4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Arguably the low point in Katharine Hepburn's career at RKO, May 19, 2004
This review is from: Break of Hearts [VHS] (VHS Tape)
"Break of Hearts" has always been considered the low point of Katharine Hepburn's career at RKO. The 1935 film teamed her with Charles Boyer and the screenplay was written especially for her by Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman, and Anthony Veiller (based on a story by Lester Choen). Boyer played Franz Roberti, the passionate and eminent musical conductor while Hepburn was Constance Dane, an aspiring but unknown composer. She wants to see his concert, but it is all sold out. When she sneaks into his rehearsal he is smitten by her devotion and gets his orchestra to get it right as they play just for her. Constance marries Franz, which is rather surprising since there is nothing to believe it is going to work. But he says she is "a most exciting creature" and she has been in love with him for a long time (i.e., "since late this afternoon").
Not long after they get married Constance finds Franz having dinner with a former friend of the female gender. So Constance responds by going out with her own friend, Johnny Lawrence (John Beal, who co-starred with Hepburn in her previous film, "The Little Minister"). Johnny wants to marry Constance, but she cannot forget her husband. Franz has been hitting the bottle and pretty much throwing away his career, although exactly which of his many sins is driving him to drink is not really clear. Fortunately, Constance has been working on her concerto.
The best part of this film, directed by Philip Moeller, comes at the beginning before Franz and Constance get together. The rehearsal sequence has a certain charm, but Franz's interest in Constance is never really believable. Originally "Break of Hearts" was intended as a vehicle for Hepburn and John Barrymore, but apparently he was the only one of the principles to read the script before agreeing to make the film. You could call it a bad version of "A Star is Born," but "Break of Hearts" is not that good. Hepburn fans will want to check it out from a sense of completeness, but it is not going to be anyone's favorite.
Even though Hepburn turned in a superb performance in her next production, "Alice Adams," the first film in which you can truly say she was acting rather than playing herself and for which she earned her second Oscar nomination, RKO decided the actress was better suited to costume dramas. This led to "Mary of Scotland," "A Woman Rebels," and "Quality Street," and the decision of the Theater Owners of America that Hepburn was "box office poison." With "Break of Hearts," it is difficult to argue with their thinking.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
seems pretty good., March 21, 2011
This review is from: Break of Hearts [VHS] (VHS Tape)
i have yet to see this film,but i cant help but wish to see her RKO films,that get such bad reviews,maybe its becuase i like rko in the 30's.but now unfortunatley since most since all of her early RKO films are on DVD-R ,there is no chance of warner home video releasing another katharine hepburn collection,focusing on these films.
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