Always in My Heart

I hadn't seen this film for years, and then I only remembered parts of it. The parts I did remember were the dialogue scenes between Kay Francis and estranged hubby Walter Huston, and between Huston and the children who do not know him. This part of the film is very good and made me want to see it again.

When I saw it again the other night for the first time in years on TCM I was horrified. Worse, I was somewhat bored. Either I never saw or my memory blocked out the musical portions. Obviously, Warner Bros. was trying to turn Gloria Warren into their own Deanna Durbin, but she just lacked the "star quality" Durbin had and was a completely uninteresting actress, at least in this film.

The film could have been a great one if the music had been eliminated and the focus kept on the melodrama - a man (Walter Huston) getting out of prison and giving up a woman who loves him and his children so they can all have some security with a rather bland fellow who wants to marry the woman (Kay Francis). Instead, Huston paces from the "good" side of town where we are tormented by Warren's operatic screeching, to the bad side of town where a novelty harmonica band act torments us some more. Just goes to proves bad music has a home in both the low-brow and high-brow varieties.

What gets five stars from me is the warm family story and the title song, "Always In My Heart" which is really quite beautiful and a bit of a theme song for the entire situation portrayed in the film.

If you want to see what Kay Francis and Walter Huston can do for a film without all of this distraction thrown in, try to track down a copy of "Gentlemen of the Press". There they really sizzle.

Walter Huston and Kay Francis starred in this 1942 film.

Ms. Francis plays a middle class woman with 2 children, who supposedly is widowed. Wealthy Sidney Blackmer wishes to marry her.

It turns out that she is not widowed. She divorced her husband after he was sent to prison for killing a man. Both children have been told that their father is dead.

As Huston is about to be pardoned, Francis arrives at the prison to tell him that she is remarrying. Thinking only of her happiness and security for their children, Huston does not tell Francis of the pardon but instead encourages the marriage.

Huston, upon release, settles in a fishing area around San Francisco. Of course, he meets his children but says nothing.

Naturally, the children find out what they are and the film ends where he saves his son from a drunk and daughter, when she goes out in a storm in a boat.

There are some musical interludes in this as the daughter is training to be an opera singer. Huston does a little singing and there are several sequences where groups of fishermen turn to their harmonicas.

Walter Huston, Kay Francis and Gloria Warren star in "Always in My Heart," a 1942 film featuring Sidney Blackmer, Frankie Thomas and Una O'Connor. Francis plays "Mudge," a woman whose ex-husband (Huston) is in prison. She is getting ready to marry again, this time to a wealthy man, Philip (Blackmer). Her daughter Vicky (Warren) doesn't care for him, but her son (Marty (Thomas) likes his money.

Mudge goes to see her former husband, a talented musician, in prison to tell him that if there's any chance of a pardon, she'll wait for him; he lies and says there's no chance, although he already has one (he was innocently involved in a shady business deal; a fight broke out, and a man died). He wants her to remarry and the kids to be taken care of. The children have been told he's dead.

When he's released, he goes into their home town to get a look at the kids and ends up staying in "Fish Town," an Italian community, where he works and plays his music. It's through music that he bonds with Vicky, who wants to be a singer. Meanwhile, he watches his son, who is dating a street smart woman who's a little older than he is and becomes concerned.

This is a very sweet film with some enjoyable music and operatic singing by Warren. With the success of Deanna Durbin, the studios apparently all scrambled for their own version.

Warren had a well-trained, small coloratura voice that had a very high sound to it (everything she sang sounded as if it started about an octave higher than anyone else's music), the kind of voice very popular back in the days of the French soprano, Lily Pons. She was dark and pretty with a certain appeal, but the voice didn't have the versatility of Durbin's, nor was she as charismatic.

Huston, of course, does a beautiful job as her father. Francis looks fantastic and gives a lovely performance. Warner Brothers was just about to dump her. Una O'Connor is very funny as the housekeeper, and while some may have found her annoying, I thought Patti Hale, who played O'Connor's granddaughter, was adorable.

If you're a Kay Francis fan, a Walter Huston fan, or an opera fan, you should enjoy "Always in my Heart."

So I'm a sentimentalist who doesn't mind what could be considered corny when John Huston's ease and authenticity reels me into caring about some other characters too. Other reviewers have relayed the plot very well. To me the story isn't earth-shattering but nor is it trite. The people are worth knowing, the music is entertaining and most of all there's a sweetness to an unpredictably predictable resolution. Good escapism on a rainy afternoons.

This movie is enjoyable except for the singing. I don't understand what people were thinking in the forties. How anyone could find the high pitched screeching enjoyable is beyond me. TMC seems to play the screechers early in the morning. I think it may be a fiendish plot of some kind. A strange mix of humor, tragedy, opera and cornball situations. But like I said, it is enjoyable. Just block out the screeching. Keep your thumb at the ready by the mute button. By the way, there must be a hundred harmonica players in this film. The harmonicas/screeching is a bizarre mix. In the middle of it all, there is some decent acting. The little girl, I am not sure of the familial connection, is a real cutie.