Simply Perfect

Expected more

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

In sunny Santa Rita, a Southern California town, school-aged soprano Gloria Warren (as Victoria "Vicky" Scott) fancies herself a singer. She is not happy that fashion-conscious mother Kay Francis (as Marjorie "Mudge" Scott) is considering a second marriage, although it could help send Ms. Warren to an expensive professional school. Before her wedding, Ms. Francis visits ex-husband Walter Huston (as MacKenzie "Mac" Scott) in Chicago. That he is a musician and songwriter should tell you something about the film's progression. MacKenzie's "Peyton Place"-like secret is that Mr. Huston is in prison. The couple agreed to divorce after Huston was (falsely) convicted, so Francis could raise the children without shame...Then Huston receives a sudden pardon...In the higher octaves, this film can cause mental anguish. But the title song is catchy; "Always in My Heart" became a big sheet music and record hit in 1942. There is good support from Warren's cute teenage brother Frankie Thomas (as Martin "Marty" Scott), their blustery maid Una O'Connor (as Angie) and her pert preteen Patti Hale (as Booley). Huston's competition is wealthy Sidney Blackmer (as Philip Ames), while sexy Armida (as Lolita) causes trouble for young Thomas. Interesting to note Montgomery Clift played the part in Thomas Mitchell's 1935 Broadway comedy, then titled "Fly Away Home". Director Joseph "Jo" Graham does well with the street scenes, especially a rousing variation of the title that likely sent harmonica sales rising.****** Always in My Heart (3/14/42) Jo Graham ~ Gloria Warren, Kay Francis, Walter Huston, Frankie Thomas

Despite the Warners fanfare and Warners leading lady Kay Francis, it has influences of other studios. There's the multi-ethnic-music-making a la MGM; the also Metro-like mixing of highbrow and lowbrow music; the attempt to launch Gloria Warren as the studio's answer to Universal's Deanna Durbin (she's not bad, but she's not Deanna); "funny" musicians led by Borah Minevitch, sort of like RKO's Kay Kyser, or Spike Jones; and a melodramatic premise that would embarrass anybody. The small-California-town ambiance, with everybody nice to everybody, and smiling mailmen and ice cream men and such, is so dated it seems to belong to another planet. The plot, with Kay Francis planning to marry rich but unlikable Sidney Blackmer, then finding out that her convict husband Walter Huston is still alive and paroled, is absolutely ridiculous. And yet, and yet. Huston, one of the three or four best actors American movies ever had, underplays everything so beautifully that you're hooked. Watch him watch his unsuspecting kids who don't know he's their dad, or singing the appealing title song in that high, heart-tugging voice of his to his daughter, I got teary. The director pitches the emotions too high and cuts too rapidly (at times it approaches MTV pacing), and the ethnic stereotypes are grating--lots of "ot'sa fine" Italians, and just guess which harmonica player in Minevitch's band swings it hot. Not a good movie, and yet, thanks to Huston, and, to a lesser extent, the ladylike Francis (who sure knew how to wear a hat), I couldn't stop watching.

Kay Francis is mother to two children--one who is a bit of an idiot and a daughter who is constantly singing. Francis has a fiancé who loves her but obviously wants to ship her nearly adult children off to college. You can't blame him too much, especially with all the singing, but you wonder about Kay's sanity as she seems to be the only one who doesn't recognize this.Unknown to all but Kay is the fact that her dead husband isn't dead after all but is in prison. Since he was sentenced to prison for life, they both decided to tell the children he was dead and Kay was encouraged repeatedly by her husband (Walter Huston) to remarry. Huston is not your typical Hollywood prisoner, as he's a model of decency and eventually the state decides to pardon him just before Francis' wedding to her stuffy but rich boyfriend. However, Huston does NOT want to return to their lives, as he feels they have a right to continue as they are--he just doesn't want to upset their lives. But, he's also curious how his children have become so he secretly checks up on them with no intentions of letting them know who he really is. Of course, this plan has complications--otherwise, there wouldn't be much of a movie! The plot of ALWAYS IN MY HEART isn't believable but despite this, the story is quite entertaining and watchable. However, Warner Brothers' latest singing discovery, Gloria Warren, made the movie tough going. That's because her style of singing was akin to Jeanette MacDonald combined with a banshee!! One reviewer called it "screeching" and this isn't far from the truth!! I can see why this young prodigy only made a few films, as every time she sang the hair on my neck stood up and my ears burned. So my advice is if the movie comes back on TV, copy it first. Then, when you watch it, you can speed through the god-awful songs!!

A very touching story in which Kay Francis -- looking great -- is (improbably) married to Walter Huston, who's in jail.She's being courted by a rich man, but no one likes him (us included).The husband gets out of jail and, also a musician, hangs out in "Fish Town," an Italian community on the docks.It sounds corny but it works.