(Martin Ritt, US 1957, 105 min., 35mm)

Before the pitfalls of suburban marriages were examined by novels like John Updike’s Rabbit, Run and Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road, Hollywood offered this trenchant and observant study of four different couples: the blue-collar Boones (Joanne Woodward and Cameron Mitchell); clean-cut newcomers, the Martins (Jeffrey Hunter and Patricia Owens); the sophisticated but alcoholic Flaggs (Tony Randall and Sheree North); and the stable Kreitzers (Pat Hingle and Barbara Rush). Far from a soap opera, director Ritt (Hud, Norma Rae) and blacklisted screenwriter Ben Maddow uncover true disenchantment in a prefabricated housing development.