FROM THE TERRACE (1960)

Slick soap opera in that glossy, colorful, widescreen style that was popular in the late 50's and early 60's. For me, these movies date much more than films of the 30's and 40's. Its primary assets now are well-appointed sets, good use of color, and the smoldering presence of Paul Newman. The story begins with Newman coming home from WWII to the Philadelphia home of his rich parents. His mother (Myrna Loy) has, because of husbandly neglect, become a drunk and taken a lover; his father (Leon Ames) wants him to follow in his footsteps in the family business, but Newman wants to head to New York to with buddy George Grizzard and start fresh. Once set up in the city with some good contacts, Newman meets the lovely but rather icy Joanne Woodward and steals her away from her fiance (Patrick O'Neal). His business prospects aren't so hot, but eventually Newman stumbles into success when he helps save the life of a child who had fallen into an icy pond and the kid's grandfather (Felix Aylmer) gives him a job. With Newman devoting most of his time and energy to his work, he and Woodward start to drift apart and she slips into seeing her old flame on the side. Young wholesome Ina Balin comes into Newman's life and he decides that there are other things than money and property to make life worth living. The climax occurs at a board meeting when Aylmer is about to make Newman the youngest partner in the company's history, but Newman expresses other ideas. The story of the parents is front and center for the first 15 minutes, and Ames and Loy make it compelling (with Ames basically playing a harder, updated version of his Mr. Smith character in MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS), but they drop out of the movie quickly. Most of the other characters aren't very interesting (though Newman and Woodward are both easy on the eyes). The writing is fairly weak, with people saying things to explain their behavior that they would never say out loud in real life; this seems to me to be a matter of inept literary adaptation (based on a John O'Hara novel). Look for Barbara Eden in a tiny role early on. The anti-materialistic message is rather old-hat now, but it may have been different back then. [DVD]