Ten North Frederick

source: Ten North Frederick

A successful small-town lawyer (Gary Cooper) with a beautiful wife (Geraldine Fitzgerald), two over-achieving children, and aspirations to be president, seems to have it all. But as his daughter looks back on his life, a different man emerges: one in conflict with his ambitious and shrewish wife, terrified that the misdeeds of his children will dash his political dreams, and in love with a model half his age (Suzy Parker). With black wit and penetrating insight, as a portrait of the personal and political hypocrisy of mid-20th-century America Ten North Frederick stands much above Butterfield 8, Revolutionary Road, Mr. Bridge and Mrs. Bridge, though much beneath The Swimmer and Mad Men. Pretty competent drama extracted from John O'Hara. Certainly half-flawed. There is, for example, a flashback in which the character who remembers could not have previous knowledge of the remembered facts, which only the viewer knows.

This film delves into the private lives of a family that has always shown the world a respectable environment. However behind the closed doors of 10 North Frederick are many secrets and personal struggles. Gary Cooper is a man out of his time and place among people who are climbing the ladder without scruples. He sees his life as just as it is, until it is disrupted by an unexpected pregnancy. His daughter, "his lovely daughter", played by Diane Varsi has married an unacceptable man, who later is bought off. Geraldine Fitzgerald as the ambitious wife is hateful and insincere in everything. The explosion comes when she admits to Joe that she had an affair. She does this on the worst day of his life losing all chances of a political career. Needless to say he is now destroyed, and afloat in a sea of lost dreams. His daughter has moved to New York, and shares an apartment with Suzy Parker a model. He meets her and despite the large age difference they are in love. She loves him without reservation, but he sees the age gap as a detriment to any future. Totally sad, since they are true to the love forever. I love Gary Cooper here. The age difference disappears into the small light of his hopes to be with a truly loving woman. To say this is a sentimental journey would be selling the film short. It is more about how people live their lives and deal with love, and sometimes disappointment.

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Gary Cooper made six films after "Ten North Frederick" -- and by the last one, "The Naked Edge," he was near death and filming had to be stopped frequently to give him oxygen. Here, in a film based on a novel by John O'Hara, he plays Joseph Chapin, a lawyer with a son, Joby (Ray Stricklyn), a daughter,Ann (Diane Varsi) and an absolute shrew as a wife, Edith (Geraldine Fitzgerald). He's a gentle man, who has probably kept peace in his life by giving in to his wife. The film begins with Joe's funeral, with his daughter Ann looking back on the last five years. Her own life has been affected by falling in love with a talented trumpet player (Stuart Whitman) and her ensuing unhappiness, and her brother wanted to study music at Juilliard but is pressured to attend law school. The war intervenes, and at the beginning of the film, he has returned for the funeral. Edith has political ambitions and pushes Joe into throwing his hat in the ring; he soon finds it's too dirty a game for him and withdraws. Joe, disillusioned, his beloved daughter having left home, he goes to New York to visit her and meets her gorgeous roommate (Suzy Parker). The two fall in love, despite their age difference. I have to say, I felt the film was a little on the dull side - the pace was slow, and the acting, despite some of the comments here, I found rather dull. The thing about Gary Cooper is that he underplays and is very subtle - now, there's underplaying and there's just not acting. I have to say I didn't feel Diane Varsi did much acting here. Geraldine Fitzgerald was terrific, as was Ray Stricklyn, who went on to Broadway success and a huge career in publicity with the John Springer organization, handling people like Elizabeth Taylor and Bette Davis. Suzy Parker was always a total vision, but never much of an actress. The most effective scenes were at the end of the movie, very beautiful and well worth waiting for. Cooper really shone throughout, but especially in the last section. A wonderful presence, and, like many stars of that era, we lost him too soon. It's sad to realize that they're all gone, including Varsi, who died at age 54. Worth seeing for some of the performances. A little sharper direction would have brought it up a level.

John O'Hara whose Pal Joey was brought to the screen the year before wrote the book Ten North Frederick on which this film is based. For some reason this is a film of Gary Cooper's that is rarely shown any more. Cooper is the WASP type upper crust patrician who has some political ambition. He's a well respected man in his area, except apparently in his own home. He's married to a woman who makes Lady MacBeth look like Mary Poppins. Geraldine Fitzgerald steals the acting honors in this film with her portrayal as the exponential shrew of a wife. Though I haven't seen Ten North Frederick in years, it's Fitzgerald's performance that has stayed with me and I suspect will stay with you if the film is ever going to see the light of day. Diane Varsi and Ray Stricklyn are the rebellious kids in the household who can't quite figure out all the hostility there, but they not something is radically wrong. Suzy Parker plays Varsi's friend with whom Cooper has a midlife crisis affair with. Believe me when you see Fitzgerald in this film, you won't blame Cooper in the slightest. Ten North Frederick set the standard for John O'Hara type soap operas and I'm surprised no one picked up on this one. With some updating this could easily be a plot for a prime time soap opera pilot.

Not a lot of people know this but actor Charles Bronson had a uncredited bit role as one of the parking lot thugs that included Michael Pataki, Michael Morelli and John indrisano. At this juncture in his career, Bronson bit role in this Gary Cooper film can only be explained by his loyalty to that actor, with whom he had become friendly during the filming of USS Tea kettle and Vera Cruz. His flash appearance in this unsuccessful mixture of politics and tortured family relationships, from the John O'Hara best seller, must have been performed for a lark, and as a good luck salute to Cooper, during a visit by Bronson to the Fox set.

About 15 years ago my daughter (about 13 at the time) and I were surfing channels and got in on the last 30 or 45 minutes of this movie. WOW, I had to own it and finally found it on VHS. A wonderful movie. One of my favorites of this genre. And Gary Cooper had his own style. This was a bit unlike his other... But he played it to a T... Cooper was a gentleman, and his wife an overbearing witch. His failures result from his being too nice of a guy to make him into the man she wanted him to be. It was wonderful that his daughter found out that he had been happy. And even in that happiness he was still a gentleman.

Pennsylvania is at the heart of the story of "Ten North Frederick," a movie directed by Philippe Dunne, a filmmaker who mostly worked for Twentieth Century-Fox, where he signed the screenplays of classics such as "Magnificent Obsession", "The Last of the Mohicans", "Suez", "How Green Was My Valley", " Forever Amber" and "The Robe". In 1955 he began directing films and although he did not do great works among the 10 films he made, some are more than acceptable, like "Wild in the Country", one of Elvis Presley's best films; the much appreciated melodrama "The Inspector" with Stephen Boyd and Dolores Hart, or the funny spy comedy "Blindfold" with Rock Hudson and Claudia Cardinale. However, "Ten North Frederick" exceeded my expectations. Filmed in black and white Cinemascope, it is based on a novel by the controversial John O'Hara, described as an irascible Pennsylvania social climber, who could not have a college career at Yale as he wished, when his father unexpectedly died. These facts allowed him to be a keen observer of class differences, which are dramatically expressed in the plot of the film, set in the fictional town of Gibbsville, which O'Hara used several times as the location of his stories. The movie opens with the post-funeral reunion in the mansion of a Gibbsville patriarch named Joe Chapin (Gary Cooper). So it begins a retrospective account of his life: at the age of 50, Chapin's professional plans collapse. His aspirations in the upcoming elections are betrayed by his "image maker" and by the local politicians, but the drama inside his house on 10 North Frederick street is even worse. His upstart wife Edith (Geraldine Fitzgerald) scorns him, she has thwarted their son Joby's (Ray Stricklin) desire of entering Juilliard School to study music, and she is partially responsible of the abortion of their eldest daughter Ann (Diane Varsi) and the breaking of her marriage to a trumpeter of Italian origin (Stuart Whitman). While watching the film, which does not evade dramatic special effects (a great storm lashes Gibbsville during the night of the rupture and the abortion) or Leigh Harline's musical bursts in the most classic melodramatic style, I remembered all the relationships I have seen truncated by differences of class, the prejudices against many who have wanted to study art, the agreements between corrupt politicians who have been discovered but remain in power, or castrating mothers who emotionally destroy their families... But in the final half hour of the film, the story made a sudden turn when Chapin travels to New York to take a break, and looks for his daughter Ann, who has separated from the family. Arriving at her address, he knocks on the door and who opens it is his daughter's roommate, the beautiful Kate Drummond (Suzy Parker). And then a tender love affair surges, but fleetingly, just as a preamble to his final days. In this last movement, the story is honest and Chapin, in a very lucid reflection on old age, says goodbye to Kate: there is no turning back, the deterioration of the man is eminent, the retrospective narration concludes and we return to the present, to the score settling with Mama Chapin. "Ten North Frederick" is perhaps the best kept secret of Dunne's career. Maybe his best film. Discovering it was a very enjoyable experience, as well as watching Gary Cooper once again, one of the greatest actors that the United States has given to cinema, accompanied by a prominent cast.

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.