Of Human Hearts is a 1938 American drama film
directed by Clarence Brown and starring Walter Huston, James Stewart and Beulah Bondi.
Stewart plays an proud and ungrateful son who rebels against
his preacher father and (after his father's death) neglects his poverty-stricken mother.
Bondi was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Production notes
Principal photography occurred from October 18 to December 20, 1937.
The working title of the film and the title of the novel on which it was based,
Benefits Forgot, was taken from a quotation in William Shakespeare's
As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7: "Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
that dost not bite so nigh as benefits forgot." The title of the picture, Of Human Hearts,
was selected by MGM after a nationwide contest was advertised on the studio's radio program,
Good News of 1938, to determine who could select the best title.
The prize, $5,000, was awarded to Greenville, South Carolina, high school student Roy Harris.
In addition to the prize money, Harris was also a specially invited guest at the film's world premiere,
which was held in his hometown.
Portions of the film were shot on location at the Agoura Ranch in Agoura, California,
and at Lake Arrowhead, California.
According to information in news items and the presskit,
over 700 people worked at the Arrowhead location for more than two weeks
on a specially built village, the largest special location site built by MGM since The Good Earth.
A Life magazine article noted that the film's battle scene,
which was not based on a specific battle, cost $50,000, and required 2,000 men to film.
Life also noted that the picture was one of a "new cycle of interest in the Civil War
aroused by the novel Gone With the Wind.
Robert McWade, who portrayed Dr. Lupus Crumm in the picture, died after completing his role.
According to news items in the Hollywood Citizen-News and Motion Picture Daily,
director Clarence Brown had told McWade, "Well, Bob, you played your last scene.
You might as well go home," just before McWade died of heart failure.
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User Review
A mothers love is unconditional
12 November 2005 | by lois74 (United States)
I found this movie very heartwarming as I am a big fan of Jimmy Stewart. I wish movies were still made like this - with heart. It can be all to true to raise a son or daughter who grow up and they kind of forget about their parents. While I admit there are some rather cheesy parts I'd rather watch that than some of the crap that comes out of Hollywood these days! As a mother myself, the parts where she is basically giving her very last dime to send to her son were all too true. What mother would not give everything she had to give her children if she though they needed it? When the son talks to Abraham Lincoln (yes, I believe that was a little far fetched) but I could see a mother writing, believing her son dead, as that could be the only explanation as to why he has not written.
All in all this movie was very heartwarming!! I guess to watch it you have to have a heart!