Dear Heart

88/100. An exceptional, and I feel a very underrated film with Geraldine Page giving an outstanding and unforgettable performance. She gives the character of Evie so many personal nuances and touches. She really is amazing. Angela Lansbury is also incredible in a supporting role, and nails the character with confidence and style. A lot of the smaller characters are television staples, Richard Deacon, Hal Smith, Ruth McDevitt and Alice Pearce. Barbara Nichols gives a very memorable and funny performance as the woman at the concessions counter.

It is a wonderfully simple and uncomplicated story. Delbert Mann does a superb job with his subtle direction. Very well written with deeply developed characters you care about. Glenn Ford is quite good in a warm and subtle performance. A very special gem of a film.

A lonely and single woman look for love and companionship in New York City at a postmasters' convention. This sweet film brought tears to my eyes watching it. Dear Heart was wonderfully acted by Geraldine Page, Glenn Ford, and Angela Lansbury. It was a delight to watch.

The lives of a woman and man intersect at a New York hotel in this sentimental story from 1964. Glenn Ford plays Harry Mork, a traveling salesman who has decided to slow down and settle down after years of schmoozing, boozing and extracurricular intrigues. Geraldine Page plays Evie Jackson, a small-town postal worker who annually visits the big cities for the industry convention and a chance to let loose a little and take in the sights.

Evie is the person who has never met a stranger. Outwardly she is an eternal optimist and delights in knowing everyone's names, as if that knowledge makes them friends. Under the surface, though, she might be "Miss Lonelyhearts" from Hitchcock's "Rear Window" in a few years, if her life situation doesn't resolve into a satisfactory conclusion. Ms. Page's portrayal of Evie is so fascinating that she dominates the film. Frankly, my attention is always riveted to the screen when this film plays, even though I know how it turns out. As others have pointed out, this is a performance worthy of an Oscar.

The screenplay is very well written, allowing the viewer to observe every aspect of the characters, learning their way of life, their fears, and even their hidden dreams. The acting is good across the board. The end result is very satisfying, especially for viewers who can identify with the emotional vulnerability of the two main characters.

Perhaps it was the fact she'd already received three nominations. She would eventual be nominated for 8, putting her in 8th place behind only Streep, Hepburn, Nicholson, Davis, Olivier, Newman and Tracy which is pretty impressive territory! She would win one. Or perhaps it was just the strong year for actresses with Sophia Loren in "Marriage Italian Style", Anne Bancroft in "The Pumpkin Eater", Kim Stanley in "Séance on a Wet Afternoon", Debbie Reynolds in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", or eventual winner Julie Andrews in "Mary Poppins", but I believe Geraldine Page's performance here is the equal of any 1964 female film performance. Her character Evie is one of the most sympathetic ever recorded and Page's expert portrayal captures the hearts of the audience. Along for the ride is the vastly underrated Glenn Ford and the always watchable Barbara Nichols. Too bad we didn't see more of her along with contemporaries Hope Holiday and Sue Ann Langdon. I wish there was more on this site about all three. "Dear Heart" was not intended as a blockbuster and as 1960s films go, it was more or less a "B" picture. But the film features excellent writing, a believable storyline, excellent performances, and a captivating score by Henry Mancini.

I note that a DVD version of this charming film is available in Great Britain, but not here . (Our VHS version is not in stock from one major source and one wonders if the British DVD is also out-of-stock.) This title boasts two truly fine actresses, Geraldine Page and Angela Lansbury (although the latter has little more than a cameo, of which she makes the most, as always), plus a wonderful supporting cast as well. Ordinarily I've found Glenn Ford to be rather dull in several of his big screen performances but in this one I recall finding him well-suited to his role and giving an entirely sympathetic and amusing account of himself opposite Ms. Page in a role she obviously relished.

With a well-remembered theme song and a nice music score by the prolific Henry Mancini, there's probably no danger of this one being remade, I suspect, and, since it's close to perfect in this original telling, let's just hope that a DVD release will eventually allow us to revisit the qualities that made it genuinely appealing for mature audiences forty years ago and, I feel sure, still would today.