The Memory of Us

The 1957 Rogers and Hammerstein "Cinderella" was recently released on DVD and I fell in love with Jon Cypher as Prince Charming, so I bought this movie just to watch him. He's believable as the insensitive husband, Brad; his delivery is natural and you can feel his frustration with his wife's unease, which he doesn't understand. It's also fun to watch Ellen Geer, she's pretty and expressive (I never see her without thinking of Sunshine Dore), and I appreciate what she was trying to say (she wrote the script), but she expresses her dissatisfaction through internal monologues, and thirty years later they're dated--they must have sounded stilted even in 1975.

The good: watching Brad and Betty's scenes together as they sink into a bad marriage, you do get the feeling of increasing distance over time and lost opportunity; Jon Cypher (sigh); 70s bell bottoms and orange kitchen counter tops; the "swingers" subplot

The bad: stereotype of an unfulfilled housewife--an unimaginative depiction that leaves you unsympathetic; the interior monologues don't strike the right note