This is a well made typical genre movie that features some solid emotions and characters and offers some well written plot elements.

It's a coming of age movie but it also is a (melodramatic) family drama. These type of movies really had been popular in the past and most of them also are really great ones to watch. Too bad they just don't make movies such as these anymore. This movie might not be the best in its genre but it has more than anything other elements in it to compensate for this.

One of them most definitely is the cast. Robert Mitchum once again gives away one fine performance. The movie also features a great and still young looking George Hamilton and George Peppard, though Mitchum on the other hand still looks the way he did 20 years before this movie.

The movie handles all of the genre elements really well and know to bring it in a good and original way. Definitely a surprising movie from Vincente Minnelli, who got his fame for directing other type of- and less serious movies. I especially like the way George Hamilton's character gets developed and changes throughout the movie, from a mothers-child to a real adult. It was also great how they handled the Robert Mitchum character. They make him not-likable but at the same time also intriguing and interesting enough to not hate him. It's sort of too bad that they made the mistake to let his character slowly disappear out of the movie for most of the last third of the movie, while he starts off as the main character. The movie does a good job at portraying the relationships between the characters, which is an essential part for movies such as these.

Despite the fact that the movie its story definitely has soap-opera like dramatic developments in it, you still get drawn in to it, which is I think due to the interesting characters and actors that portray them. It keeps the movie real.

The movie is set in the South of the United States, which gives the movie that special kind of- and warm atmosphere. Its sets, costumes and props all add to this. The time period the movie is set in also definitely benefits the movie. The movie also has a surprising good and likable musical score, by Bronislau Kaper.

Worth seeing if you get the chance to.

8/10

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Robert Mitchum is a rich and powerful man. He's also a 'man's man'--tough, adventurous, a great hunter and one who likes to lead a manly life. However, he also has the morals of a sewer rat--and frequently sleeps with women--even though he's married (to Eleanor Parker). As a result, their marriage is VERY strained and they are distant. They have a son (George Hamilton) and the parents both want to shape him into their sort of man. As for Hamilton, he desperately wants to be respected by his father and be the manly sort. He has no idea what sort of reprobate his father is--that is, until he asks out a nice girl and her father flatly refuses to allow this. The pair decide to start dating on the sly.

As Hamilton is molded into a man like his father, he's told by his father to be mentored by one of his most trusted employees (George Peppard). Eventually, however, Hamilton learns that this 'employee' is actually his dad's illegitimate son as well what sort of man his father really is--and it sends him off the deep end. When his girlfriend becomes pregnant, what sort of man will Hamilton turn out to be? And, what will become of this rich but no account family? And what about George Peppard--what about him?! This is a glossy soap opera, though it may not appear so when it begins. In many ways, it's in the same tradition as "Peyton Place" and "A Summer Place"--enjoyable, glossy, very well-acted and a bit trashy--but mostly enjoyable. It ended very well--very, very well. And, the film has a lot to say about what it means to be a man...a REAL man.