# The Group
**The Group** is a 1966 American ensemble drama film directed by [Sidney Lumet](https://www.edgepedia.org/sidney-lumet), adapted by Sidney Buchman from [Mary McCarthy](https://www.edgepedia.org/mary-mccarthy)'s 1963 best-selling novel of the same name. It follows eight women who graduate from [Vassar College](https://www.edgepedia.org/vassar-college) in 1933 and traces their lives through marriage, work, and disappointment up to about 1940, as the Second World War approaches.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22337-THE-GROUP) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1008981-group)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / screenwriter | Sidney Lumet; screenplay by Sidney Buchman, from Mary McCarthy's 1963 novel[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22337-THE-GROUP) |
| Release | Detroit opening 4 March 1966; French theatrical release 11 October 1967[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22337-THE-GROUP) • [3](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/cb16460429r) |
| Running time | 150 minutes per the AFI Catalog; the Australian Classification database lists 152 minutes[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22337-THE-GROUP) • [4](https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/group-2) |
| Production | Famous Artists Productions, distributed by United Artists; cinematography by Boris Kaufman, editing by Ralph Rosenblum[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22337-THE-GROUP) |
| Budget | $2,600,000, the most expensive movie made to date in New York City; the film came in on time and on budget[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88178/the-group) |
| Cast | Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett, Elizabeth Hartman, Shirley Knight, Joanna Pettet, Mary-Robin Redd, Jessica Walter, Kathleen Widdoes[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22337-THE-GROUP) |
| Reception | 75% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 8 reviews; no Academy Award nominations[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1008981-group) • [6](https://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2020/03/the-group-novel-into-film.html) |
## Spoilers
### Story and characters
The film opens at the commencement of Vassar's class of 1933 and follows the eight graduates, each distinctly characterized, as their optimistic expectations collide with the realities of the [Depression](https://www.edgepedia.org/depression) decade. Kay Strong ([Joanna Pettet](https://www.edgepedia.org/joanna-pettet)) marries the philandering playwright Harald Peterson ([Larry Hagman](https://www.edgepedia.org/larry-hagman)); Dottie Renfrew (Joan Hackett), a Boston Brahmin, abandons her well-ordered life to become the mistress of a Greenwich Village artist, an affair that lasts one night before she returns to a "proper" marriage to an Arizona business magnate; Priss Hartshorn (Elizabeth Hartman) gives up her dream of working for President Roosevelt's poverty program and marries an ambitious pediatrician; Polly Andrews (Shirley Knight) endures a bumpy love life that culminates in a colorful engagement party; Libby MacAusland (Jessica Walter) is the group's viper-tongued gossip and darling of the Manhattan literary set; Helena Davison (Kathleen Widdoes), the wealthiest, insists on proving her value in the workplace; Pokey Prothero (Mary-Robin Redd) seems happiest when pregnant; and Lakey Eastlake (Candice Bergen), the group's leader, is revealed as a lesbian.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22337-THE-GROUP) • [7](https://watch.afi.com/movie/the-group-1966)
Linking devices hold the fragmentized narrative together: the gossip of Libby and the "Class Notes" continued by Helena provide commentary between episodes, and Lumet ticker-tapes a chatty alumnae newsletter across the screen like subtitles in a foreign movie.[8](https://tribunemag.co.uk/1966/10/films-artificial-groupings) • [9](https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0%2C33009%2C899117%2C00.html) The story ends around 1940, when one of the eight dies.[8](https://tribunemag.co.uk/1966/10/films-artificial-groupings)
## From novel to screen
McCarthy's 1963 novel, about the intersecting lives of Vassar graduates from the class of 1933, was a sensational bestseller, partly because of its notorious second chapter, in which one character loses her virginity to a married artist; frank depictions of women's sexuality led readers to treat it as a "dirty book."[6](https://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2020/03/the-group-novel-into-film.html) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88178/the-group) When the book was published, every major studio turned down the film rights. Charles K. Feldman, an agent turned independent packager, finally bought them and spent thousands of dollars publicizing the book to build interest in the forthcoming movie.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88178/the-group)
**Casting was itself a publicity strategy.** Feldman cast seven little-known but talented young actresses alongside [Candice Bergen](https://www.edgepedia.org/candice-bergen), the nineteen-year-old daughter of ventriloquist [Edgar Bergen](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgar-bergen), who had never acted and initially had no interest in doing so; she agreed to play the relatively small role of Lakey. The choice of mostly unknown actresses rather than movie stars was hotly debated, and [Shirley Knight](https://www.edgepedia.org/shirley-knight), twice nominated for the Supporting Actress Oscar, was the only one close to being a known quantity.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88178/the-group) • [6](https://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2020/03/the-group-novel-into-film.html) The film marked Bergen's screen debut, and Hal Holbrook likewise made his first screen appearance as Gus LeRoy.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22337-THE-GROUP) • [7](https://watch.afi.com/movie/the-group-1966)
## Production
Most of the film was made in and around New York, still a rarity in 1966, and location scenes were filmed in New York City.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88178/the-group) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22337-THE-GROUP) With a budget of $2,600,000, it was the most expensive movie made to date in that city, and it came in on time and on budget.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88178/the-group) Lumet, who had begun in television and had made nine features without a box-office hit, worked quickly and economically; while he was making The Group, his films [The Pawnbroker](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-pawnbroker) (1965) and The Hill (1965) opened to critical acclaim, and by the time The Group was finished, in [Pauline Kael](https://www.edgepedia.org/pauline-kael)'s words, "everybody knew he was going to be a big director."[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88178/the-group)
The crew included cinematographer Boris Kaufman, whose subdued color photography TIME compared to old snapshots in its evocation of the 1930s; editor Ralph Rosenblum; production designer Gene Callahan; costume designer Anna Hill Johnstone; and composer Charles Gross.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22337-THE-GROUP) • [9](https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0%2C33009%2C899117%2C00.html)
## Reception
Contemporary reviews were mixed. TIME called it a "suds opera far superior to the ordinary household brand" and praised the performances of Joanna Pettet, Jessica Walter, Joan Hackett, and Shirley Knight.[9](https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0%2C33009%2C899117%2C00.html) Brendan Gill in [The New Yorker](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-yorker) argued that Sidney Buchman's respectful attempt to preserve the novel's structure left the movie in "a sort of limbo of unfulfilled intentions, neither comic nor tragic," since even at two hours and thirty-four minutes it could not accommodate the multiplicity of lives in the novel.[10](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1966/03/19/after-the-dorm) Pauline Kael, two years before joining The New Yorker, wrote a long essay on the shooting of the picture, later collected in *Kiss Kiss Bang Bang*.[6](https://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2020/03/the-group-novel-into-film.html)
The film never won general approval or a single Academy Award nomination, and its lukewarm reception has made it one of Lumet's more forgotten films.[6](https://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2020/03/the-group-novel-into-film.html) • [11](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2024/02/directed-by-sidney-lumet-vol-1/) Later assessments have been warmer on its subject matter: Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times noted that it was a prestige picture featuring something as unusual then as now, a film centered on the lives of women, and a 2020 reviewer described it as a 1960s feminist drama in which well-educated women's dreams of intellectual lives are ground down by marriage, children, and household.[12](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-critics-choice-20160725-snap-story.html) • [13](https://www.christian-sauve.com/2020/06/the-group-1966/) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 75% Tomatometer from 8 reviews and a 60% audience score.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1008981-group)
## Legacy
The film is now seen as a progenitor of the women-focused ensemble films of later decades, though reviewers note that its 150-plus minutes reduce the novel's eight intersecting storylines to sketches, and that Lakey is kept off-screen for an enormous section of the picture.[14](https://letterboxd.com/dustinputman/film/the-group/) In 2023 the Australian Classification Board rated the film M for home video, with consumer advice of "Mature themes, violence and references to suicide," citing themes of sexual violence, suicide references, mental illness, and death.[4](https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/group-2)
## References
1. [The Group (1966), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22337-THE-GROUP)
2. [The Group, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1008981-group)
3. [Notice de titre conventionnel "The group (film)", Bibliothèque nationale de France](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/cb16460429r)
4. [The Group, Australian Classification](https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/group-2)
5. [The Group, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88178/the-group)
6. [The Group: Novel into Film, Critics At Large](https://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2020/03/the-group-novel-into-film.html)
7. [The Group, American Film Institute (watch)](https://watch.afi.com/movie/the-group-1966)
8. [Films: Artificial groupings, Tribune (7 October 1966)](https://tribunemag.co.uk/1966/10/films-artificial-groupings)
9. [Cinema: Something for the Girls, TIME (11 March 1966)](https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0%2C33009%2C899117%2C00.html)
10. [After the Dorm, The New Yorker (19 March 1966)](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1966/03/19/after-the-dorm)
11. [Directed by Sidney Lumet Vol. 1, Blueprint: Review](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2024/02/directed-by-sidney-lumet-vol-1/)
12. [Women on the verge as 'The Group' turns 50, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-critics-choice-20160725-snap-story.html)
13. [The Group (1966), review by Christian Sauvé](https://www.christian-sauve.com/2020/06/the-group-1966/)
14. [The Group review by Dustin Putman, Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/dustinputman/film/the-group/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1960s › Released 1966 to 1969*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license