Second-Hand Hearts

Barbara Harris is terrific as Dinette Dusty, and supporting vets Shirley Stoler and Bert Remsen give her plenty of help setting the atmosphere in her hash-house for losers. The score also does a good job in helping set the mood. Once Robert Blake's character comes on the scene, the chemistry between the two stars takes center stage. Some of the writing makes little sense, and the direction seems unfocused in the first half of the film. But, overall, worth watching once.

Not much happens in this movie. Dinette Dusty (Barbara Harris) together with Loyal Muke (Robert Blake) travels in a car across America, together with three minor children. Dialogue, talk, and talk again, and dialogue again, the whole movie. Barbara Harris is sweet, both as an actress and as a character. Robert Blake is good in a drunken idiot role. It's not a comedy at all and it's extremely long (1 hour and 42 minutes) for what is offered to us on the screen, that is, almost nothing. The "pillar" of the film is obviously the super-talented Barbara Harris, great expert in the art of improvisation, a perfect actress, the kind who can make you laugh or cry just by reading the phone book. At 45, Barbara Harris looks like a maximum 30-year-old beautiful doll, with a delicious voice and charming eyes. Those 2 stars are only for her! To make a good movie, you need a cool story. And this production has nothing like that. But the music is beautiful.

Hal Ashby's 70s movies are fantastic films with quirky characters and oddball plots. I had always read he lost it in the 80s and died somewhat young due to drug abuse. This film was shot in 1979 but not released until 1981 and then only in limited release. The critics were not kind and it was forgotten. And deservedly so. Why? Ashby had made losers lovable in his previous films but Robert Blake can't pull it off. Far too broad for Ashby's low key approach. Barbra Harris does a bit better but talks non-stop. Scenes drag on and on. I lost what plot there was in the dialogue (who's funeral were they at at one point?). Unlikable and going nowhere. Plus, Blake draws the ire of some Mexican-Americans he accuses of trying to run him over, not sure if this is supposed to be funny. Worse, there seems to be an incident of child molestation here that is mentioned and then forgotten since the boy in question doesn't talk and can't tell anyone about it and seems no worse for ware afterwards. Why is that scene even there for? Ick.

This isnt the worst movie I've ever watched but it is definitely in a small group of the worst movies. The writing is mostly terrible with occassional bouts of mediocracy. The acting is atrocious. It plays like a bad hallmark movie of the week. The directing is laughable as well. The pregnant pauses between lines that don't warrant one are frequent and the overly dramatic deliveries when it didnt build were completely out of place. The very few genuine moments werent even enjoyable because the script and acting didnt match the moment trying to be created with bad actors. The only reason I gave it 2 stars rather than 1 is because I have seen worse...just not many times.

The other reviews didn't get the plot correct. And, if you didn't like this movie, it's a good bet it rang too close to home. It's a story about two people who complete each other, in a bottom of the barrel story line. The story is the same even if the characters had been wealthy and educated. I liked it.