From the Terrace (1960)

From the Terrace
Directed by Mark Robson
Written by Ernest Lehman from a novel by John O’Hara
1960/USA
Linebrook
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Mary St. John: Yes. She has something I haven’t got – niceness. But then I have something she hasn’t got.

Alfred Eaton: Me?

Mary St. John: No. Honesty and guts. She has no guts.[/box]

The valiant efforts of a talented cast cannot save the turgid dialogue of this potboiler.

David Alfred Eaton (Paul Newman) comes home from WWII to find his mother (Myrna Loy) a hopeless alcoholic who is also under the grip of a blackmailer.  Alfred is a misunderstood youth having disappointed his father (Leon Ames) by surviving his beloved brother, who died at an early age of spinal meningitis.

Dad wants young Alfred to work his way up the ropes at the family mill but Alfred wants none of it.  He founds an airplane manufacturing venture with some friends.  Unfortunately, Alfred gets interested in Mary St. John (Joanne Woodward), the naughty daughter of a tycoon.  The tycoon opposes the marriage until Alfred’s father has a heart attack.  After that he is all in favor.  For some reason the highly sexed Mary and Alfred never really make the marriage work.

After rescuing his drowning grandson, Alfred gets a job offer from a Wall Street wheeler dealer.  He becomes a complete workaholic like his father, leaving Mary alone for weeks and months at a time while he travels on business.  She retaliates in the predictable ways. Can the love of good girl Natalie rekindle David’s passion for life?

The first thing you have to get past is that Paul Newman’s character could possibly prefer ultra-bland non-actress Ina Balin as Natalie to Joanne Woodward.  Worse, though, are the stilted dialogue and cliched plot points.  If you have to choose one John O’Hara saga for 1960, I would go for Butterfield 8.  Or if you are not a melodrama fan, you could give them both a miss.

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