Jean Simmons in The Happy Ending (1969)

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With a cast including Jean Simmons and Shirley Jones and a tagline reading “We’re not in love. We just make love,” Richard Brooks’s The Happy Ending (1969) is worth a second look. A largely forgotten Hollywood drama about suburban housewives who cope badly with their husband’s lascivious ways, the homey slice of misery stars Simmons as a booze-and-drug-addicted wife in deep denial. When an invitee to her anniversary party (Tina Louise) throws herself at Simmons’s husband, the housewife does her best to keep up lay-for-lay. Simmons and co-star Jones provide many a happy ending as they offer themselves up to as many men as possible in this dysfunctional but satisfying late-’60s romp.