It's not nearly as much fun as "The Long, Hot Summer", but how could it be when it's loosely based on an O'Hara novel (which means that it has to be turgid, self-important trash). But it's still fun. In some ways it's even more enjoyable to see how they've butchered O'Hara's novel, since they leave out more than half of it and cast Newman as a sort of hero (damaged by personal tragedy), instead of having him be a contemptible loser (as he was in the book). There are a lot of these late 50's to early 60's movies that were based on "organization men" stories from the 50's ("Cash McCall", "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit", and "From the Terrace" being those that pop to mind), and every one of the movies mangled the books. Interestingly, I think that the one that was closest to the book, TMitGF, was by far the worst movie. It's odd on reflection how similar these books are, and how randomly different the movies are. I don't know if all of the writers suffered from existential nausea or if it was just that this sort of thing sold books, but I never saw it get to the screen.
Review of From the Terrace
