Directed by Vincent Sherman, and written by James Gunn who adapted Richard Powell's intricate novel, it features (supporting actor) Robert Vaughn's only Academy Award nominated performance. Harry Stradling Sr.'s B&W Cinematography received a nomination as did Howard Shoup's Costume Design. The story begins with wedding night jitters (allusion to homosexuality) followed by an illegitimate birth, but its focus is on class distinctions, lawyering, and sex. It ends with Vaughn's character on trial for murder and a courtroom drama. The plot is compelling; its pace and intricacy make the film's 135 minute runtime fly by.
Kate (Diane Brewster) marries William Lawrence III (Adam West) for his money in lieu of the working class 'stiff' she really loves, construction worker Mike Flanagan (Brian Keith). But after a brief disillusioning moment on her wedding night - her newlywed husband seems ill equipped to consummate their marriage, says he's been living a lie and runs out on her after a brief, forced kiss - she returns to Mike, who apparently has no problem finishing the job. When Kate wonders home to her mother at 4 AM, she learns that she's a young widow - her husband had been killed when his too-fast- traveling car crashed. Nine months later when Kate is recovering from childbirth, Mrs. Lawrence (Isobel Elsom) visits her, knowing all too well that the baby can't be her son's child. But instead of taking a payoff, Kate informs her ex-mother-in-law that she'll be keeping the family name and calling her son Anthony Judson Lawrence. Later, when Mike arrives to propose to her, class conscious Kate won't have him and insists that he not return; over the years, she uses the Lawrence name to serve on high society committees, and sacrifices to provide the best for her son.
When Anthony (Paul Newman) is in his early twenties, he's a scholar at Princeton about to graduate and enter law school; he does construction work for Mike during summers. On the job one day he meets and helps Joan Dickinson (Barbara Rush), who'd just been in a fender bender. Later, attending a society party with his inebriated best friend 'Chet' Gwynn (Vaughn), he bumps into her again. She's dating Carter Henry (Fred Eisley), who's worth $20 million but has yet to propose to her. Joan and Anthony hit it off and begin dating while Carter's away for the summer. They fall in love and at the end of the summer, when Anthony's about to return to college, Jane meets with Chet to ask him how she could keep him. He advises her to use the old fashioned way (get pregnant). Jane then succeeds in getting Anthony interested enough to propose but, on their way to eloping, they're stopped by her father, one of the city's most celebrated lawyers Gilbert Dickinson (John Williams). Dickinson manipulates the situation by volunteering to be Anthony's preceptor and then offering him a to-die-for future that includes a position with his firm that should eventually lead to a partnership if he'll only wait until June (the end of the next school year) to marry his daughter. Anthony jumps at the offer but allows Mr. Dickinson to explain the arrangement to Jane which, of course, he presents in a different light, making her feel like she'd been being used by Anthony.
By Christmastime, Anthony meets with Dickinson and learns that Jane, who'd stopped writing him, has married Carter after all. Naturally, he then goes to get drunk with his pal Chet. Later, however, he decides to get even. He hears from a fellow student, Louis Donetti (Paul Picerni) that John Marshall Wharton (Otto Kruger), a partner in a prestigious law firm, is working on a Sherman Anti-Trust brief, so he schemes to get the internship in part by charming the old lawyer's much younger wife Carol (Alexis Smith). But an affair between Anthony and Carol never really develops and, realizing his pupil's restraint, Wharton offers the young graduate a position, which proves to be fairly boring for him until Mrs. J. Arthur Allen (Billie Burke) walks in one day with her small dog, the following Christmas.
Burke is a delight, playing a wealthy widow, who's still managing her husband's oil company fortune, the way she played so many dizzy but "wise" roles in those 1930's screwball classics. Mrs. Allen had been a client of Dickinson's firm, but Anthony coyly wins her business by saving her money on taxes, impressing (her) and ultimately reconciling and reuniting with Dickinson's daughter Jane, now the widowed Mrs. Henry. Ten years had passed and Anthony had served in the war with Chet, who'd lost an arm; Carter had been killed in the conflict after he'd volunteered to serve per problems at home.
Now Chet, who'd always been a problem - a spoiled and neglected youth of affluent but now deceased parents whose estate is controlled by his disapproving uncle Morton Stearnes (Robert Douglas) and Doctor Stearnes (Frank Conroy), a purveyor of the "genes vs. environment" theory - is accused of murdering his uncle. Of course Chet wants his ill-suited corporate lawyer friend Anthony to represent him against District Attorney Donetti. Even though trying the case may hurt his reputation and position in society, like running for the city council which had been proposed by Mike and Donetti some time earlier, Anthony is loyal to a fault and decides to do so against everyone but Jane's wishes. But Doctor Stearnes, who'd been privy to certain information from Mrs. Lawrence, visits Kate and more or less threatens to reveal her son's questionable past if Anthony stains their family's name in court. Still, Anthony is able to discredit the state's star witness, Morton's butler George (Richard Deacon), during cross examination. He then introduces the possibility of suicide with Doctor Stearnes on the stand to ultimately win the day, saving his friend while living up to Jane's high expectations, bringing her to tears, and the melodrama to a satisfactory conclusion.
