Movie adaptations from John O'Hara never really get it right. Either they're not frank enough or they sentimentalize or they just plain don't have the budget to put his world on screen. He's very specific about the historical moment when his stories take place. "A Rage to Live" (like "From the Terrace" and "Butterfield 8" as well) is transposed to a later time. It really might have helped if it could have shown us the changing manners and mores of a very specific Pennsylvania world. What I mainly remember it for is one of the two flat-out sexiest performances by a male in the movies that I can readily recall. The other one is Ray Danton in "Too Much, Too Soon." Gazzara is hotter than blazes in his part. A few years ago, when the actor Harry Reems was extradited to Tennessee for appearing in a porn film shot elsewhere that just happened to be sold there, Gazzara was one of his most vocal defenders. He was no kid, Gazzara, but he said "I work out every day. My body is in WONDERFUL shape. And if I want to do a porn film, I want the right to do one." Any surprise that he was so sexy in this film, or in "The Strange One"?
Review of A Rage to Live
