The Young Philadelphians (1959) on Netflix
Kate Judson Lawrence loses the Lawrence family money when she refuses to raise her son as a Lawrence. Her son Tony later studies at Princeton and falls for socialite Joan Dickinson.
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Trailer
Plot summary
In 1924 Kate Judson Lawrence learns on her wedding night that her Main Line husband William married her only because his mother wanted a grandson, and that he cannot love her. He leaves, and the following day he is killed when his car crashes. Kate turns to her old working-class friend Mike Flanagan, and nine months afterward her son Anthony is born. William's mother offers Kate money if the boy is not raised as a Lawrence; Kate refuses and is shut out of the family fortune. Anthony grows up ambitious, studying at Princeton while working for Flanagan in construction. A minor car accident introduces him to Joan Dickinson, and they fall in love, though her social circle expects her to marry the millionaire Carter Henry. Their friend Chester Gwynn warns her against letting social pressure decide.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Young Philadelphians (1959)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- According to film historian Peter Hanson, the screenplay was credited to Ben L. Perry, who showed up at Warner Bros. studios daily to hide that the blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo was actually writing it. Newman and Sherman, unaware, tried to hire Trumbo to rewrite the script; he declined to avoid betraying the secret arrangement.
- Paul Newman was opposed to making the film and made that argument unsuccessfully to director Vincent Sherman. He agreed to do it only so Warner Bros. would give him time off to appear on stage in Tennessee Williams's new play Sweet Bird of Youth, and that play's producers moved its opening to accommodate him.
- While filming, Newman complained about the "wretched" script, and at nights he and co-star Robert Vaughn worked with a writer to improve it. Newman described the film as "just a glorified cosmopolitan soap opera."
