Apenas um Coração Solitário

This 1944 movie is a masterpiece of black and white photography by Director Clifford Odets. The subtilty of background lighting and the shadow effects in the street scenes are magic. There are moments of sheer brilliance with Cary Grant as the independent unorthodox Cockney son Ernie Mott, who comes home and decides to run the secondhand furniture shop and care for his sick mother, Ethel Barrymore. Jane Wyman, makes money playing the cello and patiently loves Ernie from across the street. Mott has 'perfect pitch' and can tune pianos and does odd jobs. Grant brings this quirky character to life and makes us love him. Ernie is a combination of dark brooding and sanguine pathos. All the actors are excellent and bring the poetic language of the script to life. June Duprez as Ernie's girlfriend Ada is riveting. Barry Fitzgerald as genial family friend Henry Twite is special. Even the Dog called Nipper stole every scene. As you can see I loved this movie, hope you do too....

I found this movie to be very painful to watch. It is not your typical Hollywood, let's glamorise everything, everyone has money, let's make it look pretty. These people are grindingly poor, the mother is dying of cancer, and our boy is trying to be his own man, without money or position. Tuning pianos seems like a difficult way to earn a living, but makes use of the only talent he really has, which is perfect pitch. For those who don't know, it is the ability to name any tone or note that you hear. This movie has a great supporting cast, Barry Fitzgerald and Jane Wyatt, just to mention two. Grant's mother is one of my favorite actresses, Ethel Barrymore. She really has too much class for the part she plays. And the sets make you glad you don't have to live there. Still memorable, though, in spite of being so depressing.

Tough guy Ernie Mott...and his life-battered widowed Mom (played by the great Ethel Barrymore-great aunt to Drew Barrymore) live on the bottom edge of London society. Ernie is the kind of guy who the law might sorta watch...but he does benefit from the counsel of a few older men he calls "Dad"...Will this Diamond in the Rough Ernie Mott make wise---or foolish choices??? The other reviews above suggest potent reasons why this is the best film the usually suave Cary Grant made. This really good film brings out the better reviewers!!! Grant, in real life a Cockney, had to usually play his "Smooth Romantic Leading Man" in too many movies...NONE but the Lonely Heart-is an exception! This film also enticed the great stage actress Ethel Barrymore into 10+ more years as a wonderful character actor. Tho no longer young, she absolutely dominates any scene with her wonderful old beauty and her elegant yet streetwise wisdom. (PS I heard that she was tough...She stood up to a abusive husband!) You get the sense of LOSS as the beginning narrative hints that Ernie Mott might well join the war dead of World War 2. (Movie is set just before WW2 erupts tho it came out in 1944.)

Mott's depth is hinted at...He fights with his mom, but sticks with her when he finds she has incurable cancer. When she is tempted to make a disastrous choice, he comforts her...As he ponders a car crash, his musical ear is so fine that he can name the stuck horn tone as "e flat". This drifter, tinkerer and piano tuner...draws you in..You care what happens to him! He is willing to stand up to a gangster (George Couloris) to marry the gangster's abused ex wife...Bravery is not a problem, tho Mott does seem to get in the way of the law.

Imagine that some wise WW2 military officer would have been glad to have the tough, rough Mott in his unit!

Thanks to American Movie Classics for bringing us this fine old film. With script and direction by Clifford Odets, success is almost guaranteed going in, and it is ensured in the event by the fine performances of Ethel Barrymore and Cary Grant, who in Ernie Mott plays one of his most substantial roles. Set in the underbelly of between-wars London, this multifaceted story has engrossing characters and a story that draws us in. The inconclusive ending puts it more or less in the category of 'slice-of-life' drama, but what a slice. Worth watching.

Ernie Mott (Cary Grant) is an irresponsible vagrant roaming the streets of London. His father had died in the Great War. His mother (Ethel Barrymore) runs a small shop by herself. He plays the piano, fools around with a gangster's ex Ada Brantline (June Duprez), and has a friendship with nice neighborhood girl Aggie Hunter (Jane Wyatt). After learning about her mother's cancer, he stays to run the shop despite their combative past.

Ernie is not really an appealing character and that's tough to do for Cary Grant. I'm also annoyed by his relationship with Ada. I want more time with Aggie and have more love triangle action. The character would be appealing as an exuberant youth struggling to find his way in the world. Cary Grant was 40 by then. I can see this as a lower class melodrama like a Mike Leigh movie but Cary Grant doesn't really fit the role. It's interesting nevertheless.