| None But the Lonely Heart | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Clifford Odets |
| Written by | Clifford Odets |
| Based on | None but the Lonely Heart 1943 novel byRichard Llewellyn |
| Produced by | David Hempstead |
| Starring | Cary Grant Ethel Barrymore Barry Fitzgerald June Duprez Jane Wyatt George Coulouris Dan Duryea |
| Cinematography | George Barnes |
| Edited by | Roland Gross |
| Music by | Hanns Eisler |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 113 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.3 million[1] |
None but the Lonely Heart is a 1944 Americandramaromance film which tells the story of a youngCockney drifter who returns home with no ambitions but finds that his family needs him. Adapted byClifford Odets from the 1943novel of the same title byRichard Llewellyn and directed by Odets, the film starsCary Grant,Ethel Barrymore, andBarry Fitzgerald.
The title of the film is taken fromTchaikovsky's song "None but the Lonely Heart", which is featured in the background music.
Ernie Mott is a restless, independent, wandering Cockney with perfect pitch. OnArmistice Day, Ernie visits the tomb ofthe Unknown Warrior inWestminster Abbey, which memorializes those who died inWorld War I, including his father. Ernie seeks a life where is neither 'the hound nor the hare,' neither a victim or a thug. When he returns home, his mother Ma asks why he has returned after so long and gives him an ultimatum that he must stay home now or leave forever. He informs her that he will then be leaving next morning and goes out to get a drink. He meets fellow musician Aggie Hunter outside the bar, but instead prefers the company of a gangster's fickle former wife, Ada Brantline. However, when Ernie becomes smitten with Ada, she rejects his offer of a date when he tells her he will be leaving town the next day.
The next morning, Ma tells her pawnbroker friend, Ike Weber, that she hascancer. Ma and Ernie get into another fight, but after he storms out, Ike shares with him that his mother needs him in her battle with cancer. Ernie returns and says that he will stay with her at home and help her run her shop.
A month passes, and Ernie continues to pursue Ada. However, when gangster Jim Mordinoy informs him that she is still his wife, Ernie does not believe Ada when she says that is a lie and he cuts her off socially. Ernie begins to notice the poverty surrounding him in London and chooses to accept Mordinoy's offer to join his activities, even against Ada's pleas. Ernie begins to steal cars, and he is involved in apolice chase until his car collides with a truck and explodes into flames. Ada implores him to run away with her, but he does not want to leave his dying mother.
When Ernie is eventually bailed out of jail by Ike, he finds out that after the police discovered Ernie's platinumcigarette case — his birthday gift from Ma — was stolen, the police arrested Ma and put her in prison. She begs for forgiveness for shaming the family and dies in prison hospital. When he returns home, he learns via a letter from Ada that she decided to stay with Mordinoy because that would make her life easier. Ernie is crushed and walks along the street until he gets to Aggie's door and walks in.
None but the Lonely Heart,Gunga Din (1939) andSylvia Scarlett (1935) were the only films in which Cary Grant used aCockney accent,[2][3] though that was not his original accent. He was originally fromBristol.[4]
RKO Pictures headCharles Koerner boughtRichard Llewellyn's book as a starring vehicle for Cary Grant. Koerner also suggested that playwrightClifford Odets direct the picture. This was the first feature film Odets directed, and he would direct only one other picture during his career,The Story on Page One (1959). To secureEthel Barrymore's availability to complete her scenes, RKO had to pay all the expenses incurred by temporarily closing the playThe Corn Is Green, in which she was starring on Broadway.[5]
According toThe Hollywood Reporter, theEast End London road set in this film was the largest and most complete external set constructed inside asound stage at that time. The set measured 800 feet long and extended the length of two sound stages.[5]
Lela Rogers, the mother ofGinger Rogers, denounced the script ofNone but the Lonely Heart at aHouse Committee on Un-American Activities hearing as a "perfect example of the propaganda thatCommunists like to inject" and accused Odets of being a Communist. Rogers cited the line spoken by Ernie to his mother, "you're not going to get me to work here and squeeze pennies out of little people who are poorer than I am," as an example ofCommunist propaganda.[5]Hanns Eisler, who was nominated for anAcademy Award for composing the film's score, was also interrogated by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and was designated as an unfriendly witness for his refusal to cooperate.[5]
In The Nation in 1944, criticJames Agee wrote, "None But the Lonely Heart ... is an unusually sincere, almost-good film ... I suppose I should be equally impressed by the fact that the picture all but comes right out and says that it is a bad world which can permit poor people to be poor; but I was impressed rather because Odets was more interested in filling his people with life and grace than in explaining them, arguing over them, or using them as boxing-gloves."[6] British criticLeslie Halliwell was surprised, "Wildly astonishing moodpiece to come from Hollywood during World War II; its picture of East End low life is as rocky as its star performance ... "[7]Pauline Kael reported, "It was an extraordinary début film: Odets brought off some hard-earned effects with an élan that recalled Orson Welles' first movies. He also gave the material the rich melancholy of his best plays. Too much of it, however: the dirge-like, mournful fogged up atmosphere seemed fake and stagey, and the film failed at box offices. It made a pervasive, long-lasting impression, though. And as Ernie's mother ... Ethel Barrymore had perhaps her greatest screen role. In a few scenes, she and Grant touched off emotions in each other which neither of them ever showed on screen again. But he's not as vivid in the memory as she is."[8]
The film recorded a loss of $72,000.[1]
| Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Actor | Cary Grant | Nominated | [9] |
| Best Supporting Actress | Ethel Barrymore | Won | ||
| Best Film Editing | Roland Gross | Nominated | ||
| Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture | Hanns Eisler andConstantin Bakaleinikoff | Nominated | ||
| National Board of Review Awards | Best Film | Won | [10] | |
| Top Ten Films | Won | |||
| Best Acting | Ethel Barrymore | Won | ||
| June Duprez | Won | |||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
