Lonelyhearts
Directed by Vincent J. Donehue
Written by Dore Schary from the play by Howard Teichmann and the novel by Nathaniel West
1958/USA
Dore Schary Productions
First viewing/YouTube
[box] Fay Doyle: All right, what did you call me up for? Who are you kidding? Listen, you wanted a sad story, you heard a sad story! You also wanted some action![/box]
This had its hits and misses for me. The acting made it work.
Adam White (Montgomery Clift) is a sensitive and thoroughly decent young man. He is also very smart and eager to become a writer. His immediate goal is to get a job as a reporter so he strikes up the acquaintance of Florence Shrike (Myrna Loy), wife of the city editor of a prominent daily, at the local watering hole. Finally he gets his introduction to William Shrike (Robert Ryan). Shrike is an embittered cynic.
After they match wits over ginger ale (White) and Scotch (Shrike), Adam gets his job. Unbeknownst to him, Shrike’s main motivation is to torture the young man his wife took an interest in. Shrike has still not forgiven her for an affair she had 10 years before.
So Shrike saddles White with responsibility for a new feature, a Miss Lonelyhearts advice column. The tales of woe in the letters he receives are too much for the young man to bear but Shrike offers no way out. Finally, White learns some hard lessons about his correspondents and himself. With Maureen Stapleton’s film debut as one of the letter writers and Delores Hart as White’s fiancee.
What a treat to see Myrna Loy again! She gives a heartfelt and subtle performance. For my money Loy is the best thing about this movie though all the acting was of a high standard. The problem is with the very wordy script. There are tons of speeches that ring false and a lot of predictable melodrama. Nonetheless, I had teared up by the end though I would have preferred to see the story told in the eyes of the great cast.
Maureen Stapleton was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Lonelyhearts.
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