Diary of a Mad Housewife

Superstardom was predicted for Carrie Snodgress on the basis of her spectacular film debut in Diary of a Mad Housewife. Snodgress plays the long-suffering wife of pushy, insensitive attorney Richard Benjamin. Unable to withstand being treated as a trophy (and a tarnished one at that), Snodgress has a brief affair with sexy Frank Langella. Alas, Langella, like virtually every other male character in the film, is just as selfish and self-involved as Benjamin. Even when she enters group therapy, Snodgress is disenchanted by the obtuseness and chauvinism of her male psychiatrist. Nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Diary of a Mad Housewife, Carrie Snodgress dropped out of films shortly afterward to move in with rock star Neil Young - with whom she raised a child. She returned to cinema with a pivotal role in Brian de Palma's bloody thriller The Fury.