CLOSE TO MY HEART
US, 1951, 90 minutes, Black and white.
Ray Milland, Gene Tierney, Fay Bainter, Howard St. John, Mary Beth Hughes.
Directed by William Keighley.
Close to My Heart is a pleasing soap opera romance. The film is quite touching as well as probing in its presentation for a wide audience.
Gene Tierney is attractive as the mother; Ray Milland strong as the father. There is good support from the sympathetic Fay Bainter as the Officer for Adoptions. Direction is by William Keighley, director of many action films at Warners in the 130s and '40s (including The Adventures of Robin Hood).
The film takes a theme that is perennially relevant and treats it in the popular style of its time.
1. An interesting and entertaining melodrama? Soap opera material? Treatment? Persuasive? In its time? Now?
2. Warner Bros. production values: black and white photography, atmosphere of the average American family? Work? Adoption agencies? The Max Steiner score?
3. The title and indications of sentiment? The sentiment of the film? Sentimentality?
4. The portrait of Midge and Brad? Midge's wanting to have a child, the interview with the doctor, her acceptance of the impossibility? Brad's encouragement? The gift of the dog? The decision to adopt a child? The visit to the agency and the long wait? The question of Danny? Midge's enthusiasm, her discussions with Mrs Morrow, her going over to see the baby? The decision that the baby could be theirs? Her love and care for it? The typical situations with baby care? Brad and his work, the Kincaid situation and his concern about family background? His tracking down the mother, the interview with the father in San Quentin? The repercussions on both of them? The child being taken back? His moving fight for the child, his tears with Mrs Morrow? The happy reunion? The comic touch at the end with the baby - and how many teeth? An authentic portrait of a couple, their love, their concern?
5. The situation of adoption: the agencies, the care in interrogating the parents, the visits to the home, discussions about attitudes, the child as something for the wife, the attitude of the husband? Parenting? The personnel of the agency. the visit by Midge and Brad, the discussions about Danny's being found, adoption? Mrs. Morrow and her stances? Sympathy? Trying to make the right decision? Her decision for the couple?
6. The Kincaid situation - the newspaper story of the criminal record of the adopted child? Mrs Morrow's explanation that the adoptive parents, knowing the background, treated the boy differently, thus influencing him? The search for Martha Lawrence, the interview with the prostitute, Martha's giving birth, her death? Brad's newspaper detective work, finding where she came from, the visit to the town, discovering that she was a teacher? The discovery of the husband, his being in San Quentin - his murders, his brutality? Brad's reaction? The theory of social environment shaping character rather than heredity? Persuasively explained? Its validity?
7. The film's portrait of domestic life, the workplace and the back ground of newspapers? Audiences identifying with the couple, with their search for the child, with their decisions?
