Il sole nel cuore

I was fortunate enough to purchase one of the special edition Blu Ray versions of April Love and I could not have been happier after watching this wonderfully pleasing film with its rich color, musical renditions by crooner Pat Boone and accompanied by a very young Shirley Jones.

I wish the current film producers would take a chance on bringing back some of the story lines from the 1950's films that carry such a simple enough plot and rely on well trained actors/singers/directors and cinematographers to bring their stories to life as does April Love. This is a charming film starring Pat Boone as a somewhat troubled young man named Nick Conover, who by court order has agreed to move from his hometown big city of Chicago to temporarily live with his mother's sister, his Aunt Henrietta Bruce (Jeanette Nolan) and his Uncle Jed Bruce (Arthur O'Connell) on their somewhat run down Kentucky horse farm. Both the Judge and Nick's mother felt he had too many bad influences around Chicago and a stay on his Uncle and Aunt's Kentucky horse farm may settle him down from getting into any more serious trouble with the law.

Uncle Jed and Aunt Henrietta have recently suffered a great loss of life of their own son in the war so their nephew's unexpected stay is met with mixed emotions. Uncle Jed lays down the law with his nephew Nick that his assigned chores have to be done first before any free time is spared. Nick is initially sombre about his surroundings until he spots a run down tractor and a run down car that he could tinker with to see if he could get them running. There is also one (1) ornery horse that Uncle Ned and Aunt Henrietta have out in the pasture that they just did not have the heart to get rid of. Little did they know that their nephew Nick has a natural talent to not only fix broken down machinery but as well race their trotter back on the Kentucky Fair track that brings back a lot of happy memories for Uncle Ned and Aunt Henrietta that had disappeared more recently with the tragic loss of their son.

Ahhhhh, what a wonderful way to pass an afternoon watching this classic film. I really enjoyed this 62 year old film. It is a classic that should be playing more often on television re-runs for fans of musicals, dramas as well as horse racing enthusiasts.

I give it a 9 out of 10 rating.