From the Terrace

I guess they butchered the book to keep the movie within 2 hours. The book has subtleties and plots that make this an INTERESTING chronicle of life in the 20th century for a typical upper class white male. This movie is not interesting. This features a good cast -- Newman and Woodward and Patrick O'Neal. Newman takes the harder path to success, wins the girl of his dreams (Woodward) and should live happily ever after. For some reason he falls head over heels with a girl 20 years his junior and his wife decides at the same time to return to college boyfriend O'Neal. The movie somehow manages to make Woodward look like a tramp and Newman like a long-suffering man. In reality they are both cheating. So I guess hollywood couldn't admit that there was a guaranteed network of prep school and clubs for the white protestant male. They had to rewrite the book to make it appear like Newman struggled. Then the entire WW2 sequence so important to the plot of the book is skipped which means we have a happy ending instead of a man who ends up a pathetic loser.

This engaging 1960 Hollywood production anticipated a coming decade of changing values in America. Its script teeters a bit, emphasizing a bit more the strain of the love conflict rather than the story's real essence. This is an easy mark for critics standing by with sharp knives who may then view it as superficial. However, its real drama depicts the changing generations of an America where at one time successes was measured only by the bank account and social prominence and not by integrity, the ramifications of truth in character.

Here, we see the contrasting generations in conflict. The Old Guard embraced expediency and placed the home and its values second to business success. Once in a while, a young man came along with enough awareness to see the lie in this doctrine. FROM THE TERRACE is in its pure essence the story about such a young man. This was done with a bit more success a few years before in THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT but this drama is certainly worthwhile seeing. It is well cast and played with production values that at the time were the best that Hollywood could offer. This includes an outstanding music score by Elmer Bernstein.

Her bone structure and diction still flawless, Myrna Loy remains as handsome as most of the other females in permanent waves that populate this plush John O'Hara saga. But she's learned the hard way what a quarter of a century's drinking can do even to a woman as classy as her, and that being a nymphomaniac isn't really as much fun as she made it look in 'Love Me Tonight'.

She's extremely moving in her scenes with a dashing young Paul Newman that comprise much of the first half-hour of this very long film. But sadly the movie (SPOILER COMING:) shifts it's attention to him at her expense, and once again the sublime Myrna is wasted.

Paul Newman is doing his angry young man thing here, and Joanne Woodward is wonderful as she goes from rebellious rich brat to shrewish, slutty harridan. It's beautifully filmed with lots of sumptuous sets and it's obvious that a good part of the budget went to costumes. If you like movies with boozy, unhappy rich people who do little more than snipe at each other, you've got to see "From the Terrace."

Reading the comments on this movie tells me a lot about our culture at the dawn of the 21st century. Yes, by today's standards this movie seems to move slow and a is little dull. It was made before pornography passing for entertainment was permitted. It contains lots of subtlety and innuendo. It was considered racy when it was made.

One of my favorite scenes is when Mrs. Eaton is talking to her husband on the phone about her lover. You never see the lover in the scene, but at the end, you realize he's been in the bed all along. Another favorite scene is when Mrs. Eaton meets her husband's lover for the first time. It is in the car afterward that she asks what this woman call's Mr. Eaton.

The only disappointment is the superficial way the film treats marriage. No children are involved in this marriage and it only deals with how the husband and wife consider their lives. It tries to make a case for divorce and treats the subject far too lightly.