Tête folle

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!

Susan Hayward foolish? Dana Andrews a can't-get-a-date loser? No, I didn't think so either. But they are both so good in their roles that they no only make the film work, they make it a triumph. Hayward was nominated for an Oscar, as was Victor Young's glorious title-song. Both Hayward and Young should have won.

"My Foolish Heart" is essentially a "woman's film," a label that is frequently pejorative. (But then so is "Gone with the Wind.") What makes "Heart" so transcendent, besides Hayward and Andrews, is that the entire film is so well-crafted. The dialog is first rate--by turns poignant, rueful, comic, and sarcastic--from the Epstein twins of "Casablanca" fame. Mark Robson's direction is spot-on, and he has a great cast to work with. As Hayward's father, Robert Keith contributes a beautifully shaded performance. Kent Smith and Lois Wheeler are sympathetic as two who are injured bystanders. In her film debut, Jessie Royce Landis creates the first of her flighty women who are much more than they initially seem.

Victor Young's song is reprised several times during the film and was one of the first title-songs to achieve popularity. It is especially well used in the scene near the end when Hayward is waiting for Kent Smith to bring her a drink. She hits all her marks beautifully, and the song is stunningly used as background.

I doubt that any attempt at a remake would be nearly as successful as the original. They don't make 'em like his any more--no nudity, no questionable language, no violence: just top-notch acting, writing, direction, all set to a marvelous Victor Young score.

And it should be noted that Hayward, despite her Oscar and four other nominations is regrettably underrated and largely forgotten today. Andrews never was given his due when he was alive, and he had an impressive body of work-- for example, "Laura" and "The Best Years of Our Lives" (especially his scene in the moth-balled bomber)--that put him at the forefront of talented leading men of the Forties and Fifties.

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??

The first time I ever saw this wonderful film I was about twelve. It was late at night and everyone else had gone to bed and I was thinking maybe I should too, but then this came on and I was hooked. I've seen this film many times since then and yet each time I watch it again it never fails to get an emotional response out of me i.e I ball my eyes out!...and us Brits have a stiff upper lip you know! They just don't make them like they used too and that's a shame.It's a great storyline, great acting and the line 'poor uncle wiggly' isn't dead in our house! Dana Andrews is yummy in it too. I cannot recommend this film strongly enough..watch it and it will always stay with you.

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.