Broadly played and directed semi-screwball outing has charming Fredric March cast as a newspaper reporter assigned to locate a wealthy, beautiful young heiress, who has ditched her fancy surroundings for a regular life in New York City. Grounded, natural Virgina Bruce was a good choice for the rich kid, who ends up working in the department store her family owns, and Patsy Kelly is wonderfully brash as the salesgirl who unknowingly takes her in. The supporting characters are made up of wacky, genial crazies, and the actors have been encouraged to play them to the hilt, resulting in some overcooked comedy which may strike one as either funny or far too silly. There are some classic bits: the ice-skating sequence where March and Bruce end up in a game of Musical Chairs, an unbilled Marjorie Main as a plain-spoken customer in the store, and Kelly's solution to the power going out just before a fancy dinner in her apartment. The script, by Jack Jevne and Eddie Moran (from a story by Ed Sullivan!), was criticized at the time for being too close to "It Happened One Night", but it's actually far less ambitious. The plot set-up is one-half merry mix-up and the other half romantic nuttiness, and many of the lines have a punch-drunk giddiness which is very sweet. **1/2 from ****
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...It doesn't entirely work, unfortunately. Fredric March is excellent, as always. What a fine and versatile actor! And Virginia Bruce is winning, as she always was. She plays an heiress, he a newspaper reporter sent to get a story about her. (This aspect presages the Bette Davis movie "Golden Arrows.") Eugene Palette, always a treat, plays his editor.
Bruce is not an ideal screwball heroine, unfortunately. Her pale, wistful beauty doesn't really lend itself to the genre, though she is dine in the movie. Patsy Kelly is hilarious as her pal: Bruce has sailed to Manhattan in her yacht while granddaddy is away. She finds herself in the City with no money. At a diner (kind of an Automat but not really) she and Kelly scam some food. Kelly picks her up! "If you don't have anywhere else to go, you can spend the night at my place." Kelly's ostensible romantic interest is Alan Mowbry, a neighbor who is studying to become a chiropractor by mail. What a couple they make! Back at the store where Kelly works, which Grandpa owns, we see Kelly demonstrating a device called "Vibrato." It's a kind of Sapphic intimation of the Vega-Meta-Vitamin sequence decades later from "I Love Lucy." The movie has a sterling supporting cast, which also includes Nancy Carroll, delicious as a jealous, catty fellow saleswoman.
It also, unfortunately, has afar too lengthy and pointless scene with Bruce and march at a skating rink. Why it was allowed to go on so long is a mystery. (There is a similar scene in one of Irene Dunne's lesser comedies -- "Joy of Living," I think.) The movie begins in a stylish, chic manner but it loses its way. It could have been in the top tier but as it is it's still fun. -
I think I liked this movie despite the rather formulaic and ridiculous plot because both Viginia Bruce and Frederic March did such a wonderful job with this romantic comedy from Hal Roach Productions.
Virginia is the grand-daughter of a very wealthy but extremely overprotective man. He won't let her go anywhere without him and sees danger around every corner. As a result, she is smothered and bored--aching to live a real life. She escapes and establishes a new identity as a regular working girl. However, reporter Frederic March finds out about the ruse and wants to exploit the woman for a buck. However, once they meet, sparks begin to fly and he is torn between riches and his new love.
You know about where the movie will end--after all, it's a formulaic romantic comedy from an era when the movies never dared stray from the expected course. However, how delicately and believably the stars follow this formula is what makes this film so worth watching. A cute and satisfying little film.
By the way, at the very end there is a cute little cameo by the silent screen star Harry Langdon as the preacher. While his best years in movies were long behind him, he did continue to do small roles in a variety of films over the years. -
bkoganbing7 July 2007Though the gimmick of the runaway heiress was beginning to wear thin by 1938, There Goes My Heart still is entertaining enough with a sparkling cast going through it's usual paces.
Virginia Bruce is our heiress in this one and reprising his role of hard hitting reporter from Nothing Sacred is Fredric March. Two leads of this magnitude is not usual for the Hal Roach studio which normally was doing two and three reel comedies. But even though this is recycled material it still is served up rather nicely. Best scene for March and Bruce is at the skating rink playing musical chairs on roller skates. March is good, but this was the kind of material Cary Grant would have relished.
Hal Roach did give his director Norman McLeod a fabulous supporting cast to work with all going through their various screen images that we love. Best in the group is Patsy Kelly playing the shop-girl who happens to work in Bruce's grandfather's department store and who takes in Bruce not knowing who she is and gets her job at the store. Nancy Carroll the former silent screen star is a jealous co-worker and Irving Bacon is the sexually harassing supervisor.
Others in this incredibly good cast are Claude Gillingwater as Bruce's tycoon grandfather, Eugene Palette as March's editor, Arthur Lake as March's friend and newspaper photographer and Alan Mowbray as Kelly's boyfriend studying to be a chiropractor. Yes, Alan Mowbray and Patsy Kelly as a couple. Until i saw this film I never would have believed them as a screen team. Patsy's best moments are demonstrating an exercise machine at the store. You should also see newly hired sales person Virginia Bruce waiting on Marjorie Main.
At the very end of the film, former silent screen comic star Harry Langdon plays a minister. At this point in his career, Langdon was accepting any kind of work and part he could get. Nothing especially hilarious about his performance, it's too brief and he's surrounded by too many other high caliber performers in this cast to shine in any way.
It's not one of Fredric March's best films, but it's still amusing enough and the ensemble can't be beat. -
aujourdhui118 July 2007This movie was charming. I hadn't noticed Virginia Bruce before this movie and found that she was so appealing. Bruce runs away from grand dad to experience an "ordinary" life of less privilege. She winds up befriended by Patsy Kelly who takes her under her wing finding her a job at a department store. Bruce delightfully plays the part of the runaway heiress turned salesgirl. She meets up with a reporter, Fredric March who discovers that she is the missing heiress. The rest is played out with misconceptions and misunderstandings; the stuff that romance movies thrive on. I just saw her in "Flight Angels" with one of my favorites, Dennis Morgan and I was so happy to see her. It was like seeing an old friend. I am looking forward to discovering more of her movies.
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xredgarnetx8 July 2007HEART is an attempt at a screwball comedy that fails for a couple of reasons: a plot that gets too entangled, to the point of incredulity, and a lead actress who may look a little like Carol Lombard, but clearly isn't. Virginia Bruce is the female in question as a runaway heiress who ends up working incognito in her grandfather's department store, clearly meant to resemble Macy's. The thin-faced Bruce is a bit too wistful for the role, unfortunately. The role really could have used Lombard -- or Thelma Todd or Irene Dunne or Katherine Hepburn or Claudette Colbert, or even one of the Bennett sisters. Frederic March is, as always, note-perfect as a cynical reporter on Bruce's trail who -- what else? -- ends up falling for her. There is a stunt-filled ice skating sequence that takes up a bit too much time, compounded by a very rushed ending that leaves major plot strings untied. The wonderful Eugene Palette is on hand as March's blustery editor, and wisecracking Patsy Kelly is in fine form as a downtrodden store clerk who takes Bruce in. This may be no BRINGING UP BABY or NOTHING SACRED or IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, but it is fun to watch March, Kelly and Palette in action. And it is also viewable in its historic context, surrounded as it was by several masterpieces of the genre.
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The part of the runaway heiress would have been right up Nancy Carroll's alley. Likewise, I think Virginia Bruce might have been more convincing in Ms. Carroll's part as a scheming shop girl that puts on airs. Ms. Bruce just didn't have the same air of mischief that Nancy Carroll did that could have really added a needed touch of spice to this movie.
Yes, there are similarities to "It Happened One Night" as everyone else has mentioned. There's a runaway heiress, a reporter in the know (Frederic March as Bill Spencer) that winds up falling for said heiress, even the heiress running away from the overbearing elder of the family - in this case her grandfather. However, everything else is pretty unique. In IHON Claudette Colbert's character was forced to live like an ordinary Depression era American in order to blend in with the crowd enough that she could get to her fiancée undetected by her father. Here, Joan Butterfield (Virginia Bruce) has an end goal of being one of those average Americans and standing on her own two feet.
The delight is in the details here - There's Patsy Kelly as Joan's friend, shop girl Peggy O'Brien, demonstrating a vibrating weight loss machine at work and when the electricity goes out in her small apartment, plugging into the flashing sign outside her window. Of course now it takes twice as long to cook dinner and all of her lamps are flashing on and off. Ms. Kelly is practically the third lead here, and her comic performance as Joan's mentor at living the working class life is pitch perfect. She's noisy and assertive as usual, but she doesn't go overboard. Alan Mowbrey as Peggy's boyfriend, a 40-something chiropractic student living across the hall from Peggy that works nights, is a great comic touch. The two humorously meet on the stairwell each evening for a passionate kiss, he as he heads off to work and she as she heads home from work. Not to be overlooked is Eugene Palette as Bill Spencer's perpetually agitated editor. He and March inflict every comic verbal insult possible on one another yet they just can't seem to live without one another - much like Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. In fact, I found that Palette and March had much more chemistry together than did Frederic March and Virginia Bruce.
This is one film where the scenery along the way is much more interesting than the ultimate destination as I felt the conclusion landed with a thud and seemed rather forced. Still I'd recommend it just for all the goofy stuff that you could only find in Hal Roach productions in the 30's. Ultimately it's a satisfying feel-good little film. -
Ron Oliver30 May 2004Hounded by the press, an heiress escapes from her stifling, pampered life and takes a job in her own department store.
Produced near the tail-end of the era of screwball comedies, THERE GOES MY HEART is certainly more enjoyable in its parts than in its whole. The film's plot is very silly and much too derivative of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934). Situations seem a bit forced and the comedy does not always flow very easily.
This unease attaches itself to the lead players. Distinguished actor Fredric March, playing a strong-willed reporter, seems rather unsteady with all the fatuous behavior about him. But at least he gets to indulge in a bit of energetic acting. Unlucky Virginia Bruce, while lovely, gets to be little more than a mannequin, her comic lines few and far between.
The film's real joviality comes from its supporting actors. Loudmouthed Patsy Kelly is wonderful as the noisy shop clerk who becomes Miss Bruce's pal--watching Patsy trying to recover her missing food in a cafeteria, or attempting to sell a vibrating belt exerciser, are comic highlights. Elderly Claude Gillingwater plays Miss Bruce's grumpy millionaire grandfather. Blustery Eugene Pallette is perfect as March's apoplectic editor.
Smaller roles are also well-cast: British Alan Mowbray as Patsy's chiropractic beau; preppy Arthur Lake as March's faithful photographer; chittering Etienne Girardot as Gillingwater's diminutive factotum; and J. Farrell MacDonald as a highly suspicious cop. Robert Armstrong--his glory days as Carl Denham, Kong's captor, half a decade behind him--is completely wasted in his tiny turn as a private detective.
Movie mavens will have no difficulty in spotting two wonderful performers making unbilled appearances: no-nonsense Marjorie Main shows up as a Butterfield's customer intent on buying a fireless cooker' from Miss Bruce; and in the film's final moments look for silent screen clown Harry Langdon in a delightful cameo as a most helpful parson. -
blanche-218 September 2009If you believe films like "There Goes My Heart," every gal with money wanted to be poor in the 1930s and ran away from home. Thanks to the huge success of "It Happened One Night," the ambitious reporter-newsworthy heiress angle, the heiress disguised as a commoner, etc., was done over and over again - this film, "Love is News," "Bright Lights," "Anything Goes," "They Wanted to Marry," "Love on the Run" - I could go on.
Now we have "There Goes My Heart," where a young heiress (Virginia Bruce) gets away from her overprotective grandfather and escapes to New York. There, she meets a young woman (Patsy Kelly) who offers to share her apartment and helps her get a department store job. Meanwhile, a newspaperman (Fredric March) is on the story, but doesn't tell Bruce who he is.
As others have pointed out, Virginia Bruce, though lovely, was no screwball comedy star. Here she's in a Carole Lombard role. Patsy Kelly for me always gave a large, loud stage performance. She's very funny in this; other times I've found her annoying. Fredric March is quite relaxed in his role, and Eugene Palette is effective as the stereotypical editor who's always angry at his reporter. Harry Langdon has a nice cameo at the end.
There are some good scenes in this film, particularly the ice skating sequence, and Kelly's attempts to demonstrate the "Vibrato" exercise machine. The drunk scene between Palette, March, and Arthur Lake is good, too.
"There Goes My Heart" is filled with wonderful actors like Alan Mowbray and Marjorie Main, plus the aforementioned Langdom and Lake. It doesn't try to be more than it is, and it's successful in his own right if you don't expect too much. -
purplecrayon26 September 2002After all the negative things I have heard said about this film, I was expecting something very...I don't know...boring, silly, empty. But I must say I was more than pleasantly surprised with it and I did enjoy it. I watched it because I just discovered Fredric March, and have watched over 30 of his films now. I must say that this film in no way provided him to display his marvelous acting skill, but still it was nice to see him do this bit of light comedy. I think the story is nice when you want to watch something that is not heavy, but lighthearted and fun with the usual 1930's "happily ever after" ending. It is something my children would enjoy.
Don't have much else to say, except if you like Fredric as much as I do, you will like this film. Too bad he only gave one kiss in this one!! -
glennwilson57916 September 2009I guess I am just no old enough to remember that kind of service in a store. Maybe it was still the case when I my mom brought to get my new shoes once a year. Anyway, this movie appears occasionally on TCM and I just think it's great. Is it a 10-star? No. Do I enjoy every minute? Yes. Virginia Bruce is gorgeous, Frederic March is extremely underrated, his versatility as an actor was top notch. Patsy Kelly cracks me up in every appearance I've ever seen. Just a fun movie. Who cares if it was a copy of "It Happened One Night" It's about enjoying what is on the screen, right? The 3 leads are enough to recommend watching. But you will finish the movie thinking you did not waste your time.
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reader47 February 2011All the actors do well with what they're given. So I guess one must blame the director.
But the main fault seems to be the humdrum script. It's too bad, too, because it contains several very funny lines. I laughed out loud more than once.
However, it's at least half an hour too long, which, at 83 minutes, gives you some idea. It seems like it's full of padding. It just goes on and on, one barely animate scene after another. The ice skating rink is a good example. It would have been much funnier at about a third its length. In fact, the whole movie probably would have been a winner at about 35 minutes.
Patsy Kelly is good but doesn't have enough to do. The same goes for Alan Mowbray. It would have been nice if their romance had been an actual subplot (heaven knows there was plenty of time for it). As it is, they have no lives of their own, but are merely used to shore up and fill in chinks in the March/Bruce story. The exception is Kelly's Vibrato scene, which is probably the high point of the film.
Virginia Bruce is stock in a faceless part -- I'm not sure any actress could have brought any life to it. Not a single funny line for her, although she does have the other funniest scene in the film, where she's plugging extension cords into light bulb sockets in the sign outside the window. Frederick March handles a comedic role well. Arthur Lake is completely wasted. See the Blondie series of movies if you want to see what he can do.
The only stand-out is Eugene Palette, who has one of his best roles ever. It's just made for his hard-boiled, uneducated delivery. Unfortunately, he has almost no funny lines. Marjorie Main is a highlight of the film and doesn't even get credit!
I don't think the few genuinely funny parts are worth the hour-plus of yawning which engulfs them. -
constancepetersen28 September 2002Okay, so this is a copy of It Happened One Night. Big deal. There's actually a fair amount in it that is different. The basic elements are the same: Girl runs away from dad/grandfather and dodges the detectives but comes face-to-face with a reporter hiding his identity from her.
I would say that the primary difference between films is the attitudes of the leading men. Clark is essentially blackmailing Claudette in IHON, while in this film, Fredric doesn't seem to have any intention of publicising Virginia - he doesn't want to write the story in the first place, keeps delaying the finish of his story, and finally he rips it up and refuses to do it at all. In TGMH, there is also a strange but amusing supporting actress who works in the same store as Virginia does. Oscar Shapely of IHON is not her equivalent, though amusing in his own way, believe you me.
It Happened One Night is definitely the more solid of the two movies, but There Goes My Heart is fun to watch and should be more actively viewed than it is, instead of being condemned by a majority that probably hasn't seen it, but bases their opinions on the negative reviews of others. I myself was sceptical - I just watched it prepared to react whatever way the movie led me, and I have to say that I did like it and would definitely see it again. -
vincentlynch-moonoi31 January 2011This film had two strikes against it (at least for me) to start with -- it's another 1930s comedy about a missing heiress and a cast with which (other than Frederick March) I wasn't very familiar. I almost turned it off after the first 10 minutes, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It really is quite good. Frederick March was, of course, a very respected actor, and he does very nicely here. I wasn't familiar with Virginia Bruce, but she does very nicely here as the heiress...but hardly a spoiled one, which is perhaps what makes this film work so well. I also was not familiar with Patsy Kelly, but she does nicely as the wacky new-best-friend. Eugene Palette (you'll know his rotund figure and barrel-chested voice) is great, as always, as a character actor here. And it was nice seeing Claude Gillingwater (who was Mr. Manette in "A Tale Of Two Cities") as the grandfather. If there are any weaknesses to mention, first there's a rather weak ending, and secondly, there's Arthur Lake (of Dagwood fame), and as always I failed to see the talent. But there are some nice moments, including a rather wacky skating segment, which doesn't have a heck of a lot to do with the plot, but is nonetheless entertaining. All in all it's a pleasant movie, and better than I expected. Good to view at least once, if you're at all a fan of 1930s movies.
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marcslope14 March 2019Late screwball nonsense, with much It Happened One Night in it, this Hal Roach-produced romantic comedy is better in fits and starts than as a whole. Spoiled heiress Virginia Bruce, an always-capable blonde who's a little tentative here, escapes grandpa Claude Gillingwater's yacht and hightails it to New York, where she has the good luck to fall in and room with Patsy Kelly, who yells all her lines and is unfailingly funny. The other roommate, Nancy Carroll--an early-talkie leading lady, and a splendid one, who'd fallen on hard times by now--is a troublemaker who underhandedly gets Virginia in trouble at the department store where they all work, which, in Hollywoodish coincidence, is owned by Virginia's granddad. Newspaperman Fredric March, virtually reprising Clark Gable's Peter Warne, chases the heiress's story and falls in love with her. All reasonable enough, but some things just don't make sense. Why, why do March and editor Eugene Pallette and news photographer Arthur Lake have a drunk scene that does nothing? Why, if the leading couple has sworn each other off, do they keep gravitating back, except to rush to a happy ending? What's this island retreat of March's, where is it, and is there or isn't there a town there, as the presence of Harry Langdon at the end, as its local priest, would suggest? It rushes to a conclusion without explaining some key plot points, and Norman Z. McLeod, accomplished comic director though he was, brings it no real distinction.
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SimonJack13 May 2021Yes, "There Goes My Heart" is another runaway heiress comedy. While such a plot may seem quickly overdone or worn out by modern viewers who can play one after another on DVD or online, they probably didn't seem too overdone in the 1930s. They then were months and years apart, and during the Great Depression, this fantasy type of comedy romances probably helped people forget for a while the difficult times and enjoy themselves. And, while the general theme was the same, the details of the plots made each story different and entertaining in its own right.
Hal Roach assembled a top cast for one with a rich girl fleeing her grandfather. But it's not for a fling with a disapproved suitor or fortune-hunter. Joan Butterfield just wants to experience life like real people - without all the comforts that wealth provides. And, she finds such. Bill Spencer is a reporter who accidentally discovers her but keeps it under wraps while he writes about her. All the time he is falling for her and she for him. Frederic March and Virginia Bruce play those parts well.
Against Spencer is his editor, Mr. Stevens, played by Eugene Pallette. And, taking Joan in - as Joan Baker, is the good-hearted Peggy O'Brien, played by Patsy Kelly. Her beau is Pennypepper E. Pennypepper, played by Alan Mowbray. They have a living arrangement that's a hoot, with one more person in the picture. Roommate Dorothy Moore, played by Nancy Carroll.
Butterfield is the name of the largest department store chain, and the ladies all work there. Pennypepper is holding down a night job while he takes correspondence courses to become a chiropractor. More of the supporting cast add to the comedy and mayhem in this film. Irving Bacon is the store floor manager and the irate grandfather, Cyrus Butterfield, is played by Claude Gillingwater.
The screenplay is fairly easy and not very complicated. It's peppered with some screwy scenes, such as Peggy holding onto Joan's legs as she is stretched way outside their windows trying to plug their electric cords into a flashing advertising sign. Bill and Joan have a long scenario in an ice-skating rink when another skater, slightly inebriated, frequently runs into them. Then, they get into a musical chairs competition on the ice. These scenes are quite funny as some of skaters take some crashes with chairs. The humor is balanced between situations and dialog. Some of the latter also is quite silly.
Overall this is a very good comedy romance. With a better screenplay, this cast could have made a top comedy. But it's still quite good and entertaining. Here are some favorite lines.
Bill Spencer, "I'll write stories about her if I have to make 'em up. And they'll be the truth too."
Mr. Stevens, "See here, Spencer. You have to give me more respect, or better copy." Bill Spencer, "Okay, boss, I'll give you better copy."
Joan Butterfield, as Joan Baker, "Oh, look, where's your canary?" Peggy O'Brien, "Oh, uh, Penny gave me the cage for my birthday last year. This year I get the bird."
Joan Baker (Butterfield), "Is this your furniture?" Peggy, "Oh, no, just the coat hangers."
Joan Baker, "Oh, Bill, how can you talk like that. I've got my heart and soul in this stew." Bill Spencer, "You better put a piece of meat in there too."
Bill Spencer, "I wonder why they don't build roofs on the ground floor." Joan Baker, "Then you'd have to climb downstairs to get up." Bill, "Oh, I knew I shouldn't have asked you that."
Bill Spencer, "You're not proposing to me, are you?" Joan Baker (Butterfield), "Who, me? Of course not. It wouldn't be manly."
Bill Spencer, "Either you're a pretty swell girl, or I'm an awful chump." Joan Baker, "You're an awful chump."
Mr. Dobbs, the floor manager, "Dorothy, think of me." Dorothy Moore, "I am thinking of you and my mind's a blank."
Joan Baker/Butterfield, "I'm worried about Bill. How do you supposed he'll feel when he finds out about all this?" Peggy, "Well, if he really loves you, your being rich won't make him think any of the less of you."
Bill Spencer, "I still can't understand how... a girl who's been used to so much can be satisfied with so little." Joan, "Well, it was having so much that made me realize how little I really had. I'll never go back to having so little again as long as I live." Bill, "And here I always thought I was a pretty smart fella. If I ever had anybody figured wrong, it was you."
Bill, "Joan, remind me to tell you that..." Joan, "What?" Bill, "I think you're swell." Joan, "Oh, Bill. You're an awful chump". Bill, "Nobody every called me chump twice in...." (they kiss). -
Other than traditional late 1930's movie values not necessarily for folks not fond of this nostalgic nosegay category, one of the funniest. Nonsense at a retail chain heats up when the runaway heiress to the chain, chased by her grandfather unaware of where she is, and by a hard boiled reporter who has figured it out, is supported by a wonderful cast of screwball nuts outdone only by a superb Virginia Bruce and Frederic March as the heiress and reporter. You expect to see some scenes of the heiress surrounded by her family's luxury, the heroine and hero and heroine separately playing non romantic sequences in their underwear, physical comedy snuck in at every turn whether it forwards the story or not, and THE END practically flashed on the screen before the hero and heroine can get married. Despite this, the film holds your attention and keeps you laughing.
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wes-connors2 May 2009Beautiful blonde Virginia Bruce (as Joan Butterfield) is "one of the richest heiresses in the world," but can't find happiness among the yacht set, so she runs away from home to join the huddled masses in New York City. Quickly, Ms. Bruce meets brassy Pasty Kelly (as Peggy O'Brien), who helps her get a job in a department store. Don't tell anyone, but the department store is owned by Bruce's wealthy family. Bruce enjoys her life as a commoner, pretending to be "Joan Baker", and rooming with Ms. Kelly. But, she is being pursued by handsome reporter Fredric March (as Bill Spencer), who is assigned to find the missing heiress. How long will it take before they fall in love
This film seems to be most often compared to "It Happened One Night", but is really more like several other films. The mistaken identity, or going-undercover-as-a-poor-department-store-worker and falling-in-love plot is much more akin to films like Kathleen Norris' "My Best Girl" (with the genders reversed). Imitation can be the sincerest form of flattery, but "There Goes My Heart" is much more derivative than fresh. There are intermittently funny moments - for example, Kelly's demonstrating how to use a "Vibrato" while a deadpan Marjorie Main tries to buy a "Fireless Cooker". Nancy Carroll, who left films after this appearance, is obviously underutilized. And, watch for Harry Langdon as an opportunistic minister, near the film's end.
***** There Goes My Heart (10/13/38) Norman Z. McLeod ~ Fredric March, Virginia Bruce, Patsy Kelly -
Sometimes getting up way too early pays a few dividends. I want to say that watching this Frederic March vehicle was one of those dividends, but that would be somewhat inaccurate. I wanted to be paid for watching this film, but no luck there !! March as a performing actor has always been something of a mystery to me as a film aficionado. His abilities have always reminded me some of one of my other favorites from this era, Dick Powell. With March, in a role in a film, there's always the sense that there is something important happening inside his skull, behind his eyes, behind his manners and demeanor. The best parts of this film are those flashes where March does seem to be thinking about something big and yet talking about something small.
This is a film about trying to resolve "class envy" in the 1930s, and in that regard it has a political subtext. Yet that subtext is obscured in the way the film was put together. It's definitely not in the same league with Gable and Colbert in "It Happened One Night." The reason that it isn't, is fairly obvious: after seeing this movie I had to ask myself -- what was their rush to get through this story ? The general plot device of "It Happened ..." was a winner, and it seems evident that with skilled players like March and Eugene Palette, this film could have been a winner, too, as both a comic romp and a socially aware satire. Yet it is evident that these great players were simply not given enough time or the right material to evoke such a satire.
Because there are great flashes of brilliance held in this otherwise dreadful rehash of other plots, I registered a vote of five, for the film. It's not a waste of time at all, for the true film buff, or for the fans of Frederic March and Virginia Bruce and so on ....
Then again, where this film promises a banquet, it only delivers a sandwich, and that's served without the sweet pickles. -
scifinerdgrl26 February 2008Hokey story but the ice skating scene is a hoot. Skaters play the old "cakewalk" game on ice skates. The actors and stunt men did an incredible job with a simple concept taking pratfalls and sliding across the ice. I've never seen anything like it.
The rest of the story is full of cringe-worthy sexist gibberish, but there are some fun moments. Stereotypes abound: the evil newsman, the imperious tycoon, the simpleton stringer. The plot is classic boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-back. "She's stubborn and he's too proud."
There's also a fun drinking song (newsmen of course).
The actors seem to be theater-trained - they seem to shout like they're afraid the mike in the last row won't hear them. But it's still fun. -
The premise of the movie along with the presence of comedian Patsy Kelly could have made this a terrific film. Instead, a rather benign ending spoils it all.
Virginia Bruce is the wealthy young lady, bored with her life, and so she flees from her cantankerous grandfather, a wonderful Claude Gillingwater, who had been so memorable 3 years before as Tellson's banker in the classic "A Tale of Two Cities."
Bruce meets up with Kelly in a very funny cafeteria scene and soon discovers that the latter is working in her family department store. Kelly obtains a job for Bruce in the store, and despite some funny moments, more could have been done with this.
Fredric March does well here as the reporter assigned to find the missing Bruce and of course love blossoming between the two.
The major fault with this film is the ending. It was so dry that you feel that the film makers were constrained to keep the film to 1:30. Shame. -
TheLittleSongbird24 February 2020Have for a long time appreciated screwball comedy, so there is no personal bias against it. Just in case anybody is wondering from my very average rating, where one would probably naturally think that screwball comedy is not my forte (actually when it is done well it is one of my favourite kinds of comedy). The other main attraction is the cast, a highly attractive cast and an intriguing one. Being someone who associates Fredric March with more serious roles.
Am a bit mixed on 'There Goes My Heart'. Will say right now that it does have a good deal that works in its favour and it is very well played, so it is not a terrible film in any shape or form. A large part of me just wanted 'There Goes My Heart' to be so much better than it was, because it was in need of more originality, clarity and energy as an overall whole. So not a particularly great, or good, film either. It is definitely watchable though.
'There Goes My Heart's' best asset is the cast. March is a charmer and has the sharp comic timing and wit needed for screwball while not being too broad, he doesn't play his character too seriously. Virginia Bruce is also winning and again does not overdo it. All the cast are solid, but my pick for best performance is the truly sparkling and quite hilarious Patsy Kelly. There are enough moments of charm and wit.
Production values are attractive and there are some great moments in the film. The ice skating sequence is a lovely scene, am aware it has been criticised for being too long but it was a stand out scene to me. The solution to the power going out is riotous. The music is pleasant enough and doesn't feel too chirpy or too much of a dirge. There are some lovely lines in the script and while the main characters are fairly standard they are easy to like too.
On the other hand, 'There Goes My Heart' suffers from namely being needlessly convoluted at times, from trying to do too much and not focusing enough on just one or two elements, and from being derivative, meaning a lot of non-stop predictability that took away a little from the enjoyment.
It could have done with more consistent energy as there are parts that go on too long and the ending is far too rushed. More consistent wit and subtlety wouldn't have gone amiss and been less broad. Some of the supporting cast are a bit too brash too for my tastes. The direction does everything right but could have done with more spark.
Altogether, watchable, especially for the cast, but could have been a lot better. 5/10 -
mark.waltz22 July 2019Yes, the screwball comedy is nearly an exact replica of the 1934 Frank Capra classic that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. In spite of an excellent cast, the film is only moderately entertaining, in which individual scenes outdo the film as a whole. it focuses on reporter Frederick March who has been assigned to locate missing heiress Virginia Bruce who has run away from her department store owner grandfather Claude Gillingwater. Ironically, Bruce gets a job working at her grandfather's main store after befriending clerk Patsy Kelly whose roommate (Nancy Carroll) is running out on her. Carroll also works at the department store and will cause all sorts of trouble when she finds out Bruce's identity. But evidence leads Bruce to believe that it was March who spilt the story, even though all he had gotten as evidence with some photos that he hides from editor Eugene Pallette.
The supporting cast are far better than the leads, with March basically repeating the type of role he had played in the previous year's "Nothing Sacred". Bruce isn't Carole Lombard, playing the role totally straight without any sense of real wackiness and that makes her heroine not as interesting. Kelly is an absolute delight, a force of nature (like a hurricane), first seen in an automat complaining that someone had stolen her chili. Bruce comes in to aide her and gets her a piece of pie as well. The bit actor playing waiter in this scene is absolutely hysterical.
There's also Marjorie Main as a department store customer com demanding a fireless cooker, Alan Mowbray as Kelly'sworking class boyfriend (who speaks with an upper-class accent), Robert Armstrong as a tough detective, Arthur Lake as a newspaper photographer and silent veteran Harry Langdon as a minister. There are several highlights of comedy in the film, including a very memorable musical chairs ice skating sequence, as well as Kelly's constant braying. It's the type of part she could play in her sleep, but she always brought something special into every role she played. If only the leads had more magnetism, this could have been so much better. It's a comedown sadly for early 30's leading lady Carroll who had once co-starred with March.