The Happy Ending is a 1969 American drama film written and directed by Richard Brooks, which tells the story of a repressed housewife who longs for liberation from her husband and daughter.

It stars Jean Simmons (who received an Oscar nomination), John Forsythe, Shirley Jones, Lloyd Bridges and Teresa Wright.

At an airline office, however, Mary buys a one-way ticket to Nassau, Bahamas, looking for an escape from her dull and unhappy suburban life.

On the flight she recalls the horrors of last year's anniversary party, when Fred drunkenly flirted with a blonde divorcee, and she took refuge in the bottle and a rerun of Casablanca.

Walking by the ocean, Mary recalls the occasion of her suicide attempt — she had returned from having a face lift to learn that Fred was in Reno with a girl.

The song was one of the eight pieces of music chosen by Jean Simmons when she appeared on the BBC radio program Desert Island Discs on 9 August 1975.

[2] In Life magazine, Richard Schickel gave a negative review, describing the film as a "melodramatic travesty" and criticizing its unlikeable characters.

[3] The New York Times's Vincent Canby was also critical, writing The Happy Ending "is a kind of false Faces—a movie that set out to expose the kitsch of Hollywood fantasy".

[5] He wrote, "The shudderingly impassioned, history-jangled, cinema-centric drama 'The Happy Ending,' from 1969, reflects vast changes in Hollywood and in American society, and even nudges them ahead.