Always in My Heart (1942)

Very best movie i ever watch

People are voting emotionally.

Best movie ever!

Awesome Movie

. . . but that didn't stop Warner Bros from trying to manufacture another. And failing. One minute listening to the high-pitched warbler and I hit the fast-forward button. Because this slapstick-teary eyes-opera and harmonicas-family values-melodrama film has some likable features, I will probably watch it again, but next time I'll use the mute button. Did 1942 audiences like what they were hearing? Did audiences like Gloria Warren? What an annoying personality. Non-stop smiling and perky cheerfulness. Depressing to watch her. I also fast-forwarded through the highjinks of the 3 kids chasing each other around the house. The Buster Brown bobbed kid gets my vote for most obnoxious child actor ever to appear on the silver screen.What are the fabulous Kay Francis and Walter Huston doing in this B-movie? Warners should have made them the focus of the story, rather than the kids. Francis is so warm and loving and likable - a mother unlike any I've ever known in real life. And it's no contest between the grizzled Huston and his rich rival for Francis hand in marriage. One has star power and the other does not.Although I'm certain home life in real American homes was not as warm and cozy as in Francis home, I liked it in the same way I like Judge Hardy's happy home. But I wonder, was it realistic that in 1942 a man would walk through an open door into a strangers living room and be welcomed by a teenage girl who is alone and practicing her high notes at the piano? If so, life in America has certainly changed in the last 70 years. But seeing how life was in the Hollywood version of the good old days is one of the major pleasures to be had from watching old movies.

Kay Francis is mother to two children--one who is a bit of an idiot and a daughter who is constantly singing. Francis has a fiancé who loves her but obviously wants to ship her nearly adult children off to college. You can't blame him too much, especially with all the singing, but you wonder about Kay's sanity as she seems to be the only one who doesn't recognize this.Unknown to all but Kay is the fact that her dead husband isn't dead after all but is in prison. Since he was sentenced to prison for life, they both decided to tell the children he was dead and Kay was encouraged repeatedly by her husband (Walter Huston) to remarry. Huston is not your typical Hollywood prisoner, as he's a model of decency and eventually the state decides to pardon him just before Francis' wedding to her stuffy but rich boyfriend. However, Huston does NOT want to return to their lives, as he feels they have a right to continue as they are--he just doesn't want to upset their lives. But, he's also curious how his children have become so he secretly checks up on them with no intentions of letting them know who he really is. Of course, this plan has complications--otherwise, there wouldn't be much of a movie! The plot of ALWAYS IN MY HEART isn't believable but despite this, the story is quite entertaining and watchable. However, Warner Brothers' latest singing discovery, Gloria Warren, made the movie tough going. That's because her style of singing was akin to Jeanette MacDonald combined with a banshee!! One reviewer called it "screeching" and this isn't far from the truth!! I can see why this young prodigy only made a few films, as every time she sang the hair on my neck stood up and my ears burned. So my advice is if the movie comes back on TV, copy it first. Then, when you watch it, you can speed through the god-awful songs!!

I hadn't seen this film for years, and then I only remembered parts of it. The parts I did remember were the dialogue scenes between Kay Francis and estranged hubby Walter Huston, and between Huston and the children who do not know him. This part of the film is very good and made me want to see it again.When I saw it again the other night for the first time in years on TCM I was horrified. Worse, I was somewhat bored. Either I never saw or my memory blocked out the musical portions. Obviously, Warner Bros. was trying to turn Gloria Warren into their own Deanna Durbin, but she just lacked the "star quality" Durbin had and was a completely uninteresting actress, at least in this film.The film could have been a great one if the music had been eliminated and the focus kept on the melodrama - a man (Walter Huston) getting out of prison and giving up a woman who loves him and his children so they can all have some security with a rather bland fellow who wants to marry the woman (Kay Francis). Instead, Huston paces from the "good" side of town where we are tormented by Warren's operatic screeching, to the bad side of town where a novelty harmonica band act torments us some more. Just goes to proves bad music has a home in both the low-brow and high-brow varieties.What gets five stars from me is the warm family story and the title song, "Always In My Heart" which is really quite beautiful and a bit of a theme song for the entire situation portrayed in the film. If you want to see what Kay Francis and Walter Huston can do for a film without all of this distraction thrown in, try to track down a copy of "Gentlemen of the Press". There they really sizzle.

Walter Huston and Kay Francis starred in this 1942 film.Ms. Francis plays a middle class woman with 2 children, who supposedly is widowed. Wealthy Sidney Blackmer wishes to marry her.It turns out that she is not widowed. She divorced her husband after he was sent to prison for killing a man. Both children have been told that their father is dead.As Huston is about to be pardoned, Francis arrives at the prison to tell him that she is remarrying. Thinking only of her happiness and security for their children, Huston does not tell Francis of the pardon but instead encourages the marriage.Huston, upon release, settles in a fishing area around San Francisco. Of course, he meets his children but says nothing.Naturally, the children find out what they are and the film ends where he saves his son from a drunk and daughter, when she goes out in a storm in a boat.There are some musical interludes in this as the daughter is training to be an opera singer. Huston does a little singing and there are several sequences where groups of fishermen turn to their harmonicas.