Daily Archives: January 30, 2023

The Hasty Heart
Directed by Vincent Sherman
Written by Ranald MacDougall from a play by John Patrick
1949/UK
Associated British Picture Corporation (Warner Bros.)
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Sister Parker: He’s a foundling, his father left his mother before he was born. Do you know what that means?
Yank: He sure is!

This is a warm, sentimental film about solidarity in adversity.

The story takes place just after the end of WWII in Burma. The able-bodied are being shipped home in droves but there remain a group of wounded men in the camp hospital. Cpl. Lachlan ‘Lachie’ MacLachlan (Richard Todd) was wounded in one of the last battles. His injured kidney was removed but his remaining kidney is defective and he does not have long to live. MacLachlan is as Scottish as can be and has a very dour disposition and no friends.

Instead of telling Lachie his prognosis, the commanding officer decides to put him in a ward with five recovering men. He and ward nurse Sister Parker encourage the other patients to try to make Lachie’s last day great.

This does not start out well as Lachie does his best to alienate all the other patients. The one he irritates most is “Yank” (Ronald Regan). But everybody softens eventually.

I enjoyed this movie. It contains one of Patricia Neal’s first screen performances. She is good as always but has not developed her distinctive persona yet. Richard Todd earned a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar Nomination.

The Secret Garden
Directed by Fred M. Wilcox
Written by Robert Ardrey from a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett
1949/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Mary Lennox: Dickon, I need you. All you have to do is listen. What good is a secret if there’s no one to tell it to?

It is an adaptaion of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s children’s novel and might make good family viewing.

Mary Lennox’s (Margaret O’Brien) parents die of cholera in India and she is sent to live with her Uncle Craven (Herbert Marshall) in his huge creepy mansion. Her crotchety uncle wants to have as little to do with Mary as possible. Mary doesn’t care as she is rude and spoiled herself.

Eventually she locates her uncle’s son (Dean Stockwell) in the vast house and discovers he is very spoiled and manipulates people by feigning illnesses.

Dickon , brother of a housemaid, tells Mary of a secret garden behind a high wall which has no apparent entrance. A sympathetic raven finds the key. The remainder of the film is devoted to the childrens’ adventures, which humanize and humble all concerned. With Elsa Lanchester as a cheeky maid.

I’ve never read the book. Probably would have got more out of the movie if I had. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Margaret O’Brien play a brat but she is really good at it.