The Young Philadelphians *** (1959, Paul Newman, Barbara Rush, Alexis Smith, Brian Keith, Billie Burke, John Williams, Otto Kruger, Robert Vaughn) – Classic Movie Review 4,637

The 1959 American legal drama film The Young Philadelphians is based on the 1956 novel The Philadelphian by Richard P Powell, and stars Paul Newman, Barbara Rush, Robert Vaughn and Alexis Smith. 

Director Vincent Sherman’s soapy 1959 novel-to-film transfer The Young Philadelphians is trashy but very polished and compulsive, with a lot of plot to fill the long 136-minute running time. It was nominated for three Oscars.

Paul Newman stars as poor, illegitimate Tony Lawrence who meets socialite Joan Dickinson (Barbara Rush) whose father (John Williams) helps him to become a corporate lawyer. When she marries another, Newman gets ambition and looks to success as the best revenge. But his political career is endangered when a rival threatens to expose his illegitimacy.

The film starts as it means to go along. In 1924, Kate Judson Lawrence (Diane Brewster) discovers on her wedding night that her upper-class Philadelphia Main Line husband William Lawrence (Adam West) never wanted to marry her: ‘It was my mother who wanted this marriage, to give her a grandson. But I can’t love you, Kate, I can’t love anyone.’ This. of course, is the film’s code that the William Lawrence is gay.

Paul Newman had recently won an Academy Award nomination for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with his character of Brick Pollitt a repressed gay, though you would hardly know from the film. Hollywood was in denial.

Director Richard Brooks rewrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: ‘I didn’t feel the subject of latent or even overt homosexuality was necessary for this particular story. If you go to the movies and there’s a man on the screen who keeps saying, no, he doesn’t want to go to bed with Elizabeth Taylor, then the audience will begin to whistle and hoot.’

So, yes, you can say that The Young Philadelphians is franker on the subject of homosexuality than Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, just.

The youthful Newman’s Method acting in The Young Philadelphians is hugely watchable, though it is hardly his finest hour in the movies. But among the slew of fascinating performances, young Robert Vaughn is outstanding and was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor as the drunken soldier buddy Chester ‘Chet’ Gwynn, whom Newman defends on an unjust murder charge. The acclaim that Vaughn received for this role changed everything in his career.

Cinematographer Harry Stradling Sr was nominated too for Best Cinematography Black-and-White, as was Howard Shoup for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White. The screenplay credited to the film’s producer James Gunn’s is based on Richard P Powell’s 1956 novel The Philadelphian.

Allegedly, writer Ben L Perry, who reported for work at Warner Bros every day to disguise the fact that the screenplay was actually being written by the blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo. 

Also in the cast are Alexis Smith, Brian Keith, Billie Burke, Otto Kruger, Diane Brewster, Paul Picerni, Robert Douglas, Frank Conroy, Adam West, Anthony Eisley, Richard Deacon and Murray Alper.

The film premiered in Philadelphia at the Stanley Theatre on May 19, 1959. It came second to Some Like It Hot at the US box office in its opening week.

Newman was forced to star in the film, which he described the film as ‘just a glorified cosmopolitan soap opera’, under his Warner Bros contract. He complained about the ‘wretched’ script and at night during filming, he and Vaughn worked with a writer to improve it. However, looking back, Newman said the role was ‘much closer to me as a human being’ than most of his roles.

RIP Paul Newman, who died on September 26, 2008, aged 83.

Newman was a lifelong Democrat, a tireless worker for liberal causes, and a vocal supporter of gay rights and same-sex marriage.

RIP Robert Vaughn, who died on 11 November 2016, aged 83.

RIP Adam West, who died on 9 June 2017, aged 88.

The Young Philadelphians [The City Jungle] is directed by Vincent Sherman, runs 136 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by James Gunn, based on Richard P Powell’s novel The Philadelphian, is shot in black and white by Harry Stradling Sr, is scored by Ernest Gold and Ray Heindorf, and is designed by Malcolm C Bert.

The cast are Paul Newman as Tony Judson Lawrence, Barbara Rush as Joan Dickinson, Alexis Smith as Carol Wharton, Brian Keith as Mike Flanagan, Diane Brewster as Kate Judson Lawrence, Billie Burke as Mrs J Arthur Allen, John Williams as Gilbert Dickinson, Robert Vaughn as Chet Gwynn, Otto Kruger as John Marshall Wharton, Paul Picerni as Louis Donetti, Robert Douglas as Morton Stearnes, Frank Conroy as Dr Shippen Stearnes, Adam West as William Lawrence III, Anthony Eisley as Carter Henry. and Richard Deacon as George Archibald.

The 92-year-old Barbara Rush attended the film’s 60th Anniversary Screening for a Q & A on 7 August 2019 in Santa Monica at Laemmle’s Royal Theatre in Los Angeles.

RIP Barbara Rush, who died on March 31, 2024, aged 97.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,637

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