The Pumpkin Eater (1964)

Pretty much a depress-a-thon.

Lonely woman with a passel of kids is in the middle of a breakdown when we meet her, so we back up a bit to see how she got there. Basically, she packed up her children and left her drafty, laughter-filled farmhouse and kind husband for a slick movie executive who starts cheating on her right away.

I know it's kind of judgmental, but I had a hard time working up too much sympathy for her. Yes, her husband's a weasel, but she left a perfectly good spouse for this guy in the first place. Anne Bancroft does do a great job of transforming from a woman full of joy to a hollow-eyed shell, but there's so very little reason to care.

C-