Dear Heart | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Delbert Mann |
Produced by | Martin Manulis |
Written by | Tad Mosel |
Starring |
Glenn Ford Geraldine Page Angela Lansbury Michael Anderson, Jr. Barbara Nichols |
Music by | Henry Mancini |
Cinematography | Russell Harlan |
Edited by | Folmar Blangsted |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date
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Running time
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113 min |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Dear Heart is a 1964 American romantic comedy film starring Glenn Ford and Geraldine Page as lonely middle-aged people who fall in love at a hotel convention. It was directed by Delbert Mann, from a screenplay by Tad Mosel. Its theme song, "Dear Heart", was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Evie Jackson (Geraldine Page) is a middle-aged, single postmaster from Ohio who is attending a postmasters' convention at a New York City hotel. Outgoing, honest, and somewhat tactless, she has many friends but pines for a romantic relationship, one that will be more meaningful than the flings she has had with married conventioneers in previous years. She uses various means to make herself feel less lonely and more important, such as sending herself a welcome message and having herself paged in the hotel lobby.
Harry Mork (Glenn Ford) is a womanizing former traveling salesman for a greeting card company, who now wishes to settle down. Harry has accepted a promotion to an office job in New York City, and has gotten engaged to Phyllis (Angela Lansbury), a middle-aged widowed housewife from Altoona, Pennsylvania. Harry is staying alone in the same hotel as Evie while he starts his new job and finds an apartment, where Phyllis, who is still back in Altoona, will later join him. While Harry is checking in, Phyllis's son Patrick (Michael Anderson, Jr.) suddenly arrives, seeking to bond with his new father. Harry is surprised to find that Patrick is not the young boy he had expected based on a photograph, but instead is an 18-year-old bohemian with a beard (which, it is later revealed, got him expelled from school). Harry is mildly annoyed by Patrick's unexpected arrival and embarrassed by his casual attitude towards women, sex and nudity, particularly after Patrick moves into Harry's hotel room with his purportedly platonic female friend, Émile Zola Bernkrand (Joanna Crawford).