Lonelyhearts
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Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Vincent J. Donehue
Montgomery Clift
Robert Ryan
Myrna Loy
Dolores Hart
Maureen Stapleton
Film Details
Technical Specs
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Synopsis
Unemployed would-be writer Adam White visits Delehanty's bar, a well-known journalists' haunt, where his sincerity and manners attract the attention of Florence Shrike, wife of Chronicle publisher William "Bill" Shrike. Florence introduces Adam to her husband, a sardonic, bitter man, who mocks Adam before glibly offering him a job with the newspaper. Jubilant, Adam accepts, then seeks out his girl friend, Justy Sargeant, who is at a drive-in with her father and brothers, to relay his good fortune. Upon returning home, Florence asks Bill why he treated Adam so disdainfully and Bill admits he hopes to squelch Adam's youthful idealism. Bill blames his callous cynicism in large part on Florence's single instance of infidelity ten years earlier, although he dismisses her assertion that he was unfaithful many times in the early years of their marriage. The next day, Adam reports to the Chronicle where he meets fellow reporters Ned Gates and Frank Goldsmith. Ned is deflated when Bill gives Adam the "Lonelyhearts" advice column, a position he hoped for himself. Adam is uneasy about the new assignment, feeling ill equipped to give psychological advice to people with serious problems, but Bill makes light of his concern, counseling him to use religious allegories and perfunctory responses. That afternoon, as Adam sifts through the many letters to "Miss Lonelyhearts," Frank reads several out loud, giggling over the dramatic pleas for help. Ned angrily reveals his frustration at losing the job to Adam, then advises him simply to tell the writers to grow up and face life. Later, Adam tells Justy about the wide-ranging problems in the letters and frets over how to respond, prompting Justy to suggest he not take their problems to heart. Over the next several weeks, Adam works diligently, spending long hours at work carefully answering the letters for advice, despite Bill's continual derision. Although Adam's hours cut into his time with Justy, she remains supportive. Finally, Adam meets Bill at Delehanty's to request another position because he cannot deride or deny the seriousness of his readers' dilemmas, but the publisher coldly informs Adam that he will be fired from the paper if he resigns from the "Lonelyhearts" column. Unknown to Adam, his conversation has been overheard by young Fay Doyle, drinking at the bar with her husband Pat. A few days later, Adam tells Justy that he is spending the afternoon visiting the orphanage where he grew up, when in fact he visits his father, Mr. Lassiter, at the state prison where he has spent the last twenty-five years for murdering Adam's mother and her lover. At work the next day, Bill reprimands Adam for advising a reader to consult a psychiatrist, insisting that the advice seekers are all fakers and deserve to be exposed, not indulged. When Adam refuses to believe Bill, the publisher insists that Adam telephone any of the letter writers and learn of their true nature for himself. Disturbed by Bill's taunt, Adam randomly selects a letter and telephones its writer, Fay Doyle. Although surprised by Adam's call, Fay readily agrees to meet him. Fay haltingly describes her difficult marriage with Pat, a shipyard worker injured in an accident years before that has left him impotent and with a severe limp. Fay yearns for intimacy, while admitting she truly loves her husband. Shocked by this confidence, Adam listens in earnest, but remains at a loss on how to advise her. When the woman makes sexual advances to him, Adam responds. Escorting Fay home later in a cab, Adam evades her attempt to set up another meeting. Angered, Fay accuses Adam of being dishonest with himself for not admitting that he was seeking the same thing that she wanted. Greatly disturbed, Adam goes to a nearby bar and moments later Pat arrives looking for Fay. Pat recognizes Adam as a Chronicle reporter and, to Adam's dismay, introduces himself and pleads for help to retrieve a letter he believes his wife may have written to the paper. Adam evades Pat and goes to Delehanty's while Justy worries about him at home. Bill finds Adam drunk at the bar and correctly surmises that Adam acted on his provocation. Adam admits his foolish idealism, then allows Bill to take him to a party for Ned. There, when the other newspapermen mock Adam's column, Adam punches Frank then runs away. Two days later, a hung-over Adam awakens to find Justy at his apartment. Adam admits his drunkenness and brawling and acknowledges Justy's suspicions that a woman is also involved. When Bill stops by to inquire after Adam, Justy flees, and Adam then informs Bill that he is quitting the paper. That afternoon, Adam meets Justy at work and asks to see her before he leaves town. At a solitary picnic the next day, Adam reveals the truth about his family and the situation with the Doyles to Justy, admitting that he believes he has inherited badness from his parents. Distressed, Justy asks to be taken home. Fay telephones Adam hoping for another meeting, but is overheard by Pat who angrily demands to know the identity of the person with whom she was speaking. Meanwhile, Mr. Sargeant advises Justy to forgive Adam and offers her the money in her trust to start a life with him. Justy goes in search of Adam at Delehanty's where Florence steers her to the Chronicle after wishing her luck. At the Chronicle , Adam is bidding farewell to Frank and Bill when Justy arrives and the two reconcile. When Pat arrives with a gun demanding to know about Adam's meeting with Fay, Adam convinces him that Fay did not truly mean to humiliate him and takes away the weapon. Bill asks Adam to stay on at the Chronicle , but Adam insists that he must take the life lessons he has learned and departs with Justy. Before leaving, Justy reminds Bill that Florence is awaiting him at Delehanty's and Bill pauses to pluck some flowers from a vase before heading off to meet his wife.
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Director
Vincent J. Donehue
Cast
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/MontgomeryClift.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Montgomery Clift
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/RobertRyan.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Robert Ryan
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/MyrnaLoy.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Myrna Loy
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/DoloresHart.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Dolores Hart
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/MaureenStapleton.183137.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Maureen Stapleton
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/JackieCoogan.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Jackie Coogan
Mike Kellin
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/OnslowStevens.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Onslow Stevens
Frank Maxwell
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/FrankOverton.145931.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Frank Overton
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/JohnGallaudet.67804.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
John Gallaudet
Don Washbrook
John Washbrook
J. B. Welch
Mary Alan Hokanson
Jack Black
Charles Fawcett
Charles Wegenheim
Frank Richards
Dorothy Neumann
Crew
Angela Alexander
John Alton
Chuck Arrico
Adolph Deutsch
Clarence Eurist
John Faure
Max Frankel
Joel Freeman
Abe Haberman
John Kean
Serge Krizman
Frank Laure
Walter Reilly
Conrad Salinger
Dore Schary
Dore Schary
Darrell Silvera
Aaron Stell
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Videos
Movie Clip
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Hosted Intro
Film Details
Technical Specs
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Award Nominations
Best Supporting Actress
Articles
Lonelyhearts
Like the original story, Lonelyhearts follows a reporter as he's assigned by his cynical publisher to write an advice-to-the-lovelorn column, and becomes so enmeshed in the suffering of those who write to him that it nearly destroys him. United Artists agreed to finance the film, but only if Schary could keep the budget under a million dollars. Fortunately, Schary had many friends in the business who respected his work, and everyone in the big-name cast worked for far below their usual salaries.
Montgomery Clift was a great fan of the novella, and agreed to play the columnist. Clift had been terribly injured in a car accident in 1957, and was no longer the beautiful young man of his early films. The accident had left him broken and scarred, and even more dependent on drugs and alcohol. Most days, he couldn't work past two p.m. But he quickly formed close friendships with his co-stars, who supported and protected him.
Myrna Loy, who played the alcoholic wife of publisher Robert Ryan, arrived for her first day on the set to find Clift extremely nervous to meet her. She had been a favorite of his for years. The two quickly became close, and there were rumors that Loy fell in love with Clift, who was 15 years younger, and wanted to marry him. In her memoirs, she denied this, but wrote that she felt a maternal devotion to him.
Stage actress Maureen Stapleton, who was making her film debut in Lonelyhearts, also had her own problems with alcohol, and she, too, became devoted to Clift. She, Loy, Ryan and Dolores Hart did all they could to help Clift get through the ordeal of filming. Stapleton was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in Lonelyhearts as an unbalanced correspondent of the columnist. She would be nominated three more times before winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Reds (1981).
Cinematographer John Alton shot the black-and-white film in the style of chiaroscuro painting, adding to the somber mood. Vincent J. Donehue, a young stage director, directed the film by blocking it out like a play, for which the stage-experienced actors were grateful. In spite of the difficulties, the actors enjoyed the experience of working on Lonelyhearts and the friendships that resulted.
While most serious critics objected to the upbeat ending of Lonelyhearts (the original novella had a macabre final fadeout), they also found the performances brilliant, and Schary's adaptation praiseworthy and innovative. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times called it, "a clearly sincere endeavor to say something moving and profound about the danger of too-quick moral judgments and the virtue of loving thy fellow man." Paul V. Beckley wrote in the New York Herald Tribune that it was "a strong, serious effort to deal with a mordant and difficult story, and deserves respect." And Philip T. Hartung of Commonweal noted, "The style of Lonelyhearts is both simple and surrealistic, and its story is a strange mixture of comedy and tragedy. It is an impressively grim picture with plenty of offbeat material."
Director: Vincent J. Donehue
Producer: Dore Schary
Screenplay: Dore Schary, based on the novella by Nathanael West, and the play by Howard Teichmann
Editor: Aaron Stell, John Faure
Cinematography: John Alton
Costume Design: Charles Arrico, Angela Alexander
Set Design: Darrell Silvera
Music: Conrad Salinger
Cast: Montgomery Clift (Adam White), Robert Ryan (William Shrike), Myrna Loy (Florence Shrike), Dolores Hart (Justy Sargent), Maureen Stapleton (Fay Doyle), Jackie Coogan (Ned Gates), Mike Kellin (Frank Goldsmith), Onslow Stevens (Mr. Lassiter).
BW-104m.
by Margarita Landazuri
![Lonelyhearts](https://prod-images.tcm.com/img/film-participant-detail/Featured-Artilce_Placeholder.png)
Lonelyhearts
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's working title was Miss Lonelyhearts. The closing credits differed slightly in order from the opening credits. The film marked the first independent production for Dore Schary after his departure as the head of production at M-G-M. A June 1958 Hollywood Reporter news item notes that Vera Miles was being considered for a role in the film. A press release indicated that Lee Zimmer was cast as "Jerry", but the role was played by Jack Black and Zimmer's appearance in the final film has not been confirmed. A Hollywood Reporter news item adds Curt Conway to the cast, but his appearance in the released picture has not been confirmed. In the scene in which "Adam" searches for "Justy" at a drive-in, the film playing is United Artists' 1957 release Paths of Glory (see below). Maureen Stapleton, who, as noted in the opening credits made her motion picture debut in Lonelyhearts, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress role as "Fay Doyle."
In 1933, UA released a 20th Century production, Advice to the Lovelorn, starring Lee Tracy and Sally Blane, and directed by Alfred Werker, which purportedly was based on Nathanael West's then controversial novel, but retained only West's title and the storyline of a reporter forced to write an advice column for the lovelorn (for more information on that film, please consult the entry in AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40). In 1983, the PBS television series American Playhouse broadcast a production based on West's book, entitled Miss Lonelyhearts. That version was produced by H. Jay Holman Productions, in association with the American Film Institute, and was directed by Michael Dinner and starred Eric Roberts.
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Miscellaneous Notes
1958 Academy Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress (Stapleton).
Released in United States Winter December 1958
b&w
Released in United States Winter December 1958