For all you would be husbands out there, there are plenty of movies in cinema that shows you the ways not to treat your wife. Diary of a Mad Housewife from 1970 is such a film filled with how not to be a good supporting husband. The movie is a comedy drama about a housewife that is married to what amounts to a spoiled, rich snob. It is about a marriage where a woman goes through so much verbal abuse from her obnoxious spouse that she seeks love and sexual pleasure elsewhere. Married with Children, 70s style perhaps?
Diary of a Mad Housewife focuses on The Balser family. Tina Balser (Carrie Snodgrass, Pale Rider) is a frustrated housewife and mother living in New York City and is in a loveless marriage with her lawyer husband Jonathan Balser (Richard Benjamin, Saturday the 14th) and their two spoiled children. Jonathan is a spoiled, conceited, insulting, controlling, emotionally abusive and downright rude person. He is the kind of man you just want to punch! Why she married him in the first place is beyond me, but it appears that through the storytelling they have grown apart since they were first married without admitting it. I cannot imagine Jonathan acting like this prior to their marriage. Why she deals with it is also another mystery other than he provides for her and the two miserable kids. Tina is constantly doing everything for him, as if he were a spoiled child. She does his errands, cooks and cleans to no end. Jonathan occasionally wants to have what he calls a “roll in the hay” but she is not interested. One day at a social gathering she meets and later has affair with a writer, George Prager (Frank Langella, Dracula) who turns out to be even more conceited, vicious and rotten than her husband. She must love being abused by or has a thing for shallow, rotten to the core men. What she sees in George is also another mystery other than she just wanted a sex partner and would grab the first person who showed interest in her, but still, George is not remotely close to a knight in shining armor; he is a sadistic prick!
Diary of a Mad Housewife is a great character study film, and Frank Perry’s direction is smooth, keeping the film moving along at a good pace thanks to some quick, aggressive edits. His film has compelling characters in the three leads, but not one of them was likeable or someone you could get behind. Even Tina, with her being the sympathetic character in the film, is also just as terrible when she has the affair. Maybe she needed the affair, which many can understand, as her husband is a first-class jerk who only showed interest in her when it was good for him. The type of person she has an affair with also seems inconceivable and somewhat contrived, other than that she was someone who could handle being verbally abused by two grown men.
The acting was outstanding by the entire cast. So good in fact that Carrie Snodgrass (in arguably her biggest film) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Golden Globe award in the same category. The film was nominated for eight awards; Carrie winning two of them while Frank Langella won the third for Best Supporting Actor in the 1970 National Board of Review.
Diary of a Mad Housewife arrives on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber on a dual-layered BD-50 disc. This release from Kino is strong. Starting with the video quality, I found the image to be pleasing with rich details and colors and visible film grain throughout, this maintaining its film-like appearance. The interior and exterior shots by cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld also look sharp and detailed in appearance. Flesh tones are also accurate, which is heavily apparent in close-ups. None of the characters or scenery appears to have undergone any digital enhancements.
English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 which tends to be the standard track used by Kino Lorber, is perfectly fine with clear, crisp dialog, and no drop-offs. The psychedelic music by The Alice Cooper Band, which I thought was terrible sounded the most dynamic. Optional English subtitles are available for this release.
For this release, a new audio commentary by Screenwriter Larry Karaszewski with Film Historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell was recorded with their enthusiastic reflections of the film with discussions about the film, the cast and other tidbits.
The other extra is the usual trailer gallery that Kino provides for their plethora of catalog releases. Trailers include Diary of a Mad Housewife, Ladybug Ladybug, Doc, and Hello Again
Diary of a Mad Housewife is a good picture for those interested in drama films about bad or just oddball marriages. Kino Lorber has put forth a superb release for this film, getting high marks in both the audio and video quality, and including a commentary as well. Easily recommended!
Diary of a Mad Housewife
Director- Frank Perry
Cast- Richard Benjamin, Frank Langella, Carrie Snodgrass
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date – 1/27/2021