Lonelyhearts

source: Lonelyhearts

Moviecut—Lonelyhearts

There is some clever dialog in this screenplay. Editor Robert Ryan to reporter Jacky Cooper: "You're as important to this newspaper as my tonsils, which I lost some forty years ago." And to his wife, Myrna Loy, "Sleep dwell upon thy breast, for I shall not." Sounds like the Bard but it's original. He does insinuate a phrase from "As You Like It" later on, about readers "mewling and puking". He sneaks in Pope too: "Hope springs eternal," and even paraphrases Pliny the Elder, "Dreams are the pillars that hold up our lives." But then Ryan's character speaks this way throughout, acidic, witty, faux elegant, cheerfully cynical. It's the kind of speech usually reserved for Clifton Webb or other supercilious poufs. However, Ryan's character is far from a self-satisfied snob. He's angry beyond imagining. He can't forgive his wife's brief affair of ten years ago. He drinks too much. He's about to pop like a zit. Ryan's intense performances gives the editor's character almost more bitterness than the viewer can handle. Not all the dialog is so ornate. Maureen Stapleton to Clift, whom she has just aggressively seduced but who now is so guilt-ridden that he doesn't want to meet her again: "Listen! What did you call me up for? What did you want? You wanted some ACTION -- and so did I!" Or so original. Clift's girl friend, Dolores Hart: "I want to know your every thought. I love you." "Has anybody ever figured out how many tears you cry in a lifetime?" Clift: "I know I can never run away from myself." But back to the movie. It's not at all bad if it's approach as a morality play. Ryan hires novice Clift to write the "Miss Lonelyhearts" column for the Gazette or the Chronicle or the Picayune or whatever it is. At first, Clift and the rest of the staff ridicule the agony in the letters but Clift begins to be affected by what he sees as genuine misery and Ryan sees as just so much fakery. The editor challenges Clift. Go out and meet one of these whiners. It's Maureen Stapleton in a fine performance and she makes mincemeat out of Clift's principles. Clift's bourgeois girl friend, Dolores Hart, shuns his company and Ryan gloats. There is a nearly lethal confrontation at the end and everything is resolved, more or less. Clift by this time was pounding a lot of booze, carrying around a thermos bottle of grapefruit juice and vodka, but he does well enough by the role of the naive reporter, hunched over, blinking, heaving his body slowly up and down. Dolores Hart is beautiful in a perfectly conventional way. She was to become a nun shortly. It may have been a good move because she looks and sounds more like television than feature films. A little gratuitous nudity wouldn't have hurt before her departure. Mike Kellin adds a lot as a relaxed, chipper, stoic reporter. If the movie has a problem it's that it's over-written. It sounds like the stage play it was. Nobody talks like Robert Ryan's character. Nobody even knows who the hell Pliny the Elder was. It's schematic, full of episodic lessons about empathy and treachery, a sour movie overall. Nothing is wasted. In this respect it's different from a more naturalistic movie about newspapers. See "All The President's Men" for a convincing portrait of journalistic dynamics and character development. I don't mean to sound too harsh. It's a good movie, and portrays no more dismal a view of human nature than Nathaniel West's other works. West was like a grown-up Holden Caulfield. For what it's worth, the sociologist Erving Goffman quoted the line about a girl having no nose in his book dealing with deformities, "Stigma."

I noticed that some of the opening scenes were filmed in Sacramento CA, as the Hotel Berry (now a SRO place) is correctly about a half a block from the downtown Greyhound station! Very interesting! I also thought that Clift's character when he is interacting with Maureen Stapleton's character was somewhat overshadowed by her. Yes, this is her introductory role, but I think it could have been improved on a little. I also liked her in the movie "REDS", with Warren Beatty, but her portrayal of Emma Thompson is MUCH different than the rather whiny wife in here. You can see here that Robert Ryan had aged considerably from his younger roles, unless that's due to a really good makeup job.

Much of this film is easy to like...it's just too bad that the sum of these parts don't add up to make a great film. However, despite its many flaws, the film is often interesting and nearly earns a 7. The film begins with Montgomery Clift sitting in a bar--talking with Myrna Loy. It seems that she is the wife of a newspaper editor and Clift wants a job--so he's cultivated her friendship. However, so far, all his attempts to meet with her husband to talk about a job have come to naught--until the husband, Robert Ryan, enters the bar. During this initial meeting, it's soon obvious that Ryan is an abrasive man--and one of the most contemptibly cynical men I've ever seen in film. Each and every word he spoke dripped with disdain and sarcasm--and he was a very easy person to hate. One reviewer felt this was too easy a role for Ryan, as he did play quite a few characters similar to this. However, none were ever this horrible and it still didn't change the fact that his character was electrifying and created a strong visceral hatred within the audience--now THAT'S effective. Despite Ryan being a jerk, he decides to give Clift a chance on the paper. At first, it's inexplicable--why would such a nasty piece of work do something nice? However, later you learn that he's given Clift a job partly to mess with his mind and partly to make sure that this happy and optimistic man (Clift) could be ruined--made into a cynic as well. How he intended to do it is to give Clift the "lonelyhearts" column to do--figuring all the hard-luck stories he'll read about will crush his optimism. While this doesn't exactly happen, Clift does take the job very seriously...too seriously. He is torn apart and tormented by the stories and his inability to solve these problems---and Ryan has a ball watching him suffer! And, if you've seen many Clift films, you'll know that he was an actor who seemed to love to suffer--playing similar characters in quite a few films. There's a lot more to the story than that this, but I don't want to ruin it by saying a lot more. Some aspects of the film worked very well. Ryan and Loy made for a fascinating couple--despite their age difference (which was handled well by powdering Ryan's hair a bit). His nastiness and her quiet misery was something to see! Clift, also, was quite good. However, there was a huge casting problem in the film. Clift's girlfriend (Delored Hart) was completely wrong for the film. Part of it was just bad casting. Ms. Hart appeared to be only about 17 years-old (though she was actually 20) and with Clift looking significantly older (particularly since this film was made after his serious car accident which took away much of his boyish good looks--and looking at least 35), they were a strange couple. It's made a lot worse by the writing for her character, as, at times, she acts like a 17 year-old and is a very weak person in the film--way too weak to have possibly been the partner of a strong but quiet Clift. He was simply too bright, too strong-willed and too deep for such a shallow girlfriend. Another problem with the film is that although it often seemed gritty and cynical (especially when it came to the plot involving the vicious and manipulative lady played by Maureen Stapleton) and at other times the film seemed way too idealistic and silly--such as at the end, when the horrible Ryan inexplicably changes character. This simply would not happen in real life--especially with so little provocation. It seemed more like a plot device than a realistic portrait. Overall, while the film has many shortcomings, it also is quite intriguing and worth seeing--if you can look past its limitations.

A very fragile Montgomery Clift (the first film after his car accident) plays an aspiring newspaper writer. He ends up working for a very cynical Robert Ryan, and ends up getting involved with a very desperate Maureen Stapleton. Ryan puts him to work writing an advice column, & Clift ends up getting too emotionally involved. A good performance by Clift, but Ryan is the scene-stealer, in part because it seems he was given the best lines. A sub-par performance by Myrna Loy. Also Jackie Coogan.

I was so impressed (and depressed) by this movie, I wanted to comment on it immediately. Guess what? I had to contact IMDb so they could re-post it to their site. So, this is written a couple of weeks prior to TCM's broadcast. I didn't know the film existed, as most of today's general public most likely doesn't. I agree that Montgomery Cliff ("Adam") was hard-put to get through his work. I have always been aware of the miseries in his life and the pain he experienced. On the other hand, it is perhaps because of these difficulties that he could project such a great range of "emotions" this movie required. One user didn't think he deserved his reputation of having been one of the talented actors of early film, because he hadn't made a 1,000 of them. A great performance is a great performance, even if it were the only one given. To view a variety of different roles by an actor/actress is wonderful; however, you can't deny the reality of a single, great performance. How many actors/actresses we've watched grow-up in movies who didn't change from novice to a skilled performer? Studio politics.... Montgmery Cliff was exactly what this role called-for: his role detailed minutely the emotions of true life many people experience. The fabulous comparison of the absolutely "normal" life-style of "The Sargeants" (Dolores Hart and Frank Overton, and the family's young boys) to the misery - and total drabness- of "Adam's" life was well done by screen-writer Dore Schary and director Vincent Donahue. This IS a soap-opera, but a good done. Robert Ryan ("William Shrike") was masterful: his role was intended to be cynical, and he was cruelly so. Myrna Loy ("Florence Shrike") was a picture of a long-suffering, verbally-abused-but-loving wife. T'ain't fun! Dolores Hart ("Justy Sargeant") gave a skillful performance as a young woman craving a happy marriage - and attempting to support a confused lover - while raising her father's children. Maureen Stapleton ("Fay Doyle") was superb in a tortured wife's dilemma. Her mean-but-loving husband (Frank Maxwell) didn't miss a beat. I still can't recognize what character Jackie Coogan played. "The story" - lots of them in here - of this plot is the star. John Alton's dreary cinematography was perfect for the unhappy tale. Not one user mentioned the great scene between "Justy" and "dad Sargeant", when he told her she had to make her own life and let her family do the best it could without her. The scene in which "Adam" 'fessed-up to "Justy" about his dad having killed his mother - and his trips were to prison, not for business - was stellar. I wouldn't want an iota of "LonelyHearts" changed - most great films come from great novels (or stage-plays), so one has to expect changes to evolve. Judgment on THE MOVIE is what we're discussing here, and "LonelyHearts" delivered its message diamond-cut clearly. I am so glad the obstacles which kept people from forgiving (or being forgiven) to achieve happiness came at the end of this movie.......actual life is not always so kind. If you missed any of these miseries, count yourself to be lucky. You cannot buy "LonelyHearts" on any media, so far as I know. I'll be first-in-line for the DVD. Do yourself a favor and view it whenever you can. Every individual should know the pitfalls of all-too-often lives. I rate it a 20 - Bravo !

In view of some of the comments categorizing this film as unsatisfying soap opera, it all depends on what you're looking for. If what you want are excellent performances from a superior cast, then this is your kind of movie. Robert Ryan gives his typical outstanding performance as an extremely cynical newspaper editor who inflicts his particular brand of misery to the full on his long-suffering wife, beautifully portrayed by Myrna Loy. Maureen Stapleton is electrifying in her movie debut and received a well-deserved Oscar nomination for her riveting performance. Montomgery Clift's fragility works to his advantage here as an advice columnist whose sensitivity runs a little too deep. The haunted eyes and pained expressions perfectly match what the character in this situation would realistically feel and express. Overall, a nicely done, well-photographed film that is sure to hold the attention and is definitely worth the time to find and view.

I liked the movie and the one thing about it that I didn't like was Monty. He was too old by at least 15 years for the part, the girl and the hurt. The hurt was a young man's hurt. Robert Ryan had the lock on the mature man's regret and Monty was supposed to be at the front end of the voyage but having been acting and living in bathos for all his life,he was too well seasoned. Instead of a boy whose dad had left him wounded and who was going to emerge from this transformed and transforming, he was Monty front and center and always. I loved Ms. Hart's Justy. Now there's a characterization who developed and a person who was and became. Ryan was once a boy, became a hard and then a bitter man and perhaps regained a bit of himself at the end. Ms. Loy, well-faded but true, a lodestar who was beyond much but hope, the inverse of Ms. Stapleton but in some ways more than that and the true core of the film in that she was a Lonelyheart even though she had material comfort. I'll admit it, I liked Monty in some of his roles but in this,he is terribly miscast. He might have pulled it off before we learned too much about him and his self-pity but alas, the part and the actor met too late. At bottom, his compassion for others here, as in in almost every other role, was just self-pity writ large.

This film is sad waste of some very talented people here. But I think the script was bad and it was probably butchered in the editing department. This has a Tennessee Williams feel to it. Give these people some southern accents and it could pass superficially for something Tennessee Williams might have done. I wish he had done it. Monty Clift is a young writer hired by newspaper editor Robert Ryan on a recommendation by his wife Myrna Loy. But Loy and Ryan have a tempestuous marriage. Ryan assigns him a new lonelyhearts column, so he can be a local Ann Landers. Unfortunately Clift gets way too involved in his work both emotionally and physically. There was obviously some footage missing at least to my eye that would have explained exactly what Loy's and Clift's relationship was. The film opens in a bar hangout for newspapermen and it is there Clift is introduced to Ryan. Ryan's antipathy to Clift is also not well explained. We know he's a cynic and he's got some great lines in the script, but his motivation for tormenting Clift who he recognizes as a sensitive soul are really not fathomable. Monty Clift oozed sensitivity from his very pores. So this role is one he can act with no stretch of his marvelous talent. But he should have been given something better to work with. Maureen Stapleton made her screen debut as a sad sack writer to the Lonelyheart column. She's very good indeed along with her husband Frank Maxwell. There relationship eerily parallels Loy's and Ryan's. For fans of the cast members see it, but for others it will be disappointing.