Change of Heart (1934)

Redundant and unnecessary.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Copyright 15 May 1934 by Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall, 10 May 1934 (ran one week). U.K. release: 8 September 1934. Australian release: 10 October 1934. New Zealand release: 29 December 1934. New Zealand length: 7,824 feet. 87 minutes. U.S. length: 6,937 feet. 77 minutes.SYNOPSIS: After graduating from college, four friends seek fame and fortune in New York.NOTES: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences granted a miniature statuette to Shirley Temple "in grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during the year 1934." DVDs of this movie are currently offered by Public Domain suppliers.COMMENT: Although this movie was certainly released in 1934 (it ran a week in May at the Radio City Music Hall), it is extremely doubtful if the Board of Governors had this picture in mind when awarding Shirley her miniature statuette. Even though her name is prominently displayed in the film's advertising, it's nonsense to talk about her being in this movie. As a passenger in an airliner en route to New York, she's on screen for about 3 minutes! (Admittedly, I'm talking about the 77-minute USA version)."Change of Heart" is primarily a Farrell-Gaynor vehicle — their last. The combination is stale here. Miss Gaynor looks old too (though she was reportedly only 28 at the time), being flatly photographed and rather dowdily dressed. The photographer and costumer do similar disservices to Ginger Rogers and Drue Leyton, though Barbara Barondess looks attractive in her brief appearance. As for Charles Farrell, he is, would you believe, somewhat wooden and charmless? Farrell was handsome enough and well-spoken enough to survive the transition to sound, but he floundered, partly due to lack of talent (although this didn't deter many other people), but mostly due to sheer laziness. He simply didn't like to work for hard taskmasters like Frank Borzage or F. W. Murnau. Easy- going Johnny Blystone was definitely his favorite sort of director.So it's no surprise to find the support players are not much better. James Dunn is always talking about his singing career, but outside of a bit of clowning around, doesn't sing a note (whereas minor player Dick Foran sings solidly for two whole minutes — and alas that two minutes is the sole extent of his on screen contribution. What a pity his part isn't larger)! Nonetheless, Mary Carr makes the most of her one-take scene. And it's always good to see Jane Darwell, even though she is glimpsed but briefly.Blystone's direction starts briskly at the graduation, which is nicely paced and composed, but once in New York his efforts become quite routine and undistinguished, although the deft cutting of Margaret Clancey does something to spark a bit of dramatic life into certain scenes.Production values are moderate. Stock footage of New York is used liberally throughout. Although treating the girls somewhat harshly, Hal Mohr's lighting is rich in attractively glossy blacks. Aside from the opening graduation scenes, the sets, however, — even those supposed to be luxurious — prove disappointingly drab.

Burdened with a less than exciting script, Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell ended their twelve film partnership with the undistinguished CHANGE OF HEART. Four recent college graduates (Gaynor, Farrell, Ginger Rogers and James Dunn) travel together to New York to make their fortunes. You would think that the travails of young friends trying to make their ways in the big city would make for compelling drama, but it rarely does.Gaynor plays a saintly soul with the patience of Job, and it's a testament to her skill as an actress that she makes so treacly a role thoroughly likable. Poor Farrell acts well enough but, as became customary for him in these talkie pairings with Gaynor, is stuck playing a dumbbell who actually falls sick unto death simply because Rogers has married somebody else! Gaynor finally wins her true love by nursing him back to health. This happens in a long, long scene during which she shaves him! I don't want to blame filmmakers for taking chances, but this was one chance that didn't pay off.Ginger Rogers was in the interregnum between FLYING DOWN TO RIO and THE GAY Divorcée, meaning that she was a rather hot property but not yet a true star. This role, commonplace in thirties' cinema (heck, Claire Dodd made a career playing it), is unique in her own career and one of the few unsympathetic characters that she ever played. She probably performed it better than the film deserved, something you could say for its entire excellent cast.

By 1934 Janet Gaynor's popularity at the box office was beginning to wane so Fox reasoned - why not team her with Charles Farrell again for "Change of Heart"? Once again she played the dewy eyed orphan, this time a college graduate who, along with her three friends, wants to take New York by storm. This time though she and Farrell, who was always a wishy washy actor I thought, were put distinctly in the shade by two peppy up and comers. James Dunn as Mac who longs to be a crooner and, giving the film what edge it has, Ginger Rogers as the selfish and stage struck Madge who has no feeling of camaraderie once they hit the big city. The part was originally to be played by Sally Eilers and she would have been terrific but she was pregnant so Ginger was a ring in. Eilers and Dunn had been called the finds of 1931 when they co-starred in "Bad Girl" and they also became a team so maybe "Change of Heart" was a ploy by Fox to showcase their two most romantic pairings - but it backfired!!A nice romance about four college kids trying to make it in New York. Gaynor is Catherine or "Fiery" - oddly the soothing one whose calmness holds the quartet together. In true "soap opera" tradition she loves Chris (Farrell), a struggling lawyer, who doesn't know she's alive and only has eyes for Madge who can't decide between him or the flirty Mac who is carrying a torch for "Fiery" who etc....On the day "Fiery" finds a job Madge announces she is moving uptown as she can't handle their "slum conditions" any longer plus the fact that the others are cramping her style. The villain is Jackson (Kenneth Thomson who was such a good "lounge lizard" to Anita Page in "The Broadway Melody") first tries to romance Catherine then, when she shows her lack of interest, whisks Madge away for a quickie wedding!! That leaves the stage clear for Gaynor and Farrell to try to weave the magic they once had but in 1934 the public weren't buying it. When Chris (who is the most shadowy figure in the whole film) falls ill only Catherine's nursing pulls him through and then he realises that he has loved her all along. The viewer then realises how boring the film has become since Madge and Mac have left the scene.... but then.... Madge returns, her marriage hasn't worked out and Chris is now Plan B!!!Of course you know it's not going to happen and the film could have finished on a quite dramatic note although Chris is so lacking in backbone who knows?? Then Mac rocks up and Madge puts all her charms to work on him and he is soon putty in her hands at the film's "cop out" ending.One of the highlights of the movie was seeing all the bit parts by actors of some note - James Gleason, who wrote the screenplay, as a hot dog vendor, Mischa Auer as a party guest, Nick Foran singing "So What" - maybe then Fox saw him as a specialty singer (he had had a spot in "Stand Up and Cheer") and Shirley Temple who had an almost extra role as a child on a plane. I know she was billed midway up the cast lists as "Shirley" but as "Shirley" she had just created a sensation in "Stand Up and Cheer" so she was probably Fox's box office bait to lure even more people into the cinema.

I thought this was a sweet and sincere movie, capturing a sense of New York in the 1930s. Both Janet Gaynor and Charlie Farrell are perfect as the innocent lovers, and Ginger Rogers nails the role of the egotistical yet classy "friend." I did think the last scene was a bit abrupt, but otherwise, a well-done movie. For those who enjoy heart-warming light romances, this is a treat.Along with Janet Gaynor, Charlie Farrell and Ginger Rogers, the cast is filled with stellar talent, not the least of which is Shirley Temple in the airplane scene. Beryl Mercer, Jane Darwell, James Dunn and Mischa Auer all do laudable jobs, although Dunn's role is unevenly scripted. I found the close-ups in this movie to be very well done. The shaving scene with Farrell and Gaynor is a classic--full of sentiment yet composed. Also, the scene between the doctor and Gaynor, with the camera just catching Gaynor from the back of her head, was masterful. It's a joy to watch understatement so beautifully played!