The Secret Heart

October 2024 · 4 minute read

Heart is more than just a suspenseful thriller. Based on an original story by Rose Franken and William Brown Meloney, the film presents in honest fashion a tale of a young girl with a father fixation that might have been taken from an actual case history.

Heart is more than just a suspenseful thriller. Based on an original story by Rose Franken and William Brown Meloney, the film presents in honest fashion a tale of a young girl with a father fixation that might have been taken from an actual case history.

Tale revolves around a rich widow and her two stepchildren, a boy just out of the navy and a college-age girl. Latter, an excellent pianist, is in love with the memory of her father, who taught her to play. Her only interest, consequently, is to shut out the rest of the world by locking herself in a room and playing for him. On the advice of a psychiatrist, the widow takes her brood to the family farm where the father had committed suicide. There the girl begins to come out of her shell but then undergoes another deep emotional upset.

In a role that’s a far cry from her usual song-and-dance parts, June Allyson gives out with what’s undoubtedly the best emoting of her career. Claudette Colbert is fine as the young widow, with her flair for comedy helping to lighten the film’s heavy mood. Walter Pidgeon, as the guy she’s been in love with all the time, is his usual suave, competent self.

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The Secret Heart

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