While I have no recollection of my former Horatio Street neighbor "Patricia Fieldsteel", I do vividly recall another, who lived up the street for the time I resided there. Kathleen Widdowes was a relatively successful actress with distinctive, not quite beautiful looks, and a certain detached quality that I found fascinating when she played the asexual Helena, in Sidney Lumet's constantly aforementioned film version of Mary McCarthy's sociological masterpiece "The Group". As I have said previously, "The Group" is one of my favorite films, in particular because of the presciently post-modern visual patina it applied to the past, which is rare to this day, as most period films, then and now, look like the era they were made far more than the eras they represent.*

The Group** is also of note for it's casting, which features an amazing array of actresses in early roles, including two ... Read More