None But the Lonely Heart *** (1944, Cary Grant, Ethel Barrymore, Barry Fitzgerald, June Duprez, Jane Wyatt, George Coulouris, Dan Duryea) – Classic Movie Review 2340

Screen-writer/director Clifford Odets’s earnest and moody 1944 melodrama None But the Lonely Heart provides Cary Grant with one of his only two Best Actor Oscar nominations in his long and illustrious career.

In this amusing curiosity based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn, Bristol-born Grant enjoys himself in one of his most peculiar roles as Ernie Mott, a Cockney rascal drifter who reluctantly returns home to help his sickly mother run her shop. But it was Ethel Barrymore who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as his Ma, who is dying of cancer. In the story, they are both tempted to turn to crime to help to make ends meet.

The ambitious performances and some strong scenes make up for the shaky direction, strained dialogue (even from esteemed playwright Odets) and a hilariously inaccurate Hollywood view of London in the 1930s.

It is not exactly his best performance or his finest hour, but it really is entertaining to see the normally impeccably suave Grant playing a rogue-ish vagabond.

It also stars June Duprez as Ada Brantline, Barry Fitzgerald as Henry Twite, Jane Wyatt as Aggie Hunter, George Coulouris as Jim Mordinoy and Dan Duryea as Lew Tate.

Also in the cast are Helene Thimig, Morton Lowry, Konstantin Shayne, Roman Bohnen, Polly Bailey, Matthew Boulton, William Challee, Marie De Becker, Virginia Farmer, Forrester Harvey, Herbert Heywood, Leyland Hodgson, Charles Irwin, Skelton Knaggs, Morton Lowry, Al Murphy, Joseph North, Renie Riano, Ida Shoemaker, Art Smith, Walter Soderling, David Thursby, Diedra Vale, Joseph Vitale, Milton Wallace, Eric Wilton and Bill Wolfe.

Grant’s other Oscar nomination was for the 1941 Penny Serenade. He never won. The film had two other Oscar nominations – Best Film Editing (Roland Gross) and Best Music (Constantin Bakaleinikoff, Hanns Eisler).

Teddington, England-born June Duprez’s exotic appearances in British films such as The Spy in Black (1939), The Four Feathers (1939) and The Thief of Bagdad (1940) made her famous and she quickly relocated during the war to Hollywood, where this was her most notable movie. She retired when she re-married in 1948 to well-to-do sportsman George Moffett Jr. They had two daughters but divorced in 1965. June returned to London and died in 1984 at age 66 after a long illness.

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2340

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