grantss Interesting, and ultimately quite gripping, drama.A young lawyer, Tony Lawrence (played by Paul Newman), embarks on a successful legal career in Philadelphia. He steadily climbs the social and corporate ladder, though with much personal baggage and bitterness.It's the last few scenes of this movie that make it so good. It was fine, but not fantastic, before. We see Paul Newman's character's trials, tribulations and success. It is interesting, but not overly engaging. However, the engagement factor is ratcheted up several notches toward the end, when he defends his friend in court. The story changes from a fairly standard drama to a very intriguing courtroom drama.Solid work by Paul Newman in the lead role. Good support from Robert Vaughn, Barbara Rush, Brian Keith and a host of others. Vaughn got a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his efforts, the only Oscar nomination in his career.

MartinHafer "The Young Philadelphians" begins on an odd note. A lady marries--only to have her new hubby say that he CAN'T consummate the marriage! I THINK this was implying he was a homosexual--but it was so vague you wonder if the man just didn't have a penis. All I know is that she stormed out--and later that night he killed himself. In the time between, she met with her old boyfriend (Brian Keith) and I THINK they implied they had sex. And, if we are to believe this odd build up, she became pregnant that night. The lady's brand-new mother-in-law wants to take the child and raise him herself--but the mother vows to do it without her dead husband's family's money. Years pass and the child is now a good looking college student (Paul Newman) who works for Keith (who you assume is his biological father). All this vagueness thanks to 1950s standards--which, in the case of this film, tended to weaken the narrative. I just wish they'd been a lot more explicit and this is by far the worst aspect of the film.As for the rest of the film, it's very, very good. It's all about Newman and his rise as a lawyer in Philadelphia--and his dealings with the city's elite families. Much of the film simply chronicles his life events--his first love, his attending law school, military service and his rise through the ranks in the legal field. Despite this sounding rather pedestrian, it isn't--Newman did a great job and the script is very well written and with excellent dialog.Later in the film, Newman has finally worked his way to being a very well-respected and successful lawyer. He has a chance to go into politics, marry a gorgeous women from the best of families and he has every reason to be happy. However, out of the blue, a new case comes along--one that could upset all of his plans. What's he to do? Overall, it's a film that is very, very good but with a small re-write it could have been a lot better. Either making the first portion tighter would have helped or simply eliminating this soap opera-like plot would have made the film stronger. But, looking past this, the film is still a very good and often overlooked Newman vehicle.By the way, a few final points. My daughter saw this film with me and said that the small portion that takes place at the University of Pennsylvania looks like it was filmed at the school--as she recognized some of the buildings. Although IMDb doesn't say it was filmed there, it does say that the filmmakers did a good job making it look right. Also, to my knowledge, it's the only film I've ever seen about a tax attorney--and I'll have to tell my friend, Terri (a tax lawyer) about it! Finally, although I sometimes have disliked Billie Burke in films as she sometimes dominated the film too much with her ditsy act, here her bit part was fantastic--and used very effectively. I loved her in the film.

dougdoepke No need to detail a convoluted plot that basically involves Newman's character finding a moral compass and himself amid Philadelphia's upper-class. Aside from flat b&w photography (Technicolor seems more appropriate) and stilted direction, the screenplay tries to do too much with too many characters drifting in and out. Too many threads appear and then inexplicably lapse. For example, Anthony (Newman) is dropped into Korea as an officer for one scene, and then back to civilian life in the next, both without explanatory context, leaving me perplexed, to say the least. I suspect the screenplay's one of those adaptations from a lengthy novel that proved just too unwieldy to digest on film.And dare I say it—except for the opening blue- collar scenes, Newman delivers a flat, uninteresting performance. Maybe the upwardly mobile Anthony was intended to be a dull character, but either way, many lesser actors could have managed the same colorless turn. Frankly, Newman's high society attorney left me yearning for the lower-class charms of Hud, Hustler, and Cool Hand Luke. Then too, the upper-class types here are very upper-class, while the working class folks are very ethnic. Not a lot of subtlety or thought there. Also, looks to me like the women come off best, especially a spirited Barbara Rush, a nuanced Alexis Smith, and a pixilated Billie Burke, while on the male side a young Robert Vaughn gets the showy role. All in all, the cast is definitely better than the turgid material.Anyway, the film comes across as one of those steamy popular novels that Hollywood figures has built-in box-office, and all other factors be darned. And darn the material they did.

Michael Neumann This unbelievable (but no less enjoyable) legal soap opera comes complete with dark family secrets, coincidental encounters, tragic misunderstandings, and a courtroom finish Hitchcock might have loved, in which the fate of a man perhaps wrongly charged with murder waits to be decided by a butler's sense of smell. Paul Newman stars as a young lawyer rising through Philadelphia society using his wits, his charm, and a few unscrupulous tactics never taught in law school, and Barbara Rush is the hot-and-cold love interest. But Robert Vaughn steals the film playing an unfortunate friend who, in less than two hours of screen time, descends from an amiable barfly to a crippled war veteran to a skid row derelict facing the electric chair.