Dear Heart

Gentle, delightful film of greeting card salesman Glenn Ford who happens to meet ditzy postmaster Geraldine Page during a New York convention. Great character development, superb direction (by Delbert Mann), memorable score (Henry Mancini), luminous B&W cinematography all contribute to a great movie experience. Ford and especially Page are at the top of their games here. Great support from Angela Lansbury, Ken Lynch, Richard Deacon, and other notable character actors. Final reunion scene at Grand Central Station is truly poignant. Too bad these movies are extremely scarce nowadays. Catch it if you remember 1964 and want to watch a film without explosions, violence, or foul language.

The lives of a woman and man intersect at a New York hotel in this sentimental story from 1964. Glenn Ford plays Harry Mork, a traveling salesman who has decided to slow down and settle down after years of schmoozing, boozing and extracurricular intrigues. Geraldine Page plays Evie Jackson, a small-town postal worker who annually visits the big cities for the industry convention and a chance to let loose a little and take in the sights.

Evie is the person who has never met a stranger. Outwardly she is an eternal optimist and delights in knowing everyone's names, as if that knowledge makes them friends. Under the surface, though, she might be "Miss Lonelyhearts" from Hitchcock's "Rear Window" in a few years, if her life situation doesn't resolve into a satisfactory conclusion. Ms. Page's portrayal of Evie is so fascinating that she dominates the film. Frankly, my attention is always riveted to the screen when this film plays, even though I know how it turns out. As others have pointed out, this is a performance worthy of an Oscar.

The screenplay is very well written, allowing the viewer to observe every aspect of the characters, learning their way of life, their fears, and even their hidden dreams. The acting is good across the board. The end result is very satisfying, especially for viewers who can identify with the emotional vulnerability of the two main characters.

Perhaps it was the fact she'd already received three nominations. She would eventual be nominated for 8, putting her in 8th place behind only Streep, Hepburn, Nicholson, Davis, Olivier, Newman and Tracy which is pretty impressive territory! She would win one. Or perhaps it was just the strong year for actresses with Sophia Loren in "Marriage Italian Style", Anne Bancroft in "The Pumpkin Eater", Kim Stanley in "Séance on a Wet Afternoon", Debbie Reynolds in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", or eventual winner Julie Andrews in "Mary Poppins", but I believe Geraldine Page's performance here is the equal of any 1964 female film performance. Her character Evie is one of the most sympathetic ever recorded and Page's expert portrayal captures the hearts of the audience. Along for the ride is the vastly underrated Glenn Ford and the always watchable Barbara Nichols. Too bad we didn't see more of her along with contemporaries Hope Holiday and Sue Ann Langdon. I wish there was more on this site about all three. "Dear Heart" was not intended as a blockbuster and as 1960s films go, it was more or less a "B" picture. But the film features excellent writing, a believable storyline, excellent performances, and a captivating score by Henry Mancini.

I note that a DVD version of this charming film is available in Great Britain, but not here . (Our VHS version is not in stock from one major source and one wonders if the British DVD is also out-of-stock.) This title boasts two truly fine actresses, Geraldine Page and Angela Lansbury (although the latter has little more than a cameo, of which she makes the most, as always), plus a wonderful supporting cast as well. Ordinarily I've found Glenn Ford to be rather dull in several of his big screen performances but in this one I recall finding him well-suited to his role and giving an entirely sympathetic and amusing account of himself opposite Ms. Page in a role she obviously relished.

With a well-remembered theme song and a nice music score by the prolific Henry Mancini, there's probably no danger of this one being remade, I suspect, and, since it's close to perfect in this original telling, let's just hope that a DVD release will eventually allow us to revisit the qualities that made it genuinely appealing for mature audiences forty years ago and, I feel sure, still would today.

There are two reasons for watching this film. The most important one is the chance to watch one of the great actresses of our time at work. The other is Mancini's beautiful theme. Evie Jackson is in NYC for the annual postmasters' convention,and Harry Mork is apartment-hunting. Harry and Evie are staying at the same hotel and meet. Harry tells Evie he's engaged and asks her to supply a woman's appraisal of an apartment he's considering. The scene at the apartment, where Evie slowly realizes that he really IS engaged (and not wooing her) is an acting tour de force. That one scene is worth the price of admission. I saw the film at its opening, at Radio City Music Hall, and I'll never forget it - or Geraldine Page.