You could say writer/director Richard Brooks fashioned "The Happy Ending" as a vehicle for his then wife Jean Simmons and this finest and most undervalued of actresses was rewarded with an Oscar nomination for her performance. She plays the unhappy wife of John Forsythe, (shot in soft-focus, the early part of the film explores their 'youthful' courtship though they do make for very unlikely 'kids'), who finally leaves him in order to 'find herself'. Unfortunately the film itself is something of a slog despite being a reasonably well-acted example of 'the women's picture', (even Forsythe isn't bad), with good work from co-stars Shirley Jones, Lloyd Bridges and Bobby Darin, billed here for some reason as Robert Darin.
The problem is the dime-store novel plotting and dialogue straight out of the worst kind of television soap as Brooks explores the rotteness at the heart of American marriage. Apparently it was something of a hit at the time though it's now largely and mercifully forgotten though its theme-song, 'What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life', has become something of a classic.
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