Angst vor der Schande

I have this movie on Laser Disk. It has been and continues to be one of my all time favorites. I've been waiting YEARS for this to come out on DVD but alas no go as of yet. I have almost all of Susan Heyward's films and this is still my favorite. She plays against type in her soft portrayal of a young woman in love. Chemistry between Heyward and Andrews is great. You can actually believe that they love each other. Robert Keith plays Heyward's father and turns in his best performance. Even though done in a studio the movie has a genuine "New York" feel. And of course the song...which I guarantee once you hear it you'll be humming or singing it all day long. My Laser copy of this movie is very good I just don't know how much longer my laser disk player will hold out. Why no DVD??

My Foolish Heart (1949)

Boy this one is under the radar. Talk about high drama, and with the start of WWII at the center of it. I can only imagine how many people weeped at this one in 1949 because the main story is the flashback of a woman who had a romance go wrong, and surely half the audience had their romances go wrong at the start of the war.

Dana Andrews is his cool, charming, warm, funny best, with that usual holding back all the time that makes him slow to like and easy to love. Susan Hayward shows the range she had, from cold, selfish conniver to warm and bubbly innocent. Quite a remarkable pair of performances, and a plot that circles around on itself nicely. The screen writing was by the famous Epstein brothers, who also wrote the core of "Casablanca" (another movie about the start of America's involvement in the war), and there are some zingers here. And some over the top weepy lines, too.

If this movie isn't archetypal or classic, it's only because a few small things don't fully click. One of them might be the all-too-ordinary scenes--there is nothing bigger than life here except the story itself, which of course is meant to be familiar and not bigger than life at all, yet it is because it's so dramatic. There are secondary actors who hold up in varying degrees. Robert Keith plays Hayward's father with total sympathy, but Jessie Royce Landis as her mother is a bit of her usual caricature, not quite fitting in here (except for some light comedy). Kent Smith is a perfect second man, the "good" man who is more honor than charm, but still likable, and Lois Wheeler is a great if somewhat predictable second woman, also all goodness.

But the story, as ordinary as the elements of it are on purpose, grows in its intensity scene by scene until a slightly sudden and convenient wrap.

This is a great one, really, especially if you like films of the period dealing with the war from the home front perspective. There are a few scenes sprinkled through the film that touch on archetypal America--a football game, and a radio announcement saying that a ship had been hit in Pearl Harbor, and good old Grand Central Station. Don't miss this one.

There isn't a great deal of J. D. Salinger's short story "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut" left in Mark Robson's supposed film version "My Foolish Heart" but it's a superior example of the 'woman's picture' nevertheless, thanks almost entirely to a superb Susan Hayward as the unhappily married woman recalling her first love, (Dana Andrews, always a good bet). The director was Mark Robson and it's one of his better pictures while the Epstein's (Julius J. and Philip G.) did the screenplay, again a good sign. Hayward was Oscar-nominated, as was the famous title song which, in its many incarnations, has outlived the film. No classic, then, but an intelligent and likeable picture that deserves to be better known.

Susan Hayward and Dana Andrews will take you to the heights of joy and deepest despair as two lovers who are forced to live a lifetime in a few weeks as America enters World War II. As the film begins, the war is over and Eloise Winters (Hayward) is married to college sweetheart Lou Wengler (Kent Smith). A visit from college roommate Mary Jane (Lois Wheeler) prompts Hayward to relive the wartime memory of her true love, Walt Dreiser (Andrews). You will be enchanted by Andrews and Hayward's first meeting when sparks fly and an extremely handsome, charming Andrews sweeps Hayward off her feet to the tune of Victor Young's heart stirring theme. I dare say no man looked better on the 1940s screen than the sophisticated, yet easy-going Dana Andrews in this film. Nominated for an Academy Award, Hayward is exceptional in her ability to wear her emotions as a woman deeply in love. Don't miss whimsical moments with outstanding characters actors Robert Keith and Jessie Royce Landis as Hayward's parents. Based on a story by J.D. Salinger, "My Foolish Heart" is a fine film to curl up with on a rainy Sunday afternoon to relive the first blush of your one true love.

As a fan of Susan Hayward's, this is one of her best films. I still cry every time I see it. The story is timeless and touching. A must see!