My Foolish Heart | |
---|---|
Directed by | Mark Robson |
Written by | Julius J. Epstein Philip G. Epstein J.D. Salinger (short story) |
Based on | Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut 1948 story in The New Yorker by J. D. Salinger |
Produced by | Samuel Goldwyn |
Starring | Dana Andrews Susan Hayward Kent Smith Lois Wheeler Robert Keith Jessie Royce Landis |
Cinematography | Lee Garmes |
Edited by | Daniel Mandell |
Music by | Victor Young |
Production company | |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release dates | |
Running time | 98 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $1,725,000 [2] |
My Foolish Heart is a 1949 American romantic drama film [3] directed by Mark Robson, starring Dana Andrews and Susan Hayward. It relates the story of a woman's reflections on the bad turns her life has taken.
Adapted from J. D. Salinger's 1948 short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut", this remains the only authorized film adaptation of Salinger's work; the filmmakers' infidelity to his story was responsible for precluding any other film versions of other Salinger works, including The Catcher in the Rye . The film inspired the Danish story Mit dumme hjerte by Victor Skaarup.
At the sight of one of her old dresses, a young but unhappy woman, who is about to divorce, remembers her first love. The story is then told in flashback.
In 1939 in New York City, student Eloise Winters meets Walt Dreiser at a student party. A few days later, Walt asks her to go out with him. For him, it is only an opportunity to have a good time. When Eloise realizes it, she lets him understand that she is a looking for a permanent relationship. Walt continues to chase her, and eventually both end up falling in love.
World War II breaks out and Walt is drafted into the United States Army Air Force. Before going overseas, he asks Eloise to spend a night with him. At first hesitant, she finally accepts the proposition. Realizing she is pregnant, she decides to hide her condition from Walt because she wants him to marry her only for love and not to legitimize the child.
After being disappointed, according to biographer Ian Hamilton, when "rumblings from Hollywood" over his 1943 short story "The Varioni Brothers" came to nothing, [4] J.D. Salinger did not hesitate when independent producer Samuel Goldwyn offered to buy the film rights to "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut". His agent Dorothy Olding later explained this uncharacteristic relinquishing of control with the simple statement that "We thought they would make a good movie". [5]
Indeed, "a good movie" would seem to have been implied by the background of those involved in the production, which included Oscar-winning actress Teresa Wright, and Casablanca screenwriters Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein. (Some years earlier, Salinger had referenced Casablanca in his 1944 short story "Both Parties Concerned"; one of its characters, upon learning his wife has left him, re-enacts the "Play it, Sam" scene from the film with an imaginary pianist.) However, the eventual film, renamed My Foolish Heart and with Susan Hayward replacing Wright at the last minute, [6] was critically lambasted upon its release.
The New Yorker wrote that it was "full of soap-opera clichés", [7] and, while allowing for "some well-written patches of wryly amusing dialogue", Time rejected it as a "damp fable ... the screenplay turns on all the emotional faucets of a Woman's Home Companion serial". [8] Goldwyn biographer A. Scott Berg explained that "in the Epsteins' version, more than had ever been suggested [in the original story] was shown, resulting in a 'four handkerchief' movie with a farfetched plot". [9] Berg even called the film a "bastardization". Because of what Salinger's agent later called "'a terrible movie' made in the 1950s (sic)" of one of his stories, [10] the author never again relinquished control of his work to Hollywood filmmakers despite persistent interest in a screen adaptation of The Catcher in the Rye .
Despite a critical drubbing, the film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Susan Hayward) and Best Music, Song (Victor Young and Ned Washington for the title song, sung by Martha Mears in a rare onscreen appearance), which has become a jazz standard. The film's standing has not improved with time: in 1996 Christopher Durang called it "a soggy love story." [11] The film critic Andrew Sarris defended the film, although he admitted that as it was his deceased brother's favorite film, so much of the movie's appeal for him was nostalgic. [12]
Carver Dana Andrews was an American film actor who became a major star in what is now known as film noir. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigious roles and character parts into the 1980s. He is best known for his portrayal of obsessed police detective Mark McPherson in the noir Laura (1944) and his critically acclaimed performance as World War II veteran Fred Derry in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
Susan Hayward was an Academy Award-winning American film actress, best known for her film portrayals of women that were based on true stories.
The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by American author J. D. Salinger that was partially published in serial form 1945–46 before being novelized in 1951. Originally intended for adults, it is often read by adolescents for its themes of angst and alienation, and as a critique of superficiality in society. The novel also deals with themes of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, connection, sex, and depression. The main character, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage rebellion. Caulfield, nearly of age, gives his opinion on a wide variety of topics as he narrates his recent life events.
With a Song in My Heart is a 1952 American biographical musical drama film that tells the story of actress and singer Jane Froman, who was crippled by an airplane crash on February 22, 1943, when the Boeing 314 Pan American Clipper flying boat she was on suffered a crash landing in the Tagus River near Lisbon, Portugal. She entertained the troops in World War II despite having to walk with crutches. The film stars Susan Hayward, Rory Calhoun, David Wayne, Thelma Ritter, Robert Wagner, Helen Westcott, and Una Merkel. Froman herself supplied Hayward's singing voice.
Franny and Zooey is a book by American author J. D. Salinger which comprises his short story "Franny" and novella Zooey. The two works were published together as a book in 1961, having originally appeared in The New Yorker in 1955 and 1957 respectively. The book focuses on siblings Franny and Zooey, the two youngest members of the Glass family, which was a frequent focus of Salinger's writings.
Uncle Wiggily Longears is the main character of a series of children's stories by American author Howard R. Garis. He began writing the stories for the Newark News in 1910. Garis penned an Uncle Wiggily story every day for more than 52 years, and published 79 books in his lifetime. According to his obituary in the Chicago Tribune, a walk in the woods in Verona, New Jersey was his inspiration. The books featured work by several illustrators, notably Lansing Campbell. Other illustrators of the series included George L. Carlson, Louis Wisa, Elmer Rache, Edward Bloomfield, Lang Campbell, and Mary and Wallace Stover.
The Glass family is a fictional family appearing in several of J. D. Salinger's short fictions. All but one of the Glass family stories were first published in The New Yorker. They appear in the short story collections Nine Stories, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction and Franny and Zooey.
Come and Get It is a 1936 American lumberjack drama film directed by Howard Hawks and William Wyler. The screenplay by Jane Murfin and Jules Furthman is based on the 1935 novel of the same title by Edna Ferber.
The Harvey Girls is a 1946 Technicolor American musical film produced by Arthur Freed for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It is based on the 1942 novel of the same name by Samuel Hopkins Adams, about Fred Harvey's Harvey House waitresses. Directed by George Sidney, the film stars Judy Garland and features John Hodiak, Ray Bolger, and Angela Lansbury, as well as Preston Foster, Virginia O'Brien, Kenny Baker, Marjorie Main and Chill Wills. Future star Cyd Charisse appears in her first speaking role on film.
Porgy and Bess is a 1959 American musical drama film directed by Otto Preminger, and starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge in the titular roles. It is based on the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, in turn based on Heyward's 1925 novel Porgy, as well as Heyward's subsequent 1927 non-musical stage adaptation, co-written with his wife Dorothy. The film's screenplay, which turned the operatic recitatives into spoken dialogue, was very closely based on the opera and was written by N. Richard Nash.
Eloise is a series of children's books written in the 1950s by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight. The series consists of Eloise (1955) and four sequels.
"Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" is a short story by J. D. Salinger, which appears in his collection Nine Stories. It was originally published in the March 20, 1948 issue of The New Yorker.
"Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes" is a short story by J.D. Salinger, initially published in the July 1951 issue of The New Yorker, and later within the larger collection of Salinger's short works, Nine Stories. Over the span of a few telephone conversations, the story surrounds three adult characters and the remainder of their evening after leaving a party.
My Foolish Heart may refer to:
Untamed is a 1955 American CinemaScope adventure western film directed by Henry King and starring Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward and Richard Egan, with Agnes Moorehead, Rita Moreno and Hope Emerson. It was made by Twentieth Century-Fox in DeLuxe Color. The screenplay was by William A. Bacher, Michael Blankfort, Frank Fenton and Talbot Jennings from a 1950 novel by Helga Moray. The music score was by Franz Waxman and the cinematography by Leo Tover.
The Devil to Pay! is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by George Fitzmaurice and starring Ronald Colman, Frederick Kerr, Myrna Loy and Loretta Young. It was written by Frederick Lonsdale and Benjamin Glazer.
Jerome David Salinger was an American author best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger published several short stories in Story magazine in 1940, before serving in World War II. In 1948, his critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" appeared in The New Yorker, which published much of his later work.
The Wedding Night is a 1935 American romantic drama film directed by King Vidor and starring Gary Cooper and Anna Sten. Written by Edith Fitzgerald and based on a story by Edwin H. Knopf, the film is about a financially strapped novelist who returns to his country home in Connecticut looking for inspiration for his next novel and becomes involved with a beautiful young Polish woman and her family. The film was produced by Samuel Goldwyn and filmed at Samuel Goldwyn Studios from early November to early December 1934. It was released in the United States on March 8, 1935.
An American Tragedy (1931) is an American pre-Code drama film directed by Josef von Sternberg. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on Theodore Dreiser's 1925 novel An American Tragedy and the 1926 play adaptation. These were based on the historic 1906 murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette at Big Moose Lake in upstate New York.
My Salinger Year is a 2020 drama film written and directed by Philippe Falardeau, based upon the memoir of the same name by Joanna Rakoff. It stars Margaret Qualley, Sigourney Weaver, Douglas Booth, Seána Kerslake, Colm Feore and Brían F. O'Byrne.
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