Dear Heart (1965)

Hollywood created some nice romantic dramas and comedies in the 1960s, and sometimes the movies were backed by beautiful Henry Mancini scores. There was the Apartment (1960), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Charade (1963), and Dear Heart (1964). Mancini had hits on the charts with the last three of these. Dear Heart is a pleasant romantic comedy about two mature loners who meet and fall in love. Staying at the same hotel are Evie Jackson (Geradine Page) – in town from Ohio for a Postmasters Convention – and Harry Mork (Glenn Ford), greeting card salesman just recently promoted to marketing executive. Both are amiable and easygoing. Evie, who indeed does have a good heart, is a bit wacky on the outside and despondent inside. She is so lonely that she leaves messages for herself in hotels and train stations. Harry, from Pennsylvania, has had many relationships without meaning. Engaged to be married within the month, he is happy to be settling down finally – to the widowed and worldly Phyllis (Angela Lansbury), whose appearance is fairly late in the movie. Phyllis' zany son is Patrick (Michael Anderson Jr.), a bearded beatnik (who would be considered a hippie just a few years later). Anyway, Harry and Evie's relationship begins to take off when they share a luncheon table at the hotel's restaurant. They do not seem to have much in common, but then … there is no need to go into further detail. But one may have a complaint: why does Harry continue to insist that he is married when he is not? Is he afraid of ruining his relationship with Phyllis? His insistence even comes at the point when he must suspect that he and Evie are right for each other. There is great supporting cast spearheaded by such endearing folks as Barbara Nichols and Richard Deacon. These characters – and the main ones – are well-developed. A special treat is the previously mentioned title song by Henry Mancini (also popularized by Andy Williams); Mancini would receive an Oscar nomination in 1965. In all, the film is pleasant and enjoyable.

Watched the first three minutes and was so taken with Geraldine Page's performance I spent noon til two glued to the TV. All the acting is wonderful with Glenn Ford at his best and Angela Lansbury at her usual level of excellence. Im about to look up who wrote and directed this. The combination of wit, charm and, above all, restraint is intoxicating. Any student of acting should watch Geraldine's perf over and over to watch how she plays against the pathos and chooses the sunny choice in a character that in other hands would fade into the shadows of sentimentality. The ending is strangely abrupt. If they wanted to end it suddenly they should have let her settling onto her suitcase in Penn station with studied delight be the final image.

I enjoyed this film, but I think it has some serious problems. Nevertheless, the script is good.Glenn Ford does a fine job here, although he was getting a little long in the tooth at this point of his career.The main problem with this film, in my view, is Geraldine Page. She was a wonderfully talented actress, but completely wrong for this role. She often played extremely eccentric characters, and in this film she is eccentric enough that it's hard to believe Glenn Ford would be attracted to her. So, I will give her high kudos for performances in films such as "Toys In The Attic" (1963 and just prior to this film), but not for this film.Frankly, I'd far prefer marrying the Angela Lansbury character, who Ford dumps for Page. As they say, there's no accounting for taste.So, enjoy this film for the story line, but not for the performance of its lead actress.

I'm not certain there are any spoilers here but I checked the 'spoiler' box just to protect myself...Dear Heart is one of those movies where you know how you want to see it work out, but you don't know how it's going to happen - and sometimes you aren't sure that it will. But you hope...Evie, played by Geraldine Paige, is a lady Postmaster attending a postal convention. She is over-the-top interested in everyone around her - being at once helpful and maybe a little too much so for some tastes. Harry, played by Glenn Ford, is a greeting card salesman who is going to settle down from living on the road. He is about to marry Phyllis, a woman he met not long ago. He dreams of being settled at last in a house, with family members and visitors and home cooked meals every day. Harry and Evie are staying at the same hotel.While Harry waits for Phyllis to arrive, he meets Evie - and while her brand of involvement and caring about others puts him off a little bit at first, slowly he comes to realize that those qualities are drawing him to her. But, Phyllis is on the way; Harry is sure she is the woman he has been looking for; soon they will be married, and that will be that.We get a couple of insights into 'adult relationships' in this movie; while of course nothing is spelled out or anything but totally proper, we do learn that Evie has been with a man - another Postmaster on the convention trip - who seems to want to take advantage of her again, but she learned that giving herself away is not how to attain the kind of happiness she wants. The man tells her (without specifically stating 'sex') that "it's that one page in the book that the whole damned world is after." She replies "But you can't read just that one page. It doesn't make any sense all by itself." Superb dialog.When Harry's fiancée Phyllis arrives, as things develop, she makes it clear that she doesn't care whether he fools around behind her back - so long as he doesn't tell her because as she says "Then, I'll have to do something about it." Just don't say anything and all will be well. She doesn't like the apartment he has chosen for them - she wants a hotel so she only has to pick up the phone and order food. She doesn't want to cook or have company come to visit. "Phyllis," she declares about herself, "is done DOING!"Harry realizes that he is about to make a mistake - marrying a woman who does not want the things he does, while passing by a woman whose big heart is ever more appealing to him.Usually I like Glenn Ford best in Westerns - in real life he was about the fastest gun in Hollywood - but he is superb in this movie as is Paige. I enjoy the scene where he walks her back to her hotel room after an encounter with an elevator 'masher' - out in the hallway, they analyze what some of the other guests have left on their food trays and try to determine something about the person in the room. Harry tests Evie with some questions and he can't help being fascinated by her answers. It is right then when you see it in his face - he is falling in love with her, and she realizes it. It's a great moment in the film.This movie ought to be seen a lot more than it is. It is truly an adult film - not because it shows "adults" ripping at each other's clothes (is that truly 'adult'?) but because it shows mature people weighing their circumstances and deciding on the course they will take. Classic.