The Secret Heart
- December 25, 1946 (1946-12-25)
The Secret Heart is a 1946 American drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring Claudette Colbert, Walter Pidgeon and June Allyson.
Plot
Lee (Claudette Colbert) is engaged to marry Larry Addams (Richard Derr), a spendthrift widower with two children, son Chase (Robert Sterling) and daughter Penny (June Allyson). Lee had been living in England with her guardian aunt, who didn't approve of the match since Larry was an alcoholic, and while returning to America on an ocean liner, she meets Chris Matthews (Walter Pidgeon), a close friend of Larry's. Despite her loving feelings for Chris, she marries Larry, and moves to his farm in Rhode Island. Larry's talent is playing the piano, which he teaches Penny, but he gave up this ambition to work in a bank, to please his father. This frustrated ambition has ruined his life, and over the next two years Lee tries to confront his alcoholism, while trying to win Penny's confidence. While Lee is out for the night with Chris, Larry dies, his body found at the bottom of a cliff. He had committed suicide after two years of marriage, and on his death, it is reported that Larry had embezzled money from his clients. Lee sends Chris away and moves the family away from the farm, to New York where she takes a job to pay off Larry's debts, and withholds the truth from Penny, wanting to shield her from the stigma of scandal. Penny makes a hero out of Larry, who she believes died of a heart attack, and is unable to embrace Lee, who is now left to look after them alone.
Ten years later, Penny, who behaves strangely, has dropped out of school and plays the piano incessantly for her father's memory when nobody else is around, is the patient of psychiatrist Dr. Rossiger. Lee goes to see him, concerned about Penny's behaviour, and the story up to this point is recalled in flashback. The doctor advises that they move back to the farm for the summer, since that is where the death occurred, and he believes that confronting the past will help cure Penny. Chase returns from the navy after three years and seeks a job with Chris, who now owns a shipyard. He introduces Penny to his navy friend Brandon Reynolds. They all move to the farm, together with Chase's friend Kay Burns, where Chris reenters Lee's life after a ten-year absence, and Lee realizes that it was Chris she loved all along and let get away. Once at the farm, Penny becomes disenchanted with her father's memory when Chase tells her the truth, and becomes despondent, feeling that Chris is the only person she can confide in. Although Brandon is interested in Penny, she loves Chris, and is devastated when she finds him in Lee's arms. Penny then tries to kill herself by jumping off a cliff, as Larry had done, but Lee intervenes in time to prevent it. The healing process begins and when Lee tells Penny the complete story of her father's life, Penny is finally able to embrace Lee. At the end Penny graduates, having adopted Chris as her father, and resumes her romance with Brandon.
Cast
- Claudette Colbert as Leola 'Lee' Addams
- Walter Pidgeon as Chris Matthews
- June Allyson as Penny Addams
- Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Rossiger
- Robert Sterling as Chase N. Addams
- Marshall Thompson as Brandon Reynolds
- Elizabeth Patterson as Mrs. Stover
- Richard Derr as Larry Addams
- Patricia Medina as Kay Burns
- Eily Malyon as Miss Hunter
- Dwayne Hickman as Chase (as a Child)
Reception
The film earned $2,591,000 in the US and Canada and $1,309,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $891,000.[1][2]
References
- ^ a b c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
- ^ "Top Grossers of 1947", Variety, 7 January 1948 p 63
External links
- The Secret Heart at the TCM Movie Database
- The Secret Heart at IMDb
- The Secret Heart at AllMovie
- The Secret Heart at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- v
- t
- e
- The Master Key (1914)
- The Ruby Circle (1914)
- Christmas Memories (1915)
- Judge Not (1915)
- The Love Girl (1916)
- Secret Love (1916)
- The Crippled Hand (1916)
- The Eagle's Wings (1916)
- Little Eve Edgarton (1916)
- The Plow Girl (1916)
- On Record (1917)
- A Mormon Maid (1917)
- The Primrose Ring (1917)
- At First Sight (1917)
- Princess Virtue (1917)
- Face Value (1918)
- The Bride's Awakening (1918)
- Danger, Go Slow (1918)
- Her Body in Bond (1918)
- Modern Love (1918)
- The Big Little Person (1919)
- The Delicious Little Devil (1919)
- The Scarlet Shadow (1919)
- What Am I Bid? (1919)
- The Way of a Woman (1919)
- The Miracle of Love (1919)
- April Folly (1920)
- The Restless Sex (1920)
- Stronger Than Death (1920)
- The Gilded Lily (1921)
- Heedless Moths (1921)
- Peacock Alley (1922)
- Fascination (1922)
- Broadway Rose (1922)
- Jazzmania (1923)
- Fashion Row (1923)
- The French Doll (1923)
- Mademoiselle Midnight (1924)
- Circe, the Enchantress (1924)
- Love's Wilderness (1924)
- Cheaper to Marry (1925)
- Time, the Comedian (1925)
- Bright Lights (1925)
- Dance Madness (1926)
- Mademoiselle Modiste (1926)
- The Waning Sex (1926)
- A Little Journey (1927)
- The Demi-Bride (1927)
- Adam and Evil (1927)
- Tea for Three (1927)
- Baby Mine (1928)
- The Cardboard Lover (1928)
- A Lady of Chance (1928)
- Marianne (1929, silent)
- Marianne (1929, musical)
- The Divorcee (1930)
- In Gay Madrid (1930)
- Let Us Be Gay (1930)
- The Bachelor Father (1931)
- Five and Ten (1931)
- It's a Wise Child (1931)
- Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931)
- Lovers Courageous (1932)
- The Son-Daughter (1932)
- Strange Interlude (1932)
- When Ladies Meet (1933)
- Dancing Lady (1933)
- Peg o' My Heart (1933)
- Outcast Lady (1934)
- After Office Hours (1935)
- Naughty Marietta (1935)
- Escapade (1935)
- A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
- The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
- Small Town Girl (1936)
- Piccadilly Jim (1936)
- Maytime (1937)
- The Firefly (1937)
- The Girl of the Golden West (1938)
- Broadway Serenade (1939)
- New Moon (1940)
- Pride and Prejudice (1940)
- Third Finger, Left Hand (1940)
- Ziegfeld Girl (1941)
- When Ladies Meet (1941)
- We Were Dancing (1942)
- Stand By for Action (1942)
- The Man from Down Under (1943)
- Marriage Is a Private Affair (1944)
- Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)
- The Secret Heart (1946)
- Cynthia (1947)
- B.F.'s Daughter (1948)
- The Bribe (1949)
- In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
- Nancy Goes to Rio (1950)
- Duchess of Idaho (1950)
- Grounds for Marriage (1951)
- Too Young to Kiss (1951)
- Everything I Have Is Yours (1952)
- The Clown (1953)
- The Great Diamond Robbery (1953)
- Her Twelve Men (1954)
- The King's Thief (1955)
- Beautiful but Dangerous (1955)
- Kelly and Me (1957)