Two couples are experiencing difficulty in their marital relationships. Newlyweds Isabel and George Haverstick are having a problem because George has bouts of sexual performance anxiety and has quit his job without telling her. George's war buddy Ralph is at odds with his wife Dottie, whom he had married for money, and he dislikes her wealthy parents. Ralph is also upset with Isabel for allowing their young son to play with a doll.
Isabel and George visit Ralph on Christmas Eve, but Dottie has left Ralph. George and Isabel fight constantly and she angrily objects to his neglect. Ralph consoles Isabel and tries to convince George to show her some kindness. Dottie peers in the window and sees Isabel in the house, assuming the worst. When Dottie's angry parents arrive to collect her belongings, Isabel defends George's war record to Dottie's mother, causing George to experience a change of heart as he overhears. Dottie's father unsuccessfully tries to have Ralph arrested for attempted embezzlement. Ralph viciously humiliates Dottie on the ride back to the house from the police station.
Dottie and Ralph settle their differences, and she is overcome with emotion to find a fur coat that he has bought her for Christmas. Isabel and George also make amends.
Williams' play was originally going to be directed on Broadway by Elia Kazan who eventually dropped out and was replaced by George Roy Hill.
MGM paid $100,000 for the film rights (this ensured the original Broadway production was profitable).[3] The studio assigned Lawrence Weingarten to produce.[4] Hill signed a two picture deal with MGM to direct; the second was to be an adaptation of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich but it was decided to turn that into a TV series so the contract was amended.[5]
Filming started 10 April 1962.
Reception
Critical
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "Whatever there is in the way of humor in watching young married people quarrel and display attitudes in their relations that range between juvenile and immature is made abundantly available in 'Period of Adjustment,'' a tart little motion picture from the play by Tennessee Williams. ... The humor and pathos of 'adjusting' by clumsy young people is fairly put. The only questions are whether it's worth their efforts and whether it's worth your money to watch them fight." Crowther praised Fonda's performance: "Jane Fonda is appropriately shallow and jittery as the newlywed wife. Her vague emotions and wispy feelings seem no deeper than her goose-pimples, which are revealed in some strangely familiar acting. Could it be the late Marilyn Monroe that Miss Fonda seems to resemble? She surely won't mind our saying so."[6]
Variety called it an "uneven film" with "more peaks than troughs".[7]
Box office
According to MGM records, the film earned $2,750,000 in North America and $1.5 million overseas, making the studio a profit of $558,000.[1][8]Filmink later speculated:
Why did Period of Adjustment, based on a play that had been disappointing on Broadway, featuring a B-list cast and then-unknown director, and recipient of mixed reviews, become a sleeper hit? Our theory: because Jane Fonda, young and gorgeous, spends most of the film trying to have sex with new husband Jim Hutton. That was fresh. Audiences were intrigued, and titillated, in sufficient numbers for the film to make money.[9]
