00:06Thanks for joining me this Sunday afternoon on TCM.
00:10I'm Alicia Malone, and we're about to watch a drama from 1959
00:13that stars Paul Newman and Barbara Rush.
00:16Directed by Vincent Sherman, it's The Young Philadelphians.
00:19The story came from a popular novel written by Richard Powell
00:23and adapted for the screen by James Gunn.
00:25Paul Newman stars as an aspiring lawyer who falls in love
00:29with a beautiful young woman whose father is a wealthy
00:32and well-connected lawyer.
00:34She is played by Barbara Rush.
00:36It's all about getting ahead in society no matter the cost,
00:39but Newman saw the film more as soap opera
00:42and didn't want to star in it.
00:44Following his Oscar nomination for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
00:47and a few disappointing films, Newman had been eager
00:51to get back to the theatre in New York.
00:53But he didn't get a say because he still owed a film
00:57to Warner Brothers from his original contract.
00:59So, grudgingly, Newman had to plow ahead,
01:02but he got a lovely co-star in Barbara Rush.
01:05This was the first time Rush and Newman were placed together
01:08in a movie, and as you'll see, they have nice chemistry.
01:12They got along well, but it would be almost 10 years
01:15before they'd co-star again,
01:16this time in a Western ombre from 1967.
01:20In between those two movies,
01:22Paul Newman had starred in films like The Hustler,
01:25Sweet Bird of Youth, and Hud,
01:27earning him two more Oscar nominations and movie star status.
01:31But Rush, having worked with him at the beginning of his career,
01:34as well as during its boom,
01:36noted how reverential his fans were toward him.
01:40Women don't try to steal a lock of his hair, Rush said,
01:43or tear his clothes off as they do with younger idols.
01:47I think they have too much respect for him.
01:49With Alexa Smith and Billy Burke in her first film
01:53after a six-year break,
01:54from 1959, this is The Young Philadelphians.
