robert-temple-1 This is an unusual and moving melodrama. (The title is the address of the house where the Chapin family live.) Gary Cooper plays Joe Chapin, and the film opens with his funeral but soon becomes a flashback. Cooper is a man who has just turned fifty, who falls in love with his daughter's best friend Kate, who is in her twenties. She returns his love and they wish to get married. Kate is played by the excellent actress Suzy Parker, who was 25 at the time the film was made and already had a career behind her as the most successful and highest paid model in America. She was one cool dudette. She was also Coco Chanel's favourite model. She plays the role of Kate with great sensitivity and distinction. The film is based on a novel by John O'Hara (1905-1970). Two years later, an excellent film based on another of his novels was made, FROM THE TERRACE (1960, see my review). Probably the most famous screen adaptation of one of his novels was BUTTERFIELD 8 (1960), starring Elizabeth Taylor. ('Butterfield 8' was the first part of a Manhattan telephone number before the days of wholly numerical dialling, Butterfield being the name of a former New York telephone exchange.) This film is set in the fictitious town of Gibbsville, in the state of Pennsylvania, which was the setting of most of O'Hara's sagas. Between 1976 and 1977, a 13 episode series appeared on American television called GIBBSVILLE, based on short stories which O'Hara also set there, but which are separate from this tale. (That series is not and apparently never has been on DVD.) O'Hara was a best-selling author at this period, of immense popularity in America. His fiction spoke of the many concealed conflicts of American life and society in the 1950s, with sons struggling against fathers, unmarred pregnancies, tyrannical mothers and wives, forbidden love, and, above all, the rigid social stratifications caused by money. The film was scripted and directed by Philip Dunne. It is a pity that he was but a middling talent, because this film had all the ingredients of a classic, but his direction was stolid rather than inspired. Despite the best efforts of the cast, therefore, this film fails to reach the top echelon. The story is torrid, and Gary Cooper plays a wealthy man who is continually cheated of his prospects for political advancement because he will not continue to go along with corruption. (The film starts with him giving $20,000 in cash to a political operator in hopes of getting the nomination for Lieutenant Governor of his state, but he tires of this sort of thing and turns against it.) Cooper is married to a ruthless social-climber and harridan, brilliantly played by Geraldine Fitzgerald with all the poison of a viper. Their daughter Ann is played sensitively by Diane Varsi, whose only previous appearance on screen had been the year before in PEYTON PLACE (1957). She was very talented but did not make many films, and died young at 54. The main focus of the story is not at all evident in the beginning, and it is only after the daughter leaves home to live in New York that Gary Cooper goes up to see her as a surprise, she is out, and he meets her roommate for the first time. That's when the romance gets going. Cooper has never been in love before, and the torment of a love that can never be revealed is agony for both him and Suzy Parker. It is all very moving and done with great delicacy and sincerity. The film is very worthwhile and for those who like good sound melodramas, it will not be disappointing.

edwagreen "10 North Frederick" recounts the story of a middle aged man, successful in business, who is pushed into the political arena by his domineering, obnoxious wife.Gary Cooper and Geraldine Fitzgerald are in fine form as the middle aged man and vicious wife. With the ending of his career approaching, Cooper gave an outstanding performance as a man who was just too good for the society that he lived in. Equally impressive was Geraldine Fitzgerald, his wife Edith, with her sterling political ambitions that could easily rival Mary Todd Lincoln. Erudite, yet a tramp in her own right, Fitzgerald etched an unforgettable character in using such terms as mawkish. (Fitzgerald could have easily played Mary Todd Lincoln in the great 1940 film "Abe Lincoln in Illinois if Ruth Gordon hadn't been available.) Some could call the film dated but what an impressive date! The mores of yesterday were defined that in politics, if you had a scandal in the family, you were ruined. Not so necessarily true today. The same more could be applied to older men married to younger women. Sociologists could really have a ball with this terrific film.When he sees the dirt that politics brings, he begins an affair with his daughter's room mate. Diane Varsi, who was so good in "Peyton Place," shines as the daughter. Suzy Parker is her friend who has an affair with Cooper.Fitzgerald pulls out all the stops in her vicious tirades. She is soon slapped down by her son who denounces her publicly for what she has done to her husband.A wonderful film detailing moral values and their decline in a society where they are most needed. Highly recommended film to all viewers.

Charles Reichenthal John O'Hara's book TEN NORTH FREDERICK was hardly the masterpiece of political life, but it had strong characterizations, and the film, also not a masterwork, has a lot more going for it than we initially thought. Still of major consequence are the performances of the supporting players. In this tale of a failed political hopeful, his vengeful wife, his youngish girlfriend, and assorted other characters, the viewer is caught by the superb work of the cast. All seems possible with the effective work. Geraldine Fitzgerald, as always, is a total marvel -- one of the finest of three decades. She should be almost deified. In this, she eschews her sensitive side to superbly capture the nastiness of a woman who want more and more... with less change to get it. But she is matched by young Ray Stricklyn as the confused young son... with at least one scene that should have done for him what the telephone scene in The Great Ziefgeld did for Luise Rainer. His work indicates the hope we all had for him.... but he correctly went to the L.A. stage where he scored enormous successes. Diane Varsi and Stuart Whitman both underscore the acting skills we first saw in them. The love story between the older Gary Cooper and the younger Suzy Parker works better than I had recalled. He tries with his expected skill to show the desperation of the man, but Suzy Parker DOES offer a multi-layered performance -- far superior to the work she had done in other films. This film remains an interesting Hollywood look at the world of politics, and it should not be buried unmarked in the annals of solid craftmanship.

Kirasjeri Powerful older man romances gorgeous woman a third his age; daughter gets pregnant by a bandleader who is threatened and bought off by the powerful father, etc etc. Sound familiar? Yes, it's a well-acted Soap with a good cast. If you love Gary Cooper or think Suzy Parker looked marvelous, check it out. But you've seen this kind of thing before - and this is really a dated antique vis a vis values. I just want to know where the "psychotic evil twin sister" is, and other stock Soap characters.