"The Young Philadelphians" is like an entire thirty-year soap opera crammed into one two-hour movie.
Paul Newman had my wife salivating as a young hotshot attorney who learns to balance his ambition with his morals. She couldn't decide if he was hotter as a sweaty construction worker in an early scene or as a dapper man about town in a tux later in the film. I think she would have thought he was hot if he had appeared wrapped in newspaper. But if fetching females are more your thing, no worries, as Barbara Rush is incredibly appealing as his love interest. They have sizzling chemistry in their first scenes together, which makes it a bit of a disappointment when Rush falls out of the film for long periods of time, and their contentious relationship is one of the movie's more tiresome story lines.
Robert Vaughn received a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for playing Newman's dissolute friend who he ends up defending in a murder trial. Vaughn gets to play most of his scenes as an unshaven raving alcoholic, so no wonder he was nominated for an Oscar. The best actual performance in the movie, or at least the most memorable one, probably comes from Billie Burke in a small role as a goofy society lady who deftly steals the movie right out from under everybody just by making smoochy faces at her dog.
This is an entertaining yarn of a movie, but don't expect to be too intellectually taxed.
"The Young Philadelphians" was also nominated for Best Black & White Cinematography and Costume Design, back when it was common to nominate costume designers for creating attractive evening wear in contemporary movies.
Grade: B+
Paul Newman had my wife salivating as a young hotshot attorney who learns to balance his ambition with his morals. She couldn't decide if he was hotter as a sweaty construction worker in an early scene or as a dapper man about town in a tux later in the film. I think she would have thought he was hot if he had appeared wrapped in newspaper. But if fetching females are more your thing, no worries, as Barbara Rush is incredibly appealing as his love interest. They have sizzling chemistry in their first scenes together, which makes it a bit of a disappointment when Rush falls out of the film for long periods of time, and their contentious relationship is one of the movie's more tiresome story lines.
Robert Vaughn received a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for playing Newman's dissolute friend who he ends up defending in a murder trial. Vaughn gets to play most of his scenes as an unshaven raving alcoholic, so no wonder he was nominated for an Oscar. The best actual performance in the movie, or at least the most memorable one, probably comes from Billie Burke in a small role as a goofy society lady who deftly steals the movie right out from under everybody just by making smoochy faces at her dog.
This is an entertaining yarn of a movie, but don't expect to be too intellectually taxed.
"The Young Philadelphians" was also nominated for Best Black & White Cinematography and Costume Design, back when it was common to nominate costume designers for creating attractive evening wear in contemporary movies.
Grade: B+