(Feminist cinema) DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE (Dec 29, 1969) Revised film script

New York: Frank Perry Films, 1969. Vintage original film script, 11 x 8 1/2: (28 x 22 cm), leatherette Studio Duplicating Service wrappers, brad bound, mimeograph, 148 pp. Script belonged to actress Lorraine Cullen, who played the role of “Sylvie”, and has circled her lines and left one brief note. Noted on title page as REVISED and dated 12/29/69, screenplay credited to Eleanor Perry, adapted from novel by Sue Kaufmann. Yapped wrappers worn at edges and along spine, stain to bottom of title page and barely touching the extreme blank area of a few pages, some pages lightly dog-eared. Overall near fine in very good wrappers.

Diary of a Mad Housewife is a very early and important piece of feminist filmmaking about a frustrated wife portrayed by Carrie Snodgress. Snodgress was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Golden Globe award in the same category.

Snodgress portrays Tina Balser, an educated, frustrated housewife and mother, in a loveless marriage with Jonathan, an insufferable, controlling, emotionally abusive, social-climbing lawyer in New York City. He treats her like a servant, undermines her with insults, and belittles her appearance, abilities and the raising of their two girls, who treat their mother with the same rudeness as their father. Searching for relief, she begins a sexually fulfilling affair with a cruel and coarse writer, George Prager, who treats her with similar brusqueness and contempt, which only drives her deeper into despair. (Wikipedia)

Diary of a Mad Housewife remains a high point in the history of what was the first wave of woman-oriented American cinema.