My Foolish Heart (1949)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Mark Robson

Writers:

Julius J. Epstein (writer)
Philip G. Epstein (writer)

Release Date:

21 January 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

After a long absence, Mary Jane visits her schoolfriend Eloise, and Eloise's daughter Ramona. Eloise...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Dana Andrews	...	Walt Dreiser
Susan Hayward	...	Eloise Winters
Kent Smith	...	Lewis H. Wengler
Lois Wheeler	...	Mary Jane
Jessie Royce Landis	...	Martha Winters
Robert Keith	...	Henry Winters
Gigi Perreau	...	Ramona
Karin Booth	...	Miriam Ball
Todd Karns	...	Her Escort (as Tod Karns)
Phillip Pine	...	Sergeant Lucey
Martha Mears	...	Nightclub Singer
Edna Holland	...	Dean Whiting
Jerry Paris	...	Usher at Football Game
Marietta Canty	...	Grace
Barbara Woodell	...	Red Cross receptionist

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:15

Company:

Samuel Goldwyn Company, The

Trivia:

J.D. Salinger so despised this adaptation of his short story "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut" that he never again allowed any of his work to be adapted to film.

Quotes:

Eloise Winters: You dance with Mary Jane. I'm going to smoke a Parliament.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Polyester (1981)

Soundtrack:

My Foolish Heart

Susan plays another tough gal with a heart of gold...

Based on J.D. Salinger's short story, "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut", the story has been revamped into an unabashedly sentimental soap opera with a wartime background (WWII) and turned into a tear-jerker for SUSAN HAYWARD and DANA ANDREWS. It uses the favorite device of '40s-era romantic dramas, the flashback, to tell how Susan meets and falls in love with soldier Andrews, a bittersweet affair that ended when he died at the front.

The story is framed by the present, with Susan married to KENT SMITH (an actor who always played second leads despite his enormous talent and good looks), a rocky marriage that forces Susan to remember what true love felt like during her brief affair with Andrews.

It's a sudsy affair with Susan as a strong-willed woman, tough on the exterior but supposedly warm-hearted beneath (the kind of role she almost always played) and she did get an Oscar nomination for her starring role opposite Andrews--but it was a year when Olivia de Havilland was tough competition for THE HEIRESS.

Hayward fans consider this one of her best, while J.D. Salinger fans resent what Hollywood did to his short story by turning it into a weepie for women who liked their wartime stories to be deeply romantic.

Victor Young's popular tune, a haunting ballad called "My Foolish Heart", adds to the romantic sentiments of an already tender story.