Newman, who accused himself of “emotional Republicanism” in his early films, put that starchy reticence to grand use as Walter Bridge. A Kansas City burgher of the 1950s, long wed to the livelier India (Woodward), Walter deals with life’s disappointments and compromises with a stiff upper ventricle; but Newman manages to reveal, without placarding them, the nuances of a character so different from his own. Or was it? “Joanne says, ‘That’s the real you,’” Newman told a 1998 interviewer. In their 50 years of marriage, Newman starred with Woodward in 11 movies, directed her in five, including the Oscar-nominated Rachel, Rachel and the finest version of Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie to make it to film. Mr. & Mrs. Bridge might be the most delicate and mature work either of them did.
