LONELYHEARTS

US, 1958, 103 Minutes, Black and White.
Montgomery Clift, Robert Ryan, Myrna Loy, Dolores Hart, Maureen Stapleton.
Directed by Vincent J. Donahue.

Lonelyhearts is interesting melodrama. The critics said that it did not follow faithfully Nathaniel West's original novel but altered the focus (dating from an American writer looking at human issues in the depression) and also provided an unwarranted happy ending. West's vision of Hollywood and its apocalypse was not to be filmed until 1975 by John Schlesinger with The Day of the Locust. Montgomery Clift is very much at home in the central role of the would-be journalist asked to write the Lonely Hearts column and getting involved with people, both sincere and exploiters. Robert Ryan is very effective in the cynical central role of the newspaper editor and contrasts with Myrna Loy as his victim wife. Dolores Hart in one of her rare screen roles is an attractive heroine. Maureen Stapleton is introduced in this film and makes a memorable debut as a strange, neglected wife. She was to go on to such films as A View from the Bridge, Bye Bye Birdie, Airport and Interiors. However, she is principally a stage actress. The screenplay was written by Dore Schary, an executive of MGM in the 40s (and featuring very strongly in Lilian Ross' book Picture). He was to adapt various novels to the screen and the stage eg. Morris West's, The Devil's Advocate. Among his screenplays was the story of Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello.

1. The significance and tone of the title? The original was "Miss Lonely Hearts". Feminine name for masculine character? Popular overtones of the papers, personal problems presented in emotional tones, the hope for solutions? The stronger and deeper and more serious issues behind the personal questions? What did this evoke? Indication of the kind of person Miss Lonely Hearts was and had to be?

2. The film is an adaptation of a famous short novel. It amplifies the life of Miss Lonely Hearts. How appropriate is that? It leaves out the more strident and religious overtones of Miss Lonely Hearts' anguish, was Miss Lonely Hearts experiencing people, suffering religiously? God?

3. Black and white photography, the melodramatic styles of the late 50s, the soap opera overtones and style? The score? Audience response to cinema presentations of the newspaper world, newspaper people, New York apartments? The style of the film, especially in the focus on Miss Lonely Hearts, the dilemmas, the style of filming the clashes with Shrike?

4. The casting of Montgomery Clift as Lonely Hearts? His sensitivity, brooding, introspection? Half awake? Earnest, hopeful, clashing, disillusioned? How much did he share the problems of the letter-writers?

5. The introduction to Lonely Hearts? his hopes, his skill at his work, noble ambitions, confidence and lack of confidence? A typically diffident character? His contacts with Mary Shrike and her using him? His using her? (And the background of the brittle marriage, Mary's wanting to be with him, what did he gain from Mary?) Shrike and his using Miss Lonely Hearts? employing him, his wife's influence, his antagonism towards his wife, cynical attitudes towards life? How were these particularly strong in his set speeches? Shrike giving him the Lonely Hearts column, the reading out of the letters, their effect on Miss Lonely Hearts, on the rest of the staff, on Shrike? The cynical newspaper people mocking the problems? The overall effect on Miss Lonely Hearts? The experience of clash and humiliation? Of what importance was Betty ? as a character in herself, as related to Lonely Hearts, as salvation for him through love and hope? And yet the background of the drinking and the bars and the glib and cynical world of the newspaper?

6. The dilemma of what he was to do in confronting the people with problems? Listening, sharing, cynical answers moving towards compassion? Empathy? Could he bear it, was it more than he could bear?

7. The role of Shrike in the film - Robert Ryan's strong characterisation? The embodiment of the worst aspects of the cynical newspaperman? Yet his skill at his job? Why the persecution of Lonely Hearts? What satisfaction did he get? Whom was he attacking? What was his role in the film to highlight Lonely Hearts and the problems?

8. The contrast of the two women - Mary and her problem, Betty and hers? Their influence on his life and what they gave him? What he needed from them?

9. Where was all this leading for Lonely Hearts? To salvation? To inability to cope?

10. The significance of Doyle, cripple, relationship with his wife? Mrs. Doyle and her experience of life, hold over Lonely Hearts? The build-up to the clash? What did each want of Lonely Hearts?

11. What had Miss Lonely Hearts achieved by the end of the film?

12. A picture of aspects of American society, way of life, hopes and dreams, values, suffering, compassion and cynicism?