As both From The Terrace and The Young Philadelphians have their original settings in the City of Brotherly Love and they both star Paul Newman and they have similar plot situations, it's easy to confuse them. I often do and have to correct myself.
From The Terrace derives from one John O'Hara's less critically received work and for that I fail to see why. The film and I'm sure the novel has some interesting things to say about American values and success. Breaking it down for the film version it's almost as if two books were written with the vaguest connection in plot. The first part is young Newman coming home after World War II service and finding things worse between his unhappily married parents. They've fallen out of love, mother Myrna Loy drinks like a fish and sleeps around, and Leon Ames has never gotten over the death in childhood of Newman's brother and became mean and embittered. That's a scene he leaves first to go into business with navy buddy George Grizzard and then after a fortuitous event I won't mention becoming a wolf of Wall Street with very family values oriented financier Felix Aylmer.
Along the way the parental issues drop away and Newman marries spoiled rich girl Joanne Woodward. He doesn't tend to the marriage and it becomes as loveless as his parent's. She starts spending time with old flame psychiatrist Patrick O'Neal and he eventually finds some true love in Ina Balin.
It must have been an interesting acting challenge for the Newmans to play a loveless couple, in many respects their greatest acting job for this Hollywood couple of long standing. Joanne really ratchets it up playing the rich princess who wants it all and damn the hypocrisy.
Felix Aylmer has an interesting role, one that thank God we see fewer and fewer of. An employer who finds divorce the worst thing in the world, he sees it as a business contract two people enter into. Just live up to it, no matter how unhappy both partners might feel. Newman's rival in the firm is Howard Caine who is in the firm because he is Aylmer's son-in-law. Caine is a real bottom feeder and not above a little stealing on his own just as long as respectable appearances are preserved.
Leon Ames who is usually a nice man really does an against type part here playing the bitter industrial tycoon. And Myrna Loy usually the perfect wife, well imagine if William Powell's drinking in the Thin Man had led to all kinds of physical and mental abuse and Nora Charles started drinking and catting around, you've got what Loy does with the role of Newman's mother.
From The Terrace is a bit old fashioned, but quite a commentary on its times and the cast does well by O'Hara's work.
