It had been some time since I'd last seen this movie and reviewed it, so I watched it again this weekend. Surprisingly, the film definitely improved when seen a second time, though I must still admit that this film was a serious misfire for Cary Grant--almost as bad as his decision to make ONCE UPON A TIME--also in 1944.
Cary plays a character perhaps more like he was in real life. Born "Archie Leach" to working class parents, Cary for once gets to play a character more akin to his roots--not the suave and sophisticated upper or middle-class swell. Here in NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART, he plays a cockney guy in a film without a single cockney (or similar) accent!! His mother is played by Ethel Barrymore (an American) and one of his lady friends is Jane Wyatt (also an American). Barry Fitzgerald probably sounds closest to a cockney, but he's Irish. There were a few Brits on board as well (including Grant) but they all sounded too prim and proper and the total effect was "London-like"--having some of the attributes of the city but mostly seeming like a Hollywood back lot. Now considering that the city was in the midst of the Blitz, I really can't completely blame them, but so little effort was made in getting the details right that it annoyed me.
As for the story, it was interesting and quite a stretch--but it also ended on such a vague and unsatisfying note that I am not a big fan of the film. Depressing and at times seemingly pointless, it is nevertheless an interesting portrait of a very complex character--who is far more than what first meets the eye. Overall, an interesting failure with enough about it to make it a decent time-passer or a curio for the curious.
Cary plays a character perhaps more like he was in real life. Born "Archie Leach" to working class parents, Cary for once gets to play a character more akin to his roots--not the suave and sophisticated upper or middle-class swell. Here in NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART, he plays a cockney guy in a film without a single cockney (or similar) accent!! His mother is played by Ethel Barrymore (an American) and one of his lady friends is Jane Wyatt (also an American). Barry Fitzgerald probably sounds closest to a cockney, but he's Irish. There were a few Brits on board as well (including Grant) but they all sounded too prim and proper and the total effect was "London-like"--having some of the attributes of the city but mostly seeming like a Hollywood back lot. Now considering that the city was in the midst of the Blitz, I really can't completely blame them, but so little effort was made in getting the details right that it annoyed me.
As for the story, it was interesting and quite a stretch--but it also ended on such a vague and unsatisfying note that I am not a big fan of the film. Depressing and at times seemingly pointless, it is nevertheless an interesting portrait of a very complex character--who is far more than what first meets the eye. Overall, an interesting failure with enough about it to make it a decent time-passer or a curio for the curious.