The Astonished Heart (film)
| The Astonished Heart | |
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| Directed by | Terence Fisher |
| Produced by | Antony Darnborough |
| Written by | Noël Coward |
| Starring |
Celia Johnson Noël Coward Margaret Leighton |
| Music by | Noël Coward William Blezard (uncredited) |
| Cinematography | Jack Asher |
| Edited by | Vladimir Sagovsky |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | General Film Distributors (UK) |
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Release date
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March 1950 (UK) |
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Running time
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85 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | £93,000 (by 1953) 21,168 admissions (France) |
The Astonished Heart is a 1950 British drama film directed by Terence Fisher. It stars Celia Johnson, Noël Coward, and Margaret Leighton, and is based on Coward's play The Astonished Heart from his cycle of ten plays, Tonight at 8:30.
Inspired by the great success of the 1945 film Brief Encounter, which also had been adapted from Tonight at 8:30, Coward agreed to have The Astonished Heart produced as a motion picture. As with the previous film, Coward also wrote the screenplay. Production began in 1949 and featured not only Noël Coward in one of his rare film appearances, but also actor-singer Graham Payn in a supporting role. The Astonished Heart was released in 1950 to indifferent reviews and was a commercial failure.
The film follows the growing obsession of a psychiatrist (Coward) for a good-time girl (Leighton) and the resulting tragedy this leads to. The doctor quotes Deuteronomy 28, Verse 28: "The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart," foreshadowing his path while making reference to the movie title.
"The May-December affair between a psychiatrist and young blond destroys his seemingly blissful relationship with his wife" [This TV]. In the end, Dr. Christian Faber's obsession with his beautiful mistress, Leanora Vail, leads him to commit suicide by jumping from the roof of the apartment building where he lived with his wife and conducted business with his partner Tim and assistant Susan. He lives long enough to ask for Leanora, yet, does not know it is her thinking it is his wife (Barbara) instead, then says a few words and dies.
In July 1948, Sydney Box, head of Gainsborough Studios, paid £10,000 to Noël Coward to script four plays from Tonight at Eight Thirty and a revue, Nothing New. Box was happy with the script for Astonished Heart and put it into production with Michael Redgrave in the lead, with Coward's approval. Coward returned from Jamaica a week into filming, saw the rushes, and demanded Redgrave be sacked. Coward's contract gave him the power to do this. He then persuaded J. Arthur Rank to allow Coward to take over the lead role for a fee of £15,000.
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