Dear Heart

Dear Heart (1965)

Two hours from now, two total strangers will meet at a hotel convention in the most unconventional love affair in years!

A lonely Ohio spinster hopes to find romance when she travels to New York City for a postmasters' convention.

Date of release
1965-03-07
TMDB
6.5 / 10 (17)
Runtime
1h 54m
Genres
Comedy, Romance
Director
Delbert Mann

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: New York City

Dear Heart is a 1964 American romantic-comedy film starring Glenn Ford and Geraldine Page as lonely middle-aged people who fall in love at a hotel convention. It was directed by Delbert Mann, from a screenplay by Tad Mosel. Its theme song "Dear Heart" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Production

Dear Heart was written by Tad Mosel, from his own story. He originally wrote it as a teleplay for a May 1957 Westinghouse Studio One episode, titled "The Out-Of-Towners", co-starring E.G. Marshall and Eileen Heckart.

The film had a budget of about $1.8 million. Principal shooting occurred from October 3 to November 22, 1963. Filming of the opening and closing scenes in Penn Station took advantage of just-commenced demolition process of the above-ground structures.

It was Geraldine Page's first role as a leading lady. As production began, Glenn Ford's long-term relationship with actress Hope Lange was ending, and she married producer Alan Pakula, leaving Ford heartbroken. Although production of Dear Heart was generally a positive one, Ford could not stop brooding over Lange.

Henry Mancini was hired to compose music for the film. Mancini felt such a gentle romantic film deserved a theme song. He quickly wrote music for the song, but it lacked lyrics. Mancini contacted Johnny Mercer, who was unavailable. So Mancini turned to Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. The lyricists read the script, and came up with the lyrics and title for the song based on their reading of Geraldine Page's character.

Warner Bros. Pictures was uncertain about when to release the film. Mancini, who had a 50% interest in the film's theme song with Larry Shayne, asked studio head Jack L. Warner to release the film so that it would qualify for the March 1965 Academy Awards. Warner agreed to release it for a week in Los Angeles (which, under Academy rules, would qualify it for the Oscars), if Mancini and Shayne would pay for the local advertising.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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