Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
PiraBit
if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
ActuallyGlimmer
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
JohnHowardReid
Producer: Charles Brackett. Copyright 1958 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Paramount: 22 May 1958. U.S. release: May 1958. U.K. release: 29 June 1958. Australian release: 11 September 1958. 9,158 feet. 102 minutes.SYNOPSIS: It is 1945 and Joe Chapin is dead. At the funeral reception in his home at 10 North Frederick in Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, his daughter Ann recalls the last five years of his life ... Goaded by an ambitious wife, Edith, who aspires to be the First Lady in Washington, Joe throws his hat in the political ring by offering a one-hundred-thousand dollar bribe to political boss Mike Slattery. At about this time, Ann meets trumpet player Charlie Bongiorno. When she falls in love, becomes pregnant, marries and then has a miscarriage, Joe protects his career by "buying off" Charlie and having the marriage annulled. Heart-broken, Ann leaves home for a book-store job in New York. Double-crossed by Slattery, Joe fails to get the nomination for lieutenant governor.COMMENT: A well-acted, but rather turgid and slow-moving melodrama. Director Dunne seems determined that not a word of his deathless dialogue be lost. Every word is meticulously enunciated — a stratagem guaranteed not to improve an already funereal pace. In other respects, unfortunately, Mr. Dunne is less scrupulous. He makes no attempts even to utilize the scope of the CinemaScope screen, let alone spice up the anti-heroics with dramatic and powerful compositions or imaginative camera placement and movement. His direction, in short, is stolidly uninteresting.Gary Cooper, Geraldine Fitzgerald and company fight a valiant but losing battle to keep the film alive for 102 way-overdue minutes.
writers_reign
This is by far the best of the four novels by John O'Hara that have so far been adapted for the big screen (Pal Joey was a volume of short stories - and contrary to what one reviewer states here, O'Hara wrote Ten North Frederick in 1955 and won the National Book Award in 1956 whilst the film of Pal Joey was released in 1957; Chronologically in terms of publication the four novels were Butterfield 8, A Rage To Live, Ten North Frederick and From The Terrace. Although cutting it dramatically - the novel covers the entire life of the protagonist, the film merely the last five years - writer/director Philip Dunne has wisely retained a great deal of O'Hara's dialogue. I've never been a huge admirer of Gary Cooper but he is ideal casting as Joe Chapin, decency personified, whilst it would be hard to improve on Geraldine Fitzgerald as the wife/mother from hell. Cas support several viewings.
MartinHafer
While you don't necessarily need to love all the characters in a film in order to like it, a film has a HUGE uphill battle when you like absolutely none of them! While you hate some much more than others in the film and understand why the characters are essentially jerks, the overall picture is severely compromised by the writing. The bottom line is that I didn't like any of the Chapin clan and while the soapy elements of the film were interesting, connecting to or caring about them was really, really difficult.Gary Cooper plays a rich and well-heeled man with political aspirations. His wife is played by Geraldine Fitzgerald--a rather cold and conniving character whose one goal seems to be her husband's advancement. Sadly, there really isn't any love or passion between them--just what seems like a good working relationship. Naturally as a result of this, their two grown children are emotional basket cases. However, while you can understand how they got that way, neither shows any strength or depth of character and as a result are easily swayed and manipulated by their parents.Eventually, when Cooper's plans are dashed, the marriage becomes much more strained and the coldness becomes evident--as if Fitzgerald's character no longer cares. And, as a result, the same ambivalence begins to grow within Cooper. At first he tries to deal with by having an affair. Later, when he realizes how fruitless this would be he decides to just drink himself to death and wait for a slow death. Again, this certainly does not make for pleasant viewing. But, because the characters are so emotionally stunted, you can't even enjoy their misery in a voyeuristic fashion--like you would with a really sleazy soap like "Peyton Place" or even "Valley of the Dolls"s (admittedly, this last one is a terrible film). Overall, the picture is only mildly interesting, at best. Well acted but flat.
Michael O'Keefe
Gary Cooper plays Joe Chapin, a very successful man turning fifty years old, prodded into state politics by his nagging wife, played by Geraldine Fitzgerald. Chapin shuns the political scene when he finds it going against the standards and principles he lives by. His wife soon makes him feel a loser and he finds solace in the arms of his daughter's roommate, half his age.Romantic and consuming; from the pen of Philip Dunne. This is an over looked drama shot in black and white. Daughter Ann is played by Diane Varsi and her roommate Kate is played by the lovely Suzy Parker. Also in the cast are Stuart Whitman and Ray Sticklyn.
