L'amore bussa tre volte

Broadly played and directed semi-screwball outing has charming Fredric March cast as a newspaper reporter assigned to locate a wealthy, beautiful young heiress, who has ditched her fancy surroundings for a regular life in New York City. Grounded, natural Virgina Bruce was a good choice for the rich kid, who ends up working in the department store her family owns, and Patsy Kelly is wonderfully brash as the salesgirl who unknowingly takes her in. The supporting characters are made up of wacky, genial crazies, and the actors have been encouraged to play them to the hilt, resulting in some overcooked comedy which may strike one as either funny or far too silly. There are some classic bits: the ice-skating sequence where March and Bruce end up in a game of Musical Chairs, an unbilled Marjorie Main as a plain-spoken customer in the store, and Kelly's solution to the power going out just before a fancy dinner in her apartment. The script, by Jack Jevne and Eddie Moran (from a story by Ed Sullivan!), was criticized at the time for being too close to "It Happened One Night", but it's actually far less ambitious. The plot set-up is one-half merry mix-up and the other half romantic nuttiness, and many of the lines have a punch-drunk giddiness which is very sweet. **1/2 from ****

...It doesn't entirely work, unfortunately. Fredric March is excellent, as always. What a fine and versatile actor! And Virginia Bruce is winning, as she always was. She plays an heiress, he a newspaper reporter sent to get a story about her. (This aspect presages the Bette Davis movie "Golden Arrows.") Eugene Palette, always a treat, plays his editor.

Bruce is not an ideal screwball heroine, unfortunately. Her pale, wistful beauty doesn't really lend itself to the genre, though she is dine in the movie. Patsy Kelly is hilarious as her pal: Bruce has sailed to Manhattan in her yacht while granddaddy is away. She finds herself in the City with no money. At a diner (kind of an Automat but not really) she and Kelly scam some food. Kelly picks her up! "If you don't have anywhere else to go, you can spend the night at my place." Kelly's ostensible romantic interest is Alan Mowbry, a neighbor who is studying to become a chiropractor by mail. What a couple they make! Back at the store where Kelly works, which Grandpa owns, we see Kelly demonstrating a device called "Vibrato." It's a kind of Sapphic intimation of the Vega-Meta-Vitamin sequence decades later from "I Love Lucy." The movie has a sterling supporting cast, which also includes Nancy Carroll, delicious as a jealous, catty fellow saleswoman.

It also, unfortunately, has afar too lengthy and pointless scene with Bruce and march at a skating rink. Why it was allowed to go on so long is a mystery. (There is a similar scene in one of Irene Dunne's lesser comedies -- "Joy of Living," I think.) The movie begins in a stylish, chic manner but it loses its way. It could have been in the top tier but as it is it's still fun.

After all the negative things I have heard said about this film, I was expecting something very...I don't know...boring, silly, empty. But I must say I was more than pleasantly surprised with it and I did enjoy it. I watched it because I just discovered Fredric March, and have watched over 30 of his films now. I must say that this film in no way provided him to display his marvelous acting skill, but still it was nice to see him do this bit of light comedy. I think the story is nice when you want to watch something that is not heavy, but lighthearted and fun with the usual 1930's "happily ever after" ending. It is something my children would enjoy.

Don't have much else to say, except if you like Fredric as much as I do, you will like this film. Too bad he only gave one kiss in this one!!

Though the gimmick of the runaway heiress was beginning to wear thin by 1938, There Goes My Heart still is entertaining enough with a sparkling cast going through it's usual paces.

Virginia Bruce is our heiress in this one and reprising his role of hard hitting reporter from Nothing Sacred is Fredric March. Two leads of this magnitude is not usual for the Hal Roach studio which normally was doing two and three reel comedies. But even though this is recycled material it still is served up rather nicely. Best scene for March and Bruce is at the skating rink playing musical chairs on roller skates. March is good, but this was the kind of material Cary Grant would have relished.

Hal Roach did give his director Norman McLeod a fabulous supporting cast to work with all going through their various screen images that we love. Best in the group is Patsy Kelly playing the shop-girl who happens to work in Bruce's grandfather's department store and who takes in Bruce not knowing who she is and gets her job at the store. Nancy Carroll the former silent screen star is a jealous co-worker and Irving Bacon is the sexually harassing supervisor.

Others in this incredibly good cast are Claude Gillingwater as Bruce's tycoon grandfather, Eugene Palette as March's editor, Arthur Lake as March's friend and newspaper photographer and Alan Mowbray as Kelly's boyfriend studying to be a chiropractor. Yes, Alan Mowbray and Patsy Kelly as a couple. Until i saw this film I never would have believed them as a screen team. Patsy's best moments are demonstrating an exercise machine at the store. You should also see newly hired sales person Virginia Bruce waiting on Marjorie Main.

At the very end of the film, former silent screen comic star Harry Langdon plays a minister. At this point in his career, Langdon was accepting any kind of work and part he could get. Nothing especially hilarious about his performance, it's too brief and he's surrounded by too many other high caliber performers in this cast to shine in any way.

It's not one of Fredric March's best films, but it's still amusing enough and the ensemble can't be beat.

HEART is an attempt at a screwball comedy that fails for a couple of reasons: a plot that gets too entangled, to the point of incredulity, and a lead actress who may look a little like Carol Lombard, but clearly isn't. Virginia Bruce is the female in question as a runaway heiress who ends up working incognito in her grandfather's department store, clearly meant to resemble Macy's. The thin-faced Bruce is a bit too wistful for the role, unfortunately. The role really could have used Lombard -- or Thelma Todd or Irene Dunne or Katherine Hepburn or Claudette Colbert, or even one of the Bennett sisters. Frederic March is, as always, note-perfect as a cynical reporter on Bruce's trail who -- what else? -- ends up falling for her. There is a stunt-filled ice skating sequence that takes up a bit too much time, compounded by a very rushed ending that leaves major plot strings untied. The wonderful Eugene Palette is on hand as March's blustery editor, and wisecracking Patsy Kelly is in fine form as a downtrodden store clerk who takes Bruce in. This may be no BRINGING UP BABY or NOTHING SACRED or IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, but it is fun to watch March, Kelly and Palette in action. And it is also viewable in its historic context, surrounded as it was by several masterpieces of the genre.