangled in each other's affairs, but all vow not to become like their mothers and fathers. It is only when one of them passes away that they all come back together again to mourn the loss of a friend, a confidante, and most importantly, a member of the group.

The film is available on disc via Amazon. Have you read the book, seen the movie?