Tonight's Movie: Dear Heart (1964) - A Warner Archive DVD Review

Glenn Ford and Geraldine Page star in DEAR HEART (1964), a sweetly funny romance available on DVD from the Warner Archive.

DEAR HEART was released by the Warner Archive several years ago, but as with all their releases, it remains easily available since it's manufactured on demand. The film had been recommended to me by several people, and it was finally time to catch up with it! I'm happy to say it did not disappoint.

Ford plays Harry, a greeting card salesman from Altoona, Pennsylvania, who is staying in the same New York City Hotel as Evie (Page), a postmistress from a small town in the same state who is attending a convention.

Harry is a former playboy type who is finally ready to embrace domesticity. He's just become engaged to Phyllis (Angela Lansbury) and eagerly tells a colleague about Phyllis's big family and ability to cook for a crowd at Thanksgiving. He's looking forward to having relatives and becoming a father to Phyllis's son Patrick (Michael Anderson Jr.), who's been away at school.

Harry has a surprise coming when Patrick leaves school and shows up at Harry's hotel; it turns out that Patrick is a young man who is considerably older than Harry had seen in the photo provided by Phyllis, and he's a handful.

Evie is a quirky type who's never met a stranger and embraces the little joys of life; her idiosyncrasies include having herself paged in the hotel lobby, for the thrill of hearing her name called, and sending a note ahead of time to greet herself when she checks in at the hotel.

Despite her helpful and friendly nature, deep down Edie is lonely and longing to connect with someone special on a deeper level, but it just hasn't happened. At a previous convention she had a brief fling with a married man named Frank (Charles Drake) but realized she wasn't willing to settle for that type of relationship and spurns him when he approaches her shortly after her arrival.

Harry and Edie meet by chance in the crowded hotel restaurant and enjoy getting to know one another; she muses that Harry's greeting cards must have traveled through her post office! Edie wants to believe that Phyllis is someone Harry's made up to protect himself and becomes hopeful of a relationship as Harry shows interest in spending time with her.

Harry for his part is charmed by Edie's honesty and happy nature, as well as the enthusiasm she shows for the charming little apartment he's just rented in New York City; he's recently received a promotion which will enable him to get off the road and settle down. Edie would love nothing more than making a comfortable home for the man she loves...who increasingly appears to be Harry.

And then Phyllis arrives in town to surprise Harry...and he quickly realizes that just as he is ready to change and settle down, Phyllis also wants a new life: She wants to stop doing for others, live in a hotel with room service, and rely on Harry to straighten out her son's life. She's not even particularly concerned or at all jealous that Harry was in Evie's hotel room when she arrived; she doesn't so much want a romantic relationship with Harry as she wants someone to take care of her.

It's apparent that Harry and Phyllis don't have common goals...but he and Edie do. What next?

This was a charmer, with both Ford and Page at their best. Page's character in particular is wonderfully developed; the viewer feels both the joy with which Evie embraces simple things and the awkward loneliness she sometimes feels in the middle of a crowd. At times Evie almost comes on to people too strongly, talking like a chatterbox, but in the end her kindness wins people over; she learns the names of every person she encounters and takes the time to thank them and offer them kindnesses. A scene where she checks out of the hotel, thanking every person on the staff, surprised me as one of the most moving sequences.

The film is also "laugh out loud" funny at times; a scene where Phyllis encounters Miss Loveland (Barbara Nichols), a hotel employee with whom Harry has had an ill-fated tryst, had me in stitches, as did a scene where Harry checks into the same hotel with a different "wife." Ford has some terrific comedic expressions during these sequences, and he's believable as the one-time love 'em and leave 'em type who, like Edie, has hit mid-life and realizes he wants deeper connections and a family. His evening with Miss Loveland cements his realization about the emptiness of his past lifestyle.

DEAR HEART was a happy 104 minutes which turned out to be just the kind of amusing yet heartwarming movie I needed to see right now, and I recommend it.

There are a number of fun faces in the film, including Richard Deacon and both actresses who played Gladys Kravitz on TV's BEWITCHED, Alice Pearce and Sandra Gould. Also on hand are Mary Wickes, Ken Lynch, Ruth McDevitt, and Doris Roberts.

DEAR HEART was directed by Delbert Mann from a script by Tad Mosel, based on Mosel's own story. The widescreen black and white cinematography was by Russell Harlan.

The Warner Archive DVD is a lovely print with excellent sound. The disc includes the trailer.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this DVD. Warner Archive releases are MOD (manufactured on demand) and may be ordered from the Warner Archive Collection at the WBShop or from any online retailers where DVDs and Blu-rays are sold.

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