Bring your Kleenexes, people! Ten North Frederick is a tearjerker. You'd better not watch a double feature with Enchantment otherwise you'll cry yourself out!
Unfortunately, this heavy drama starts out at the end and goes back in time. So, since everyone is preparing to go to Gary Cooper's funeral, you know he doesn't have a happy ending. His daughter, Diane Varsi, talks his son, Ray Stricklyn, into attending the funeral, and their mother, Geraldine Fitzgerald, is putting on a dramatic front of the grieving widow. As we learn through a giant flashback, Gary's life was far from happy. He and Geraldine fought constantly, and her hatred for him drove him to misery. Diane and Ray didn't help matters, as they rebelled in their own ways. Ray acted out in school, causing embarrassment to the family. Diane fell for a bad boy musician, Stuart Whitman, and caused her father an enormous amount of grief.
I won't tell you any more than that, because there are so many interesting plot points it's really better if things play out as you watch them rather than reading about them. Needless to say, this is a grand drama, with all the earmarks of being a great classic. It's been forgotten through the years, and I don't know why. There's scandal, romance, tragedy, and ambition. There's eye candy on both sides: Stuart Whitman plays the trumpet and seduces every woman in the audience, and the beautiful Suzy Parker makes every man fall in love with her. She only made six movies, so catch her while you can. Ten North Frederick is a gem, and it's one of Gary Cooper's greatest ever performances. While my favorite of his can be found in his final film The Naked Edge, this movie also shows great depth and sadness he doesn't usually display. Geraldine also gives an electric performance. She's such a villainess, it's hard to believe she was the same actress we pitied in Wuthering Heights!
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