Garden Of Evil is an entertaining and well made Technicolor/Cinemascope adventure that shows a part of Mexico's interior not usually shown in western pictures.

The plot involves Gary Cooper and his treasure seeking pals being paid to rescue Susan Hayward's husband from a collapsed goldmine located in the supposedly cursed title area. Little do they know that the local superstitious natives are enraged at their encroachment.

Things get a little odd with every character (save the always laid back Cooper) becoming very melodramatic, especially Hugh Marlowe as Hayward's husband. His performance crosses the line into overacting as every bit of dialog he mutters is in the form of a rant!

Also on the verge of of overacting is Cameron Mitchell as the "kid" of the bunch. In my mind's eye he'll always be the older overweight actor I remember from numerous films of the late sixties and early seventies. It's very strange to see him young and lean.

It was a good call on the part of the filmmakers to not show the furious natives until near the end and then only show brief glimpses. As the unseen menace, it really heightened the atmosphere of dread and helped build tension, making the eventual appearance of the Indians a frightening matter.

The final act is exciting, scary, and suspenseful.


Cooper and Widmark come together to share the screen on this fine 1954 western drama. Along with Susan Hayward, Cameron Mitchell and Hugh Marlowe. Three strangers are hired by a woman by the name of Leah Fuller (Hayward) to rescue her husband (Marlowe) following a mining accident. And now Hooker (Cooper), Fiske (Widmark) and Daly (Mitchell) will all slowly learn about each other and are about to get their loyalty tested. The technical side of this film is about as good as one could hope for. Great color, excellent scenery. A very worth-while watch for fans of classic westerns. Fans of Cooper and/or Widmark also would not be disappointed. If given the chance I would rate it a solid 8.5/10, but an 8/10 on here.


This is a pretty good Western, from an expert in the field (Hathaway) – immeasurably aided by its star cast (Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward, Richard Widmark, Hugh Marlowe and Cameron Mitchell), a compelling plot line (three adventurers help a woman save her husband, trapped in a mine, then fight over her and the couple’s gold), the pleasant Widescreen photography (the format was still a new fad at the time), and a magnificent score (courtesy of the great Bernard Herrmann). Perhaps wisely, the script doesn’t overly stress the pretentiousness inherent in the film’s title. Incidentally, yet another contemporaneous Western pitting one woman among several desperate men in a remote landscape was THE NAKED SPUR (1953), one of the well-regarded series of Anthony Mann/James Stewart Westerns – as in that film, the central group here has to contend also with a horde of marauding Indians.

Cooper, the nominal lead, had just had a career resurgence with his Oscar-winning performance in another genre outing – the classic HIGH NOON (1952); as I said in my review of YELLOW SKY (1948), which I’ve just watched, Widmark’s role here was kind of similar to the one he played in that earlier Western – though, by now, he had begun to stretch effectively from outright villain types. The two stars work well off each other: Cooper is laconic but experienced and essentially honest, while Widmark is cynical and opportunistic yet effortlessly charming; interestingly, Cooper was often paired with younger but equally tough men around this time – such as Anthony Quinn in BLOWING WILD (1953), Widmark here, Burt Lancaster in VERA CRUZ (1954) and Charlton Heston in THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE (1959).

Mitchell’s brash and gullible character is pretty much a stock figure in this type of adventure: the scene where he’s provoked by Cooper into a confrontation, eventually exposing his innate cowardice, emerges as one of the film’s highlights. Marlowe and Hayward’s relationship, too, is typically lukewarm; the latter was one of the foremost dramatic actresses of the era, though she appeared in a fair number of action-oriented pictures. The supporting cast, then, includes only one prominent role for a Mexican – yet another member of the group who, in defiance of the Indian onslaught, expires in a hail of arrows – whereas young Rita Moreno’s saloon singer proves to be the only other female character in the film.

P.S. I own a copy of the bare-bones R2 DVD of GARDEN OF EVIL; the upcoming R1 edition should be a SE and include an Audio Commentary – and, as far as I can tell, it’s only going to be available as part of a 3-Disc Collection also comprising two other classic Westerns from the Fox studio: THE GUNFIGHTER (1950; which I already own on R2 as well) and RAWHIDE (1951; not available elsewhere)...


When 4 men follow a woman into redskin country to help rescue her husband they find trouble within their own ranks as well as having to face a deadly threat from the savages who claimed the land as their own. Only a fair western but it did carry a good finale as the rescuers fought their way across a ruggedly beautiful Mexican landscape.


The Secret Service Agent Alex McGregor (Daryl Hannah) is in charge of the security of President Jonathan Hayes (Gregory Harrison), who is facing problems with a powerful group represented by his vice-president (Ken Camroux) and the entrepreneur and Senator Jack 'J.P.' Hunter (Tom Butler) that helped him to win the elections. Alex's fiancé Grant Coleman (Doug Savant) is a close friend of the president, after saving the life of his daughter Jessica, and he intends to propose Alex. The conspirators leaded by Hunter decide to eliminate President Hayes while in Seattle to inaugurate the cable wire transportation Skytran, and they hire the professional and seductive killer Nina Stahl (Ona Grauer) and her brother and hacker Evan Stahl (Aaron Grain). With part of the Secret Service compromised and serving to the purposes of the Vice-President, Alex faces difficulties to protect the president.

"First Target" is a surprisingly solid thriller made for television that overcame my best expectations. The beginning is exaggerated, with the drill of the agents, but the screenplay develops the characters very well. The gorgeous Daryl Hannah seems to be tailored for this role and has a great performance. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Alvo Principal" ("The Main Target")


this film rocked - feature quality. tbs are treating us well with a show like this. daryl hannah as an action hero, who would have thought. also a very sexy opening - the sequel to this is going to be fun.


I never noticed that before, but I guess you have to really sometimes look for the small things. Besides it's a movie and I guess mistakes have to come once in a while, that's life. But overall, it was a great movie, that unfortunately hasn't come to DVD yet, so I hope since "First Shot" has, this one will finally make it. Sort of having your cake and eating it too. Peace-out! Hollywood would make a lot of money (like if they need it????) if they released most/all TV shows. I'm still wait for "The Third Twin" from novelist, Ken Follettt, "Sole Survivor" from novelist, Dean Koontz. All these were amazing TV movies and I hope they will come soon to DVD.


This is a really good made for TV movie. Daryl Hannah turns in a top rate performance. Direction is excellent. The pacing is fast and I never lost interest during the whole movie. There are good supporting performances all round particularly Peter Fleming as Mcall. This went out on TV3 Ireland January 2006, just the tonic for a dull winter's Friday night!. I noticed at the end that it was made in Canada. Usually what we get here from Canada is pretty awful but this one is superior in a whole lot of different departments. If it is low budget it never shows. There are lots of clever twists so anybody could be a bad guy! Watch out for this one!


First of all, has Daryl Hannah ever had a good hair day? Having her play the head of the president's secret service was a stroke of very poor casting. Her acting was good but she was not believable in the role. The other femme fatale, Brandy Ledford was not even good eye candy. Her acting was not passable. This is a TV movie relegated to the likes of runs on Saturday morning on TBS cable. Once you've seen this drivel you'll know why. The assassination plot is so cliché ridden it's a wonder anyone claimed writing credits. The action, what little there was, was poorly shot. This was obviously a low budget Canadian-based movie. How it ever got funded is beyond me.


Daryl Hannah was much better than Merial Hemmingway as an agent even though they are both good actresses.Doug Savant returns as river guide Grant Carlson, who is on the verge of proposing to his girlfriend Agent Alex McGregor, but it's always a bad timing thing so he doesn't get the chance. A new group of agents work with Alex and they keep receiving death threats against President Jonathan Hayes again played by the gorgeous Gregory Harrison.Brandy Ledford gives a stunning performance as Agent Kelsey, who Alex always pushes around to toughen her up. Two assassins are hired by someone to make a perfect plan on killing the President, but first they intend to lure him to Seattle where they have people on the inside to help kill the President. A very handsome Aaron Grain stars as Evan, one of the assassins. Action packed sequel to First Daughter. I was looking forward on watching this and now I'll wait for the 3rd part! I just keep wondering why there isn't a love interest yet for the President since he did say in the first movie that he is a widower. I thought sparks would fly between him and Alex, but hey no such luck. It would be interesting to see that. This movie was good, but I don't think Daryl Hannah will be in the 3rd movie and it was also interesting to see the President trying to set Alex and Grant up.


This is a film of the best kind, not to much slush, and action all the way, unfolds well, and keeps the interest right to the END!

The fact that beaside Darryl Hannah as the star all the other actors are unknow or not well known this side of the pond, and that what makes it an excellent film.....l got it on video and watched it twice in the same day and that is something l don`t often do...

I can really recommend this film, first rate.


The premise is far-fetched but simple. Approaching thirty, Tom Seyre (Romain Duris) is working hard as an enforcer and violent rent collector for his dad, a scumbag real estate tycoon (Niels Arestrup). But a chance encounter starts him thinking he might be the talented concert pianist he once dreamed of, in the image of his late mother. Without stopping his usual work he tries to prepare an audition.

Based on a flop more admired in France than the US, James Toback's 70's Harvey Keitel vehicle about a violent would-be pianist, "Fingers," this compulsively watchable, thrillingly accomplished new movie by Jacques Audiard ("De Battre mon cur s'est arrêté", still showing in Paris as it opens here) echoes his previous compellingly offbeat "Read My Lips" in grafting together two separate moral universes. Read My Lips depicted the odd alliance of a firecracker ex-con (Vincent Cassel) and a mild-mannered but angry hearing-impaired office worker (Emmanuelle Devos). It was an intriguing piece -- but seems low energy in retrospect compared to this. Audiard has made a powerful actors' movie in which Duris blooms, a powerful actor now, playing in effect both the Cassel and the Devos parts and acting out the resulting implosion of violence and frustrated artistic passion with astonishing zest. It's hard to believe he was the tame college student narrator of Klapich's "L'Auberge espagnole" three years ago.

Duris as Tom is good-looking but vaguely burnt-out, his eyes a bit crazy, his hair neatly coifed, his jaw firm, has mouth a smiling snarl. The camera is on that square jaw every minute. Uniformed in boots, smart pants, tie and trim leather jacket, he's an elegant young hoodlum who can switch to a dark suit for a real estate hearing or audition, or wipe the blood off his cuff to enter a café or concert hall. He's angry all the time but brings vibrant energy to both of his conflicting lives. Tom finds a beautiful long-haired young master pianist called Miao Lin (Linh Dan Pham) to coach him in piano. These encounters with the keyboard he approaches like a prize fighter going at a punching bag. If he's an artist it's the hairy-chested, coiled, macho kind. How can you teach anybody pianistic excellence? The impossibility of the process is signaled by the teacher's speaking no French. She harangues Tom in Vietnamese, or just says in English over and over, "again" Or "no." Or "no smoking allowed." A cup of tea in the kitchen at end of session. Tom goes at the same piece over and over, a Bach Toccata. This relationship is an "oasis of calm" in Tom's otherwise 'loca' 'vida' -- the contrasts in such a piece as this are telegraphed without much subtlety -- but the unconventionality of the pair helps the scenes to avoid cliché. And the intensity is just as focused in these quiet moments.

There are other strong relationships. Tom isn't isolated; he works with partners, one of whom uses him to hide his two-timing from his wife. Arestrup, who looks like a French version of late Brando, is superb as the blowsy, burnt out father, a big sensualist, an irresistible presence, always smoking drinking and eating, soft but nasty, irritating but impossible for Tom not to love and protect. Tom pursues Minskov (Anton Yakovlev), a Russian Mafioso his dad has tangled with, and winds up sleeping with Minskov's French girlfriend as well as somebody else's wife. Every encounter he has is reckless and intense. Duris doesn't fail us in any of this. Emmanuelle Devos is his dad's new girlfriend, whom Tom first calls a whore and rejects and then wants to hire on to calm things on the home front. Where's it all going to end? Despite all that's going on, as one French critic said, "there's no fat" in this picture. The pushes and pulls of the hero's dilemma make for fabulously kinetic editing and the action never goes soft. A final sequel resolves things. Some say it's milder than the American version, but that's overlooking the visceral punch of the action throughout. The dialogue underlines that just as in Read My Lips, people aren't communicating too well. It may be music is all that links them.

The shortcomings of such a movie are its simplifications. The crooked real estate life like the classical pianist life can be no more than impressionistically dabbed in. And there's an occasional danger that Romain Duris -- who studied piano for months with his pianist sister for the keyboard sequences -- may be trying too hard sometimes. Since Tom also loves electro which he listens to with big headphones in his car -- as the word is Duris himself does -- classical music maybe doesn't grab the film as wholeheartedly as it ought to. You can't expect profundity but from the sound of "Fingers," this is more accomplished film-making. It may not have as much conviction, but this is wildly entertaining. And more than that, it's a movie where everything comes together, scenario, actors, editing. Audiard, who showed us dark secret places last time, now reveals himself a virtuoso of violence and passion.


Rising French director Jacques Audiard ("Read My Lips") has naturally relocated James Toback's "Fingers" from New York City to Paris. He's also modified the Mafioso's in the original by creating a tight gang of 'real estate' brokers (brokers that break windows, dump rats, etc. to move squatters off their properties).

Basic plot line involves a young man, 'Tom', who is very much caught up in 'the life' of being a thug like his father. He pals around with his two partners and they work hard by day and party harder at night (usually ending with a barfight). Then one day he spots his deceased mother's old music agent who offers him an audition in gratitude (Tom's mother was a professional concert pianist).

What follows is an intriguing and humorous plot line as Tom takes on a piano coach (from Beijing no less) and tries to regain his affinity with the piano almost ten years after he'd stopped playing.

Extremely well-acted film with Romain Duris (as 'Tom') offering up one of those rare performances that's absolutely mesmerizing (most USA audiences will remember him from "L'Auberge espagnole" - another French film worth your time!).


This is an excellent film, and highly recommended. Its script is absolutely wonderful, showing the protagonist having a dark and ugly side, yet possessing the ability to express his sensitivity, as a classical pianist, through music, as he prepares for an audition with an agent. The juxtaposition of the two opposing sides of the protagonist lends the film an unexpected power and impact. It is a violent film, yet a humorous one at the same time, with great acting. De battre mon coeur is a remake of Fingers, which unfortunately I have not seen (yet). I can only hope that the French film will be released in The Netherlands as well, so I can see it again.


how do the French do it?? & why can't American film makers come close? this is a remake of the film "Fingers" released in the '70's directed by James Toback & starred Harvey Keitel. this remake is a beautifully told story that grabs you from the beginning & only lets go at the very satisfying end. brilliant acting by all, most notably Romain Duris. briefly, it is a study in the psychological make-up of a late 20's macho guy torn between his artistic nature inherited from his concert pianist mother & his real estate thug of a father. Duris walks/acts on a very high wire balancing the 2 sides & has the audience rooting for his desire to overcome his distaste for the seamy business he has "inherited" from his father. if 1 were to see only 1 film this summer, i would highly recommend this film.


For the particular movie fan, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, is a slice of intensity, wonder, and subtlety that can only come from Europe. The director/co-writer, Jacques Audiard, has taken a film previously made by James Toback called Fingers, starring Harvey Keitel in the role now occupied by Romain Duris, and made it his own. If I had seen the original version I would make a couple of comparisons to it (at the least, for those who didn't see the original the remake makes you want to check out the original, if only for the acting appeal of Keitel). However I did think about another wonderful French film in the vein of this film- Francois Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player.

While Truffaut's film is a little more concerned about the lead's relationship(s) with women, I felt a kind of connection between the material of the two pieces- sometimes intense, usually lyrical, tales of a person trying to find what fits more for them, the more criminal side, or the artistic side. And, much like Truffaut and his other New-Wave counterparts, Audiard successfully takes an American formula picture and forms it well into a French setting.

There are a few reasons to recommend the movie, one would be for the music, which gives repeated but specific renditions of a Bach tune. Another would be just for the technical-side, which is well-done in hand-held, neo-noir style by Stephane Fontaine. Another could even just be for how Audiard tells his story, or sometimes doesn't tell it: a couple of times mid-way through the film, I wondered if the story of this character would 'go' anywhere, which can either make or break a film of this kind. It pleasantly (or intensely) did, bringing a catharsis for a viewer by the final scenes.

But likely for most the prominent reason would be for the realistic acting, in particular by its star Duris. As I said, I can't make comparisons between a heavyweight like Keitel and Duris (whom I've never seen in a film before this), but on his own terms Duris creates his character believably. It's at times a complex character, or sometimes not- he has that kind of attitude and face where you don't know whether he's really a 'street-level' guy or more straight laced. The split that is also apparent in the character's parents, one a classic pianist who's passed on (the mother), and the other a more criminal-type of a father, also gives the film an added boost of psychological energy. The lead in this film, much like with the storytelling (or lack of it), dictates how it may turn out.

In the end, Audiard and Duris make it compelling enough for the film to be about him, his conflicts, his lusts, his music. It's a wonderful movie that seems to have passed under the radar (it's in only a few theaters around the area) amid other independent summer fare, but if you're an enthusiast of character-driven thrillers that give a bitter-sweet edge, it's a must-see.


THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED (Jacques Audiard - France 2005).

It's usually the other way round, but this time the French took a shot at remaking an American film, James Toback's FINGERS (1978), which starred Harvey Keitel. And the result is excellent. This riveting human drama by Jacques Audiard features an impressive performance by Romain Duris as Tom, a 28 year-old hoodlum who seems destined to follow in his father's footsteps as a property shark working in a sleazy, barely legal twilight zone of the dodgy Parisian real-estate world. But a chance encounter with a former music teacher leads him to believe that he can become, like his mother, a concert pianist. With the help of a young virtuoso pianist, who just arrived from China, he starts preparing for a crucial audition, but soon the pressures from his former pals mount and he gets trapped between two opposite worlds. But Tom is not just a sensible artistic young man desperately trying to escape the world he lives in. He's not entirely sure he wants to leave his old life behind him. He's got a mean streak and when necessary, he takes care of some unresolved matters using whatever means he deems appropriate to take care of unwilling partners, squatters or whoever gets in the way of his (or his father's business interests), really putting the squeeze on people unwilling to cooperate.

Romain Duris injects his role with an enormous amount of vibrancy and energy. I've never seen Duris in another role before, but his character is complex, perennially nervous, strained, angry, but incredibly charming. One moment he's in leather jacket, wiping the blood of his face after a little bashing with some squatters. The next, he's in suit and tie and negotiates with real-estate moguls. The film's atmosphere is dark, moody and downbeat, but Tom's vibrant energy and aggression firmly keeps the viewer's attention. Jacques Audiard's direction is remarkable assured. He seems to know exactly what he wants to present on the screen, never showy and a keen camera eye to give the already top-notch performances maximum impact. What's so refreshing, is that the film doesn't make a big point out of the human relationships. It never becomes overly sentimental, but at the same time all these characters are real and completely believable, just incredibly vivid characterizations. Sharply written, stylish, expertly paced, directed and performed, this is definitely one to catch.

Camera Obscura --- 9/10


This is a first for the French cinema, the remake of an American film, when just the opposite is what happens always. The Americans love to redo what some French director did before, with mediocre results. "The Beat that my Heart Skipped" was adapted for the screen by Jacques Audiard and Tonino Benaquesta, from the 1978 film by James Toback, an under appreciated director that deserves more credit for his work in this country. Mr. Audiard directed the French version.

As a character study of Thomas, the film somewhat succeeds in presenting his ambivalence as a petty criminal and as a frustrated pianist that is trying to regain his skill in playing the instrument. Thomas is, from all accounts, an ugly character that will engage in all kinds of under handed situations in order to make a living. Most of the motivation in Thomas' actions is driven by his loyalty to his small crook father, who is constantly nagging him to take care of the old man's criminal activities as well.

In Romain Duris, director Audiard gets a multi layered performance that is what keeps the film going. Mr. Duris, an intense actor, is the dominant figure in the movie, and perhaps the excuse for seeing the film. Nils Arestrup, as the father, has also some good moments.


the acting is OK, but that script! please. i can suspend disbelief up to a point, but come ON. the good looking thug with the heart of gold and the supposed talent to be a concert artist? hitting squatters over the head with a baseball bat one moment, agonizing over a bach fugue in the next scene? taking piano lessons from a recent emigrée who doesn't speak une licque of french? and oh, those tortured scenes when he's practicing that bach fugue over and over and over and just ... can't ... get it ... right ... i'm sorry. i'm a classical pianist and it's just not that anguished. i've never known anyone to pound their forehead on the keyboard in frustration. the music-making in this film is embarrassing. who did they have advising them, yanni? the ending is completely inane. he flubs the audition and marries the piano teacher. she's going to give a concert. he drops her off at the hall and runs into his father's Russian mobster murderer, whom he pummels within an inch of his life. just as he's about to blow his head off, he thinks the better of it, returns to the concert hall panting and dripping in blood, and takes his seat without anyone so much as batting an eye. i mean, i know the french are blasé, but they still don't like late arrivals.

also, there isn't a single scene without a cigarette in everyone's mouth, all the time. i thought i was going to have emphysema by the end of the movie.

clap trap. don't bother.


This is a film that shows a young man in his late 20s who is caught between an identification with his father (a corrupt businessman) and one with his mother (a pianist, who has died). Tom, the main character, is both. The linked characteristics of his parents in Tom are passion, energy, willingness to take risks, sublimated fierceness--everything that makes a great musician. The director studies Duris' face the way Bigas Luna did Olivier Martinez's in THE CHAMBERMAID ON THE TITANIC. The character is still a boy learning to play his life. Watch it for the pleasure of nuance in Duris' face -- it can be anything! -- and hi character's shifting moods or for the any of the many other elements of the film -- the power of music, the father-son relationship, corruption in business, a fine actor before he has been abducted by Hollywood!


tom lives an unscrupulous life working for the real estate business. He and his colleagues use the nastiest means to oust the occupants. fighting, tearing the room into pieces, putting snake (or rats?) through the door slit - the beginning of the film is full of violent happenings in the dark. There isn't the faintest sign that this electro lover approaching his 30s can be a talented pianist.

his life is changed when he meets an old colleague of his mother who reminds him that his mom was a brilliant concert pianist. he is invited for an audition and since then his life is filled with his passionate pursuit of his dream. he has lessons every day with a Chinese pianist miao lin. the Chinese girl can hardly speak any french, nor is she very expressive of her emotions. it is quite intriguing to observe how they interact in the film.

the efforts he spends on the preparation has changed him. when he goes back to his real estate job, the beat of his heart "stops" as he comes to see how spiteful a life he has had. it is wise to leave it like this without further description. this makes the ending more enigmatic. two days after watching the film i am still pondering what was meant by the glance at the end, what kind of emotions tom must have & why he does not kill the Russian guy.

Romain Duris is a brilliant actor. most scenes were emotionally intense and very well-acted. i am excited to see how he listens to and plays music. not only are the piano pieces pleasing, the techno also thrills (trance is great!). i like it so much the way it portrays the dark side of his life at the beginning. a hard but realistic film which deserves one's mental efforts.


The Beat that my Heart Skipped is a beautiful film.

Thomas Seyr is a property dealer. A broker. A fast talker. A fixer. He and his two partners encourage sellers to sell cheap. Encouragement includes releasing rats into the property at night or the liberal use of baseball bats.

But this is a beautiful film.

Mr Shady Adrenalin-Rush Seyr has a past. Not a bad past - more of a silver lining that accidentally gets uncovered. Like his mother, he used to play piano. A twist of circumstances has him suddenly realising he has a chance to be a pianist and he takes lessons to prepare for an audition. An audio flashback has his teacher telling him, "The emotion is not very generous" and at the same time the film slips into a minor key as our emotional involvement with the character kicks in.

Playing piano interferes with Thomas' being a total bastard, much to the annoyance of his colleagues who don't want him pussyfooting around with such a silly hobby, but the audience and Thomas sense a soul struggling to shine through his shitty persona and the amphetamine paced timeframe stops the movie from going gooilly sentimental. More formula as we see him at the piano naked from the waist up after making love, flattering lighting, Chopin, Debussy, Bach and Mozart. Sensuousness and arty mix. Electro moves to classical. The Beat that My Heart Skipped carefully pushes all the right buttons, but still seems fresh given French naturalistic acting, an unpredictable storyline, great soundtrack, and being entertaining and funny. A remake of an American movie with Harvey Keitel, it stands up quite well even if lacking in substance.

Thomas perhaps eventually finds what his heart missed, though not quite as predicted.


Tom works in shifty real-estate deals with friend Fabice. Evicting squatters from lots in tasteless ways. Ocassionaly Tom collects debts from clients for his father Robert, also practising in questionable real-estate deals. On a chance encounter of his mothers old manager, his love of playing the piano is rekindled; not since played from his mothers death. Hoping for an audition, Tom enlists the help of Linh Dan Pham, a Vietnamese woman who doesn't speak any French.

The Beat My Heart Skipped is a French remake of Fingers. Usually it is the other way around with America remaking a foreign language films, so this is quite a refreshing film in that regard. Unfilimar with the original James Toback film, director Jacques Audiard; also screenwriter with Tonino Benacquista, have taken the challenge of completely transporting the story into a French setting, and succeeded in this task.

Audiard explores the relationship between parents and their children. Starting as a thug for his father, Tom becomes torn when his love of the piano is reborn. His love of his mother, which becomes tested when Robert decides to remarry, drives his passion to receive an audition. There's a sense of unspoken words Tom never said to his mother, the return to music as a way of redemption. Yet he is drawn back into the seedy world of his father; not wanting to lose him too. The piano is Tom's return to childhood naivety, dropping his responsibilities to emotionally free himself from his father's grip.

Utilising hand held camera work, Audiard creates a chaotic sensibility. The camera is constantly on the move, seeking different angles. This chaos evokes an immediacy, not the urgency its seeking. Scenes are fast, many not lasting very long, for all the frenetic pacing, Audiard keeps it cohesive; along with one very commanding and captivating performance by Romain Duris. A wonderful mix dark brutality and beautiful music are skillfully balanced, with beauty found in the brutal and an emotional darkness in the music.

The Beat My Heart Skipped is a captivating film that immediately draws you in.


When he was younger, Thomas Seyr had a dream of becoming a concert pianist just like his mother but abandoned that goal when she passed away, taking the dream with her. Now, ten years later, Thomas, at twenty-eight, is little more than a professional punk whose job appears to be investing in shady real estate deals then using underhanded and sometimes even violent methods to evict those who cannot pay their rents or mortgages. However, one day Thomas bumps into his late mother's agent who encourages him to take up music again. With a renewed sense of purpose, Thomas begins taking lessons from a beautiful Chinese virtuoso while, at the same time, attempting to pull away from some of the more unsavory elements of his life (including his own derelict father who he keeps having to defend against recalcitrant debtors). But he soon learns that renewal and redemption are often easier to dream about than they are to achieve and that the life we choose early on is often the life we have to live with.

In an unusual trans-Atlantic turnabout, "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" is actually a French remake of an American film (it's generally the other way around) - in this case, James Toback's 1978 "Fingers." Set in Paris, this is a subtle, low-keyed study of a man fighting the demons of his own personality while trying to turn around a life that has veered perilously off its original course. Working off Toback's original screenplay, writer Tonino Benacquista and co-writer/director Jacques Audiard avoid making their points with heavy-handed melodrama, choosing instead to show us Thomas as he goes about the routines of his hectic daily life. Wisely, the film rarely makes moral judgments about the character; it merely records his activities, then allows us to size him up based on what we see. The fluid hand-held camera style employed by Audiard and cinematographer Stephanie Fontaine makes it feel as if the events were unfolding extemporaneously - that what we are witnessing is life caught on the cuff as it were. The filmmakers also don't find it necessary to tie up every loose plot end or coddle us by taking the storyline where we in the audience think it should go.

"The Beat That My Heart Skipped" would not be the success it is without the riveting performance by Romain Duris in the lead role. He brings such an intensity of focus and so much nervous energy to the part of Thomas that we cannot take our eyes off him for the entire hour-and-a-half-plus that he is on screen. He makes a morally ambiguous character both repugnant and strangely appealing at the same time. This is one of the strongest acting jobs of the past several years, in a film that provides a rich character study along with much fine classical music.


I think Thomas Seyr (Romain Duris) could be any of us in the working class. Stuck in two worlds about what he really wants to do, versus what he has to do. In the shady corner of the real estate business relying on underhand tactics, he finds no joy. In the other world which presented itself as an opportunity to start again, he must upgrade in order to be accepted. It never is easy, then again, life never is to begin with.

Constantly frustrated at his predicament, you begin to wonder towards which characteristics of his parents would he gravitate to - the father, who's about to remarry, and is living the life that Thomas secret disapproves, and that he fears he's subconsciously becoming his father's son, or his deceased mom, an accomplished pianist. Given the chance to dig deep into his potential of following in his mom's footsteps, he thought he could find joy in emulating his mother's success, but success always is the outcome of hard work, and plenty of frustrations along the way.

With the help of a Chinese pianist (played by Linh Dan Pham), he sets himself a goal to be ready for an audition to set a new future for himself, and the classical music numbers greatly contrasts with Thomas' choice of Euro-techno music which he plays over his beautiful earphones, and I enjoyed prior to watching the movie, thanks to a friend who introduced me to Telepopmusik's Just Breathe, which was used.

While juggling between real work, and his potential aspiration, things go awry with his love and sex life, when he falls for one of his friend's wife, and when his dad gets mixed up with and swindled by Russian gangsters. I particularly liked the scene where he sought out the Russian Minskov, where he goes about without a clue to try and straighten things out with the mobster, only to have him call and threaten him loudly over the phone, in the sudden presence of a passer-by. And what he did for revenge, was totally comical too, in context.

There are moments in this film which painfully brings out themes of frustration, of being lost at a crossroads, and of deciding for oneself what your calling is. Decide for yourself if you're up for some serious fare about the choices presented in life, and about that leap of faith that you take in trying to achieve some of those goals.


I must state from the very beginning that I have not seen "Fingers". Some critics keep praying it and saying how much greater it was. Really? I haven't heard of it so far (not that I am much of a film connoisseur!). I am a normal human being who went to the cinema to see a film very hard to tell friends about without blushing (because it has such a poetic title, lyrical, as some put it). These are just my impressions.

The moment I went out of the cinema hall, I though the combination real estate mobster - gifted pianist was highly unlikely in any case, but rendered almost believable by Romain Duris. I thought he was a brilliant actor. I watched and couldn't believe it, an actor of the same rank as Daniel Auteuil...can't think of a young American actor to match. He DID render the whole thing believable, because I am not a fan of classical music either, and I had that music from that film in my mind ever since. Anyway, I see the film as a story about failure. You realize that you are on the wrong track and you want to go back, you do everything in your power to gain your former self, but you ultimately fail. And that is, I think, when his heart stopped beating. When he failed the audition. I think, in a metaphorical way, it stopped beating forever afterward, although he kept on living. But this is my own pathetic and pessimistic view. My friend, who saw the film with me, said the title refers to his emotion when he sees his mother's former piano tutor. I guess that's a more optimistic view!

oh and I forgot the most important thing. It is equally about totally mad and insane courage to turn your life around as it is about failure, and it should be praised for showing that. In 9 American movies out of 10 the lost hero decides to take life in his own hands, strives and struggles and fights, loses days and nights and sweats and spills blood and...surprise! He finally wins, his effort is rewarded! How comforting! Let's just take a bow for a moment before a film which DARES show that actually, in these situations, in 9 cases after 10, YOU LOSE. And have to live with that, as well.


Theory says that a good movie should be understood even if you don't know the language in which it's spoken. Well, my notions of french are so-so, but I followed pretty well the plot of the movie, thanks to the great performances and visceral emotions described in it. I'll try to propose watching the movie in my french class. I can only hope that Audiard movies grew bigger and bigger in ambition and craftsmanship, in a time where good crime movies are barely seen in and out Hollywood. Great film, and great title. I'll never grow tired of recite it (in french, of course). Now i'll try to see "Fingers", the James Toback film in which "De battre mon coeur s'est arreté" is based.


'De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté' ('The Beat that my Heart Skipped') is another superb and delicate character-driven film from French writer/director Jacques Audiard ('Read My Lips') and his collaborator Tonino Benacquista. How this director can take such potentially fragile subjects and create enormously powerful and indelible characters would indicate that he is one of cinema's truly important artists.

The story evolves as Thomas Seyr (Romain Duris) is seen as a member of a real estate scam working with smarmy associates who buy and sell buildings at the expense and eviction of poor tenants. The work is distasteful but Thomas is following the lead of his father Robert (Niels Arestrup), a man on the skids who depends on Thomas to do his 'collections'. Thomas loathes the work but is devoted to his rundown father. We discover that Thomas' mother, a former concert pianist, is dead when Thomas encounters his old piano teacher who urges him to practice despite his ten year absence from playing and to audition for a new career. A light of hope goes on in Thomas' psyche and he is lead to a Chinese immigrant pianist Miao Lin (Linh Dan Pham) who takes him on as a pupil to prepare him for his anticipated audition.

As Thomas practices, his world of crime does not abate and he is intermittently pulled away from his passion for the piano by his old partners as well as his father's continuing need for his 'dirty services'. He is torn between the life he has been leading and the promises of a career with his mother's (and his) passion for beauty in music. When the partition tenuously separating these dual lives is broken, Thomas struggles to find his way back to music. The ending is unexpected and keeps in step with the verismo of the screenplay.

Romain Duris is a major talent and delivers the kind of performance that indicates he is becoming a powerhouse of an actor. But the real star of the film is the director who knows how to relate a glimpse of a man's life in subtle, quiet ways despite the accompanying background of violence. It is a delicate balance and Jacques Audiard makes it work. Highly recommended. Grady Harp


Remake of a 1978 James Toback film, "Fingers," in which Harvey Keitel played a crook who aspires to be a concert pianist. In "Beat," Tom Seyr (Romain Duris) is also a thug. He deals in low-end apartment house real estate, which frequently requires him to chase out tenants who would otherwise stay indefinitely under tough Parisian eviction rules.

He and his buddies release rats into buildings, bash windows and toilets with baseball bats, and otherwise terrorize renters into beating hasty retreats to assure the success of impending building sales. And Tom tries to keep in touch with his dissolute widower father Robert (Niels Arestrup), who is also a nefarious wheeler-dealer.

Tom's more cultured late mother, we can surmise, kept these two guys from descending into the gutter, while she was alive (we never meet her  there are no flashbacks in this film). She had been a successful concert pianist before her death a few years earlier, and Tom himself learned piano under her influence.

Now, his chance meeting with her former manager results in an invitation to audition. But he's 28 and, though he still noodles around on his piano at home, he hasn't practiced seriously for 10 years. Still, he feels a pull to follow in his mother's footsteps and make something better of his life. So he finds a teacher - a recent immigrant from Beijing, Miao Lin (Linh Dan Pham) - who schools him uncompromisingly to prepare for the audition.

The resolution of this story is at once both inevitable and surprising, but the film turns on Duris's energetic, cat-like, springy presence in virtually every scene. He's forever on the move, and with his short fuse and inscrutably smug little smile, one never quite knows what he will do next. Just that it will be quick and decisive.

For anyone even peripherally familiar with musical performance, it requires an unacceptable level of suspension of disbelief to think that this musical slacker could within just weeks polish his chops to a soloist's level of proficiency. The thought of it is pure nonsense.

Duris is interesting enough to watch, but I was disappointed in this film, and not because of the absurdity of the conceit about musical performance. My hopes going in were high because of Jacques Audiard's earlier highly suspenseful films, "Read My Lips" (2001) and "A Self Made Hero" (1996). I thought that the male leads in those two films, Vincent Cassel and Mattieu Kassovitz, respectively, were both more intriguing than Duris is here.

For that matter, if you want my nominee for the most tightly wound, electrifying male performer of the year, it isn't Romain Duris, it's the Turkish-German actor, Birol Ünel, who plays Cahit in the astonishing film, "Head-On." (In French, English, Mandarin & Russian). My rating: 7/10 (B). (Seen on 09/05/05). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.


Most reviews of this film will explain why this film is better than the original American film "Fingers." But instead of watching "The Beat that my Heart Skipped" to see a rare French remake of an American film, watch this film to see one of the most gripping acting performances of the last several years. Romain Duris, playing a very different character than he did in "L'Auberge espagnole," is absolutely phenomenal: he takes a role that could be (based on the plot summary) corny and sentimental and makes it gritty and believable.

While you're watching, notice all the unusual camera angles that highlight the general feeling of instability that the main character is experiencing.

Who knew that beating people up with frying pans and playing Bach could be so compatible?


Tom Seyr (Romain Duris) is a nattily dressed 28-year old Parisian real estate debt enforcer who works for his father (Niels Arestrup), a sleazy housing profiteer. Seyr and his low-life buddies, Fabrice (Jonathan Zacca) and Sami (Gilles Cohen), acquire property for resale at a profit, making certain by any means necessary including violence that all squatters are removed. When a chance encounter opens the possibility for the opportunity for Tom to become a concert pianist like his mother, he finds that breaking away from his past is not so easy. Winner of eight César awards including best film and best director, Jacques Audiard's The Beat That My Heart Skipped is a loose remake of James Toback Fingers starring Harvey Keitel. In Fingers, Keitel plays the son of a gangster and a concert pianist who is torn between the efficiency of his father's profession and the passion of his deceased mother.

The Beat That My Heart Skipped is shot with dark colors to create a mood of foreboding. It is not all atmosphere, however. Audiard uses disorienting jump cuts, bizarre camera angles, and a hand-held camera close to the character's anatomy to create a frenetic pace and energy to spare. Romain Duris, a young French actor loaded with talent and charisma, plays the tightly wound Seyr with manic intensity. He is an operator on the lowest level, beating up restaurant proprietors that are delinquent in their bills and unleashing rats in a tenement to drive out the squatters. He seems to relish the jobs he is asked to do but still dreams of becoming a concert pianist. When he runs into his mother's former concert manager, (Sandy Whitelaw) he asks for the opportunity for an audition, then engages a petite Chinese piano teacher Miao Lin (Linh-Dan Pham) to assess his abilities. Since he does not speak Chinese and she does not speak French, the film could have been called Read My Lips II.

Miao is a civilizing influence and tries to stop Seyr from attacking the piano as if he was clubbing a tenant behind in his rent but cannot put a lid on his temperament. Their relationship develops slowly but erupts as both explode in frustration at his inability to follow instructions or master Bach's Toccata. To make life even more complicated, he is having an affair with his best friend's wife, and also brazenly seduces a mobster's girlfriend. While continuing to develop his artistic sensibility, Seyr carries out his father's suggestions to "take care" of recalcitrant payees, presumably out of love or guilt or both. He is very protective of his father and does not refuse his requests, though he has little respect for him, telling him that the woman he is thinking of marrying is a whore.

When Seyr agrees to take on Minskov (Anton Yakovlev), a Russian Mafia boss who does not keep his promises, it is clear that he is in over his head and he begins to rethink his relationship with his father. Audiard captures the character's nervous intensity and brings the macho sub-culture of Paris to life, yet the film lacks any semblance of warmth. The Beat That My Heart Skipped is about choices and the willingness to change our direction in life and we relate to Seyr's struggle with different sides of his personality. While Duris' performance rings with a fundamental honesty, I found it difficult to locate a common humanity with this dark, shady man. His cold, abrasive personality and the film's gratuitous violence make this portrait of the artist as a young hoodlum difficult to embrace. Somehow thuggery against poor people and the humanity of Beethoven or Mozart seem incompatible. While there is a lot to admire here, for me it is a film that my heart skipped.


As I have said previously French films can either be very good or like this one where the director seems more concerned with an esoteric format to produce what is in the end nothing.The film starts with potential but degenerates into a series of angst that the main character is attempting to resolve.This leads to a very disjointed movie where nothing of consequence happens and the viewer is left to employ some form of rational to begin to understand the story line. Experimental cinema has a place but to regard this movie as some form of new wave is a gross misunderstanding. I believe that there is a cult of film making and watching that "like the Emperors new clothes" permeates the industry where begin,middle and end are inconsequential and there more avant Gard they appear the more they are accepted.Techniques are fine but they must be employed within the frame work of a genuine story told in believable format with the enjoyment or compulsion of the watcher paramount.It is fine line between puerile rubbish and this type of film but an attempt to relate to the masters of previous successful productions would lead to far more success than this banal attempt to be modernistic and yet void of real incident.


Having seen Sur mes levres and liked it a lot, and having read reviews of this one that made it sound even better, I had high expectations.

Alas, my initial disappointment with the opening scenes was confirmed as the film went on. I couldn't believe a single character except the father's mistress, Christine, played by Emmanuelle Devos, who made the film live for the two brief scenes in which she appeared. The first of those was quite early on, and I thought that the film was going to pull itself together and turn into something really good; but she disappeared then until another short scene quite close to the end.

I found Romain Duris' performance tedious. He was not bad at the gangster bits, I suppose; but as a classical pianist, he was embarrassing to watch. To be fair, the character was just not credible -- you can't think of becoming a concert pianist if you are 28 years old and haven't practised for 10 years -- but all the swaying and drooping and bellows of anguish were so ridiculous that at times I had difficulty continuing to watch.

I have no idea what point the director thought he was trying to make, and I don't think he had much of an idea either. Was he showing that it was possible to change, or that it was not?

A complete waste of time, unfortunately. I just wish there were more films around with Emanuelle Devos. For an awkward woman with no real beauty, she has a presence and a power of attraction that are hard to withstand -- and I for one would have no wish to withstand them even if I could.


With the huge success of his A Prophet as last year became this, it's worth a detour through Jacques Audiard's back catalogue. The cryptically titled The Beat My Heart Skipped concerns come of the same themes that made A Prophet a tense - and epic - cinematic tale. Romain Duris is a temperamental young wheeler-dealer in Parisian real estate, fluent, if not happy with the murky aspects of his trade. Serendipity produces a remarkable plot diversion: offered an audition by a former piano teacher, he begins lessons with a Chinese girl who speaks no French, and finds the process emancipates him from the tawdriness of his day-to-day.

Naturally the drama builds as the civilising effect of his extracurricular pursuit and that very job come into conflict. I liked the way in which Audiard managed this though. I also liked the way in which he dealt with the pianism within the film. This is a notoriously tricky area, introducing music or sport, events which have their own inherent drama. The non-Francophone teacher is a brilliant conceit in this respect - since we do not understand the Chinese (non subtitles) the drama moves from dialogue about the piano to the physicality of the exchanges between the characters.

Of course, so much more revolves about this - like El Djebena, much of the drama comes from expecting Thomas to drop one of the many balls he's juggling - women, providing alibis for adulterous friends, the fractious relationship with his passée-thug father. A nice selection of supporting roles, from the wonderful Niels Arestrup as said dead-beat papa to the echt Parisian beauty Aure Atika as Aline maintain the verisimilitude easily enough. This is Duris' picture though. He performs with such a convincing equivocation that there is no second- guessing the script and we feel sympathy even in his foolhardiness and violence. A very good, if (also characteristically) rather pessimistic film. 7/10


Jacques Audiard, who previously gave us the very interesting Read My Lips (2001) and the cute and clever Venus Beauty Institute (1999), manages to create here a story about a character who is both a petty gangster and a pianist. Not exactly your usual combination of talents. Romain Duris plays Thomas Seyr who is that character. Duris brings an animal sensuality and an artist's sensitivity to the part. He is an actor of unusual skills and vitality. Audiard gets the most out of him.

In the beginning Tom Seyr is in apprenticeship to take over his father's way of life in a French version of the protection racket. Their particular hustle involves getting properties condemned by trashing them or infecting them with rats or some other vermin, forcibly throwing out squatters or tenants, then buying the property on the cheap, and then finally selling it at a nice profit. In the end, Tom...well, I can't give you the ending, but I can say that it is entirely agreeable and surprising with just a little twist on what we might expect.

Neils Arestrup plays the father. There are some other interesting characters and a lot of macho action, a bit of blood here and there, some quick and easy sex. And then there is an old piano teacher that Tom happens to run into one day who invites him to an audition. Tom has not played the piano seriously for years, but just seeing his old teacher brings back the thrill and the deep intimacy he once had with music, and recalls to him the career of his deceased mother, who was once a concert pianist who had hoped that her son would be too. He had the talent.

But of course playing the piano at that level is not something you can take up, let go, and then go back to. But Tom thinks maybe he can do it with a little practice. But he needs a teacher to prepare for the audition. When he tries to get one he is effectively laughed at since he is 28-years-old and is very much out of practice and indeed never really practiced that much. But by chance (there are a number of plot furtherances in this film that come about by chance--but that is not a problem because the chance meetings seem natural and are events that would probably happen eventually)--and so by chance he is hooked up with a young woman fresh from China who speaks no French, but is an expert pianist who needs a little money. She agrees to help him. Her name is Miao Lin. She is played brilliantly with subtlety and finesse by French-Vietnamese actress Linh Dan Pham, whom I previously saw in Indochine (1992) playing the adopted child of Catherine Deneuve's character.

The acting ability of Romain Duris and Linh Dan Pham are what carry this film. Audiard's direction is a bit scattered at times and especially in the beginning lacks focus, but a clever storyline and his ability to get great performances from the players overcome these faults.

See this for Romain Duris who gives a virtuoso performance and for Linh Dan Pham who captivates with restrained intensity.


Thomas is a small-time hood, son of another small-time hood, who goes around putting rats in houses, beating up people and pushing out squatters as part of his illicit real estate business; but Thomas has another dream, buried deep inside until a chance encounter on a busy Paris street ignites his desires: he wants to be a classical pianist. The film explores the conflicts between his day-to-day job, his problems with his randy father who eventually gets himself in too deep with the much bigger and more brutal gangsters, his business partners, and the young Chinese woman he eventually finds to teach him to play the piano on a level that can get him an audition for his dead mother's former manager.

It's based on James' Toback's 27-year-old American film "Fingers" which starred Harvey Keitel and which is much admired; I haven't seen the original but its hard to believe that Keitel was any better in the central role than Romain Duris (a look-alike for a young Daniel Day-Lewis for all you Brit-fanciers out there), who offers brutality, insensitivity and arrogance in most of his daily life, but with an undercurrent of melancholy and self-doubt that makes him one of the most real characters I've seen on screen in a while. I loved the look of the film; it's shot in Paris but you'd never know, it's all close-ups, cramped apartment spaces and dirty night-time streets, no scenery but the emotions on the expressive face of Duris and a few of the other characters.

The film doesn't talk down to the audience, something I find very refreshing after a summer of blockbusters...the first few minutes are a bit chaotic and confusing and they mirror the troubled protagonist. I love that, though he seems at times to be making progress out of his unpleasant and violent existence, you're never quite sure...until the spectacular ending, where everything wraps up beautifully...or does it? See for yourself. Best new film I've seen this year.


Nearly every modern French film boasts a leading actor who has a magnificent obsession outside of their professional life,have you ever noticed that? Frequently it's music,sometimes a quest for a rare item, rock climbing or even acting (that last one's a favourite for all the rather pretentious play-within-a-play options it throws up). This film ploughs the same furrow but the obsession in this case - the piano - is more than just a showy tack-on,it's the very agent of the protagonist's eventual redemption. Everything good in his old life relates to his mother who fostered his interest in playing the piano; his present of moral turpitude and anger he owes to the influence of his deadbeat father. "My heart stopped beating" is the literal translation of the French title ("The Beat My Heart Skipped" sounds more like exhilaration than spiritual stasis to me!) and surely relates to this period,after Tom's mother's death,where Tom's heart is moribund. His is a world that whilst not outlandish (he goes to bars,works in an office,has mates) is subtly killing him. Comparisons have been made with Scorcese's Mean Streets and the squalid but recognisable world depicted there and truly Duris does have more than a hint of the early De Niro - that disarmingly sweet face allied to a troubled often explosively violent character. His is a superb,nuanced performance,leading us in time to an understanding and an empathy for what at first appears a "lost boy", just as he comes to find what had been lost within his spirit. Magnificent stuff and proof that European cinema is still light-years ahead of Hollywood in terms of films that actually mean anything.


I just saw this movie over the weekend with my girlfriend. We watched with subtitles as neither of us speak French. And aside for a few moments of being at a loss (more because we're American and its a French film), it was a great film. It's a story of a relatively successful young man in the real estate business. His father had to beat up clients to make them pay the bills. His deceased mother was a pianist. Happening to come across his mother's manager, he is provoked to regain his early talent at the piano. The movie documents his travels in learning to play the piano all over again and his life along this path. With his father and colleagues pushing him away from the piano, he gathers more steam. But his day job keeps him away from his "hobby" as everyone puts it. He gets increasingly frustrated with dealing with everyone else's problems and not being able to pursue his own challenges.

This is the type of film that ends and you are not sure if he reaches his goal. But you know that he is happy at the conclusion of the film. My only qualm? I don't think a single scene goes by without a cigarette being smoked. But then again, I think most of France has a cigarette lit.


This is the story of a man who works as an enforcer within a building company but who also harbours the desire to resurrect his piano playing.

Yes it sounds ridiculous but the lead actor does his best to play a modern James dean type role where you do care about whether he will recover his piano ability.

There are nice cameos from this business partner's wife as well as his piano teacher.

A couple of the scenes don't quite run as smoothly as most of the film but you definitely follow the path of this moody wanna-be musician trying to live the "2 lives" that he does.

Worth watching if you like good dramas. There is an element of romance here but you can determine whether you think it was worth it...

best


"De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté"(2005)...aka "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" written/directed by Jaques Audiard is a French remake of James Toback's cult movie "Fingers" (1978) with Harvey Keitel. The film tells the story of a young man Thomas (Romain Duris) who is torn by two different sides of his personality - one dreams of becoming a virtuoso piano player and the other - a ruthless debt-collector and enforcer. I think that Duris's was the one of the best performances of last year - so convincing he was as a man who walked on the edge of two realities. The best moments of the film are the ones between Thomas and his piano tutor, the girl whom he hired to prepare himself for an audition that was offered to him by a man who had been the manager of Thomas's late mother, the talented concerto pianist. The man remembers Thomas who had inherited his mother's talent and used to study piano seriously until his mother died when he was 18 and he joined his father in the "real estate" and debt- collecting business. The tutor, a young pianist from China who arrived to Paris recently, does not speak any French and Thomas does not speak any Chinese - so they have to relay to music to understand one another. The film is not perfect, and I am not too fond of director Jaques Audiard's frequent and abrupt cuts of the scenes but it is superbly acted, energetic, and well written.


It has become customary for tired Hollywood producers to look for European art house successes which can be remade in a more commercial style. Think of Cameron Crows remake of Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) as Vanilla Sky or Mike Nichols remake of Cage Aux Folles. The Beat That My Heart Skipped is a rare case of the reverse happening. After the success of Read My Lips, French director Jaques Audiard turned to James Tobaks 1978 Harvey Keitel vehicle Fingers, and remade it as an altogether more stylish and powerful film. Tobaks film, a favourite of Godard and Tarranino, is often through of as some sort of lost masterpiece and has been favourably compared to Taxi Driver. On revisiting it, I found it over plotted and over long, but an interesting and overlooked piece of cinema history all the same.

The Beat that My Heart Skipped focuses on Thomas Seyr (a top notch performance from Romain Duris), who has followed in his fathers footsteps and gone into business at the sleazy end of the property development market. He and his colleagues daily routine involves planting rats and setting fire to buildings to drive tenants out. Sometimes they resort even more direct aggression and violence in order to get their way. A chance meeting with his long dead mothers piano teacher brings new meaning to his life..

Essentially it's a film about the age old Oedipus concept, as Thomas flits between the violent influence of his father and the artistic heritage of his mother. As he becomes more engrossed with his piano practice, so he is drawn away from the wheeler dealing lifestyle of his father and business partners. Soon he is dancing to a different beat. But is his piano playing good enough to offer him an escape route? Shades of Al Pachinos desire to concentrate on legitimate business in the Godfather perhaps, also parallels with Billy Elliot as Thomas goes against the grain of his contemporaries.

After being promised an audition, Thomas starts visiting a young Vietnamese tutor, Miao Lin, who has recently arrived in Paris on a scholarship. Miao Lin cannot speak French and the strained communication between them parallels Thomas' struggle with his father and his own sense of identity. Audaird wisely chooses not to subtitle Maio Lins Vietnamese dialogue to further illustrate the frustration that Thomas feels.

Good use is made of music throughout the film, periodically switching from techno to classical to illustrate the dichotomy of Thomas' world. Perhaps the most telling scene has Thomas, hands still bruised from "business" dealings, tapping out classical piano chords on a bar, while electronic music blares out in the background and his thuggish partners discuss how they are going to drive their next deal home.

Audaird is quickly is making a name for himself for turning out well crafted, intelligent thrillers. From Tobaks source material he has retained the protagonists internal struggle with the self, toned down his misogynistic tendencies, lost a subplot or two and given us a more satisfying ending. Now the only question left is: who is the best one handed piano player, Keitel or Duris?!!!

Patrick Bliss.


Three women review their past lives while they wait for news that will change the future totally for one of them.

 But it isn't "Letter to Three Wives"!

Putting aside the shameless use of the formula from Mankiewicz' masterwork, "Three Secrets" is an enjoyable, well-written drama. Another similarity to "... Three Wives", and one that I have no objection to, is leads Patricia Neal, Eleanor Parker & Ruth Roman being mature, extremely attractive women; not a teenybopper or nymphet in sight.

A second movie that came to mind while watching "Three Secrets" was "The Big Carnival" with its media circus of cynical reporters covering and exploiting a disaster. However Wilder's film followed this one.

The beautiful Cole Porter tune `I get a kick out of you' is well used on the soundtrack.


This marvelous 1950 film deals with 3 women who gave up their baby boy for adoption. 5 years later, the child is involved in a plane crash that killed his parents. Each of the women believe that the boy is theirs.

Patricia Neal, as one of the women, is a hard-nosed reporter. As with the others, the film goes back to show the situation that would lead them to give up the baby. Neal had divorced her husband only to learn that she was a reporter. A career woman, she could never care for a child or hold on to her marriage.

Then there is Ruth Roman who went to prison for killing her boyfriend. The latter wanted her to have an abortion when she told him of her pregnancy.

Eleanor Parker is a sweet woman who gave up an illegitimate child and is now happily married. You're rooting for Parker to be the mother. She can provide the boy with the proper upbringing. True, it will mean that she will have to tell her husband about her past, but she can provide the right nurturing environment.

Of course, the 3 women will come to the mountain area where the boy is in the plane. Neal will have to use her paper connections to get to who the real mother is.

As a reader, please connect to this film via your video store. It's well worth the trip.

Naturally, each of the women


Most of the other reviews posted here have compared this movie unfavorably with Mank's A Letter To Three Wives and whilst there are similarities it is actually closer - as my summary indicates - to a much later movie, Buona Sera, Mrs Campbell, in which any one of three GIs could be the father of Gina Lollobrigida's now fully grown daughter. This time around any one of three women could be the mother of an adopted boy who is the sole survivor of an air crash. How so?Seems that Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal and Ruth Roman all had a son born September 25th in the same year and all three, for various reasons, placed him with the Shelter Adoption Agency and signed away all rights. Now he is in the news and his date of birth revealed all three converge on the scene and we get their backstorys in flashback. It's a taut, well-handled entry and though light years short of Letter To Three Wives is nevertheless highly entertaining. All three leads are fine actresses - Parker picked up a Best Actress gong at Venice that same year for Caged - and the male support is interesting for nostalgia buffs throwing out such names as Frank Lovejoy, Ted de Corisa, Kenneth Tobey etc. Definitely recommend.


Spin offs, copy cats clones, Three Secrets is easily compared to its earlier & far better film A Letter To 3 Wives Basically both plots involve 3 women in a quandry.or a dilemma..in 3 Wives .one of their husbands has run away with another woman (Miss Addie Ross).. who which ? stream of conciousness flashbacks..witty & brilliantly directed by Joseph L.Mankiewiecz a superb cast & even better supporting cast "Letter "is one of the all time great films.."Tree Secrets 3 women face another dilemma, a boy is involved in a plane crash in the mountains. Boy was adopted by parents who were killed in crash..Boy survives crash 3 women gave birth to a boy same day..& gave up for adoption to the same shelter..Whos child is this? Does anyone care.?Yes it is agood film very a sorbing & very well acted. 3very good actresses Eleanor Parker Patricia Neal & Ruth Roman are the 3 women in despair,,and give very fine performances.Direction is very good also by future Oscar winner Robert Wise.. but a lot is borrowed from "Letter" the basic 3 women plot, the miasma, and the stream of concsiousness flashbacks.They worked well for "Letter" & work well here also... but the conclusion is smaltzy & the film lacks the wit and intelligence of its predecessor.. Worth seeing.. a "Chick" flick & some good actors involved..but Letter to 3 Wives is an original & a masterpiece !!


An all star cast leads the best original screenplay of 1947. Cary Grant is my favourite actor, and Myrna Loy, best remembered for her trademark housewife equal in "The Thin Man" are two of Hollywood's brightest comics together in a pretty funny film. Throw in teenaged seventeen year old Shirley Temple falling for a shining knight in armour/playboy/artist Cary and her Judge sister, and a fun packed comedy results. Somehow, Cary playing another play boy who the women keep falling for cannot convince me of the stretch.

There are great scenes, notably at the races. This only further proves that Cary may very well be the funniest straight actor to appear on the screen. The supporting cast itself is a great one, and the leads are fantastic.

This film has been well directed, but not enough to meddle in the great performances. Screenplay manages to simply enough combine humour and creativity. A light hearted romp and good entertainment.

It's a little lesser known as many of these actors other films always overshadow it, but it is still a good example of 1940s film making, with top talent at its best.

Rating: 8.25/10


This is a delightful movie has the imprint of Sidney Sheldon all over the place. Not only is Mr. Sheldon a good writer, but it shows he has an ear for what seem to work, be it a book, or in this case, a screenplay. Under the direction of Irving Reis, this comedy is still fun to watch after all these years.

The stars, of course, are the main reasons for watching "The Boxer and the Bobby Soxer". The film's premise is about the infatuation of a impressionable teen ager with a much older man. The object of that affection is a playboy who appears to be unsuitable for the girl. The contrast between the older man and the young girl creates a lot of funny situations.

To make matters worse, the sister of the young girl is a judge, who sees right through the roguish Richard Nugent and wants him to leave the girl alone, but figures that surely her sister will soon get bored with the man.

Myrna Loy does wonders with her role as Margaret Turner. Cary Grant brings his natural elegance to the role of Richard Nugent; just watch him in the picnic competition. Shirley Temple is a sweet Susan, the girl infatuated with Richard. In minor roles, Rudy Vallee and Ray Collins are perfectly cast.

In a couple of scenes in the film we see Richard Nugent in shining armor, as both sisters take turns in imagining him her hero. Only the right one will be rewarded.


This well written script was enhanced by the performances of Grant, Loy, Temple and Collins.

Some may say the storyline is farfetched - but most movies are guilty of this crime. The movie is original in idea, but had the same formula and end results for the productions made back then (and a few right now).

Highly Recommend this movie.


"The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer" offered Cary Grant a plum comedy role, which he obviously relished with glee. It got him cast as a smart artist playboy paired with no nonsense judge Myrna Loy, whose younger sister, Shirley Temple, has some growing up pains to work through. This trio, assisted by Ray Collins, Harry Davenport, and Rudy Vallee in a very funny turn, work together for some good laughs, thanks to a clever original script by Sidney Sheldon. A sequence at a park picnic is hilarious. A nice little comedy, representative of the post-WWII period as folks were looking for light entertainment and approaching the 50s with bright anticipation.


This film is a rich one. Cary Grant is a charming artist who is always finding himself pulled into court by trouble he never intended to cause. Trouble finds Grant everywhere, because he is a magnet to women, and men get jealous. He is brought to court for just such an occurrence, and low and behold the judge is Myrna Loy. She is a no nonsense judge, but she allows Grant's lawyer (Dan Tobin) to convince her to let him off with a lecture.

However, soon after, Grant delivers a lecture on the pleasures of a career in art to the local high school. Unfortunately he attracts the attention of high school senior Shirley Temple. Temple manages to go to Grant's apartment and get inside - she feels they are made for each other. But she falls asleep, and Grant returns home without noticing her. He gets into his pajamas and dressing gown and makes himself a drink, planning to read a book before bed. He puts on the music, waking up Temple. She says hello to him while he looks totally confused - and then there is pounding at his door. It is the police, the D.A. (Rudy Vallee) and Temple's sister...yes Myrna Loy.

Grant is arrested on a very sticky charge - we are never informed precisely, but it appears to be attempted statutory rape. However, Loy is convinced by her uncle Ray Collins, to be easy on Grant - if she isn't, Temple will always think of Grant as a martyr. Grant has to help Temple get him out of her system. So Grant is given a suspended sentence if he cooperates (which he really hates doing).

The story is very odd in it's reversals of character. Loy never played such a high ranking professional before, nor had Grant played an artist of any type. Temple, the darling little girl of the 1930s, was now grown up, and here comes closest to playing a really bratty character: so spoiled that she does not care about how her actions affect Loy, Grant, Vallee, and her boyfriend from high school (Johnny Sands).

Possibly the most curious change in character is Vallee. He became something of a fixture in films in the 1940s, usually with Preston Sturgis like in THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK or THE PALM BEACH STORY, or in films like I REMEMBER MAMA. His character were somewhat pompous but basically harmless. Here he is (due to growing jealousy, but initially due to disgust) in his most unlikeable character. After Grant is released, he meets Vallee in front of Loy and Temple's house. Vallee, sneeringly says, "Why don't you come to my home for my niece's birthday party? You'd like her...she's six!!" Grant, understandably, looks like he wants to flatten the crooner. Later on he steals a chair in a restaurant from a patron who was using it (causing the patron to fall down). The patron confronts him, but Vallee won't even consider apologizing. So the patron evens the score a second later.

In this comedy you discover all about the man with a power (what power - Hoodoo! You'll catch on). You will see veteran nice old grandpa Harry Davenport show a less likable side to his nature, taking out his anger on defenseless chessmen. You will enjoy this quirky comedy, and be glad you saw it.


Like most romantic comedies, the premise of THE BACHELOR & THE BOBBY-SOXER really isn't on the firmest of grounds (though why watch a film if you want full-blown reality?). Myrna Loy plays serious-minded Judge Margaret Turner, who always pays strict attention to the facts in every situation (personal or professional). She has guardianship of her younger sister Susan (Shirley Temple), a hormonal young girl who develops an instant crush on a roguish art lecturer Richard Nugent (Cary Grant) when he gives a lecture at her school. In order to help her get over this crush, Margaret--urged by her uncle Matt (Ray Collins)--gently blackmails Richard into being Susan's beau until the crush wears off. What ensues is a delightful comedy of errors as Richard squires Susan around town, while struggling to deal with an assistant district attorney (the suitably uptight Rudy Vallee) and Susan's own ex-boyfriend Jerry (Johnny Sands) as he falls in love with Margaret (and vice versa).

It really does seem almost impossible for a film to get any cuter or more feel-good than THE BACHELOR & THE BOBBY-SOXER. First of all, much of the comedy is fantastic--from Susan's starry-eyed image of 'Dickie' as a (literal!) knight in shining armour, through to her attempt to pass herself off as both Dick's mother and Margaret's sister when trying to help Dick escape from jail. The dining scene at the club is brilliant fun, especially as more and more people arrive at the table to disrupt Dick and Margaret's privacy. Watch Cary Grant's reactions in this scene--truly a fantastic comedic performance that has, thankfully, been captured on film to the great benefit of future generations. ;) You just can't help laughing throughout the film--at Susan's misguided passion for Dick, Dick's helpless bewilderment when he gets landed in jail for nothing he can remember, the attempts at matchmaking Uncle Matt subtly tries to pull off etc.

Secondly, the cast itself is excellent. There is no better (or more under-rated) comic actor than Cary Grant, and he lends his considerable talent and boundless charm to the character without reservation. It's always the little throwaway touches that count with Grant's performances, tiny things that make him appear so natural on the screen, and his Dick Nugent is remarkably true to life. I especially love it when Dick trades his car in and turns up his trouser cuffs to act 'young' around the Turners. ("You remind me of a man...") Myrna Loy is delightful as well, though woefully under-used. It's not hard to believe her as a fully professional, modern woman (surely female judges must have been very rare at the time?); nor is it difficult to believe that the judge might have a sweeter, human side. (Though who wouldn't be convincing when asked to fall in love with Cary Grant?) It's a shame that there aren't more love scenes between Grant and Loy, as they doubtlessly have great chemistry together. As for Shirley Temple--there is just no denying how cute she is, and how well she plays the role of the flighty, passionate Susan. It's not an easy role to play, given how the character as written is really rather annoying. Temple makes Susan sweeter and more tolerable, and she definitely holds her own in the company of Grant and Loy.

The only problem with the film, given its great cast and very funny script, is that the 'comedic' element triumphs at the expense of the 'romantic'. There aren't half as many scenes between Grant and Loy as I would personally have liked, and although Loy herself is very convincing in her portrayal of Margaret--you really *do* believe that her character has fallen for Grant's--it certainly isn't with the help of the script. The film really belongs to Grant and Temple, both of whom get to show off their comic talents to great effect. While Loy makes an excellent straight (wo)man, it really is a shame that we didn't get to see more of her, or more of her character interacting with Grant's.

All in all, great fun, great laughs, great cast. The great romance... well, that would probably have to come from another film. That said, THE BACHELOR & THE BOBBY-SOXER is still definitely a film that's well worth the watch...


I own a VHS copy of this film and have watched it several times and it never ceases to be delightful. Some of the other reviews are no doubt hampered by being the result of a single viewing or not paying attention. For example, at least two identify Shirey Temple's character as a college student rather than a high schooler.

To understand the interpersonal dynamics of the story, let's start with two of the great supporting actors in this film Rudy Vallee and Ray Collins. Collins plays a psychiatrist who does consulting work for the criminal justice system and who wants to see his niece, a police court judge played by Myrna Loy, married. Vallee plays an assistant district attorney (ADA) who is romantically interested in Loy's character but is frustrated by her lack of interest and Collins' overt hostility. Between her career and caring for her teenage sister played by Temple, Loy is content to spar with Vallee but keeps him at arms length.

For those who are having trouble with the "lady judge" in the 1940s angle - there were a few especially as lots of young male lawyers had gone off to the war and left opportunities for women in legal careers as in other fields, Loy plays a minor court judge, and she has relatives in the system (the aforementioned uncle and another who seems to be a retired judge). One also needs to know the times to understand that "bobby-soxer" refers to young girls wearing sox with the tops turned down ("bobbed" which means shortened). Another historical note - at least one reviewer has mentioned that there is a hint of pedophilia in the relationship between the characters played by Temple and Grant (mild by comparison to The Major And The Minor with Ray Milland and Ginger Rogers pretending to be 12). This is a somewhat anachronistic view as the trend has been toward raising the legal age of consent and the age for marriage in the two generations that separate us from the time this film was made. The idea of the high school girl and the playboy artist dating or marrying would have been a bit scandalous in a middle class milieu like this, but it would not necessarily have seemed criminal to most folks.

So now we come to the silly schoolgirl crush which Shirley Temple's character conceives with regard to the urbane, sophisticated, handsome, and slightly rakish artist played by Cary Grant. This is a stock element of many romantic comedies. In fact, there is an interesting parallel between Shirley daydreaming that Cary Grant is a knight in shining armor and the romantic reveries of Reese Witherspoon's character in The Importance of Being Earnest. Our teen heroine in this movie is a bit of what we would now call a "drama queen." We see this not only in her relation to the older artist, but in the way she returns to her high school beau talking about how handsome he will be in uniform (he just got his draft notice).

When our psychiatrist uncle (Collins) comes up with the idea of having the artist (Grant) pay court to the bobby-soxer (Temple) till she tires of him, he is playing a double - even a triple - game. He wants to put what he considers a real man (Grant) in close proximity to the judge (Loy) and he wants to irritate the assistant district attorney (Vallee) whom he expects will suffer by the comparison.

The artist accepts his unusual form of probation reluctantly and soon begins to see another, and more desirable, side of the judge but each time they begin to get close something intrudes to keep them from acknowledging their feelings. Meanwhile, the artist craftily cultivates the friendship of the ex-boyfriend to keep him in our bobby-soxer's company.

The scene at the community picnic where the artist and the ADA compete (sack races and such) for ribbons, and the attention of the judge, is hilarious, especially as our bobby-soxer bribes the high school boys to help her artist to beat the ADA. And the later scene in the nightclub is also a real winner.

The chemistry between Grant and Loy here is not the greatest, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is much better in that department, but they give a good account of themselves as reluctant lovers. Loy was always fabulous as the straight partner for a physical comic actor which she perfected in over a dozen pairings with William Powell (I Love You Again, Love Crazy, the Thin Man series, etc.). Through most of this film Grant has little scope for his physical comedy (especially as compared to Bringing Up Baby or Monkey Business) which is why the picnic sequence really shines, but his facial expressions and voice make the most of the limited possibilities, especially in the nightclub scene where there is a lot going on in a small space and Cary Grant still shines.

This movie is a bit dated, and I don't think you could make it today with the same charm and innocence. But it is a joy to watch on its own terms and I highly recommend it.


This film is one of the most copied in the history of Hollywood, I claim. I find it is clever without being profound, its characters are unusually believable and well-developed; and it is a light-hearted look from beginning to end at a very interesting plot question--the precocity of young people who lack categorizing definitions, life-experience and therefore the context to make prioritized value decisions; in a word, it's about the problems adults have with children who want to act as grown ups without having the means to do so successfully. The central character of this film is a successful bachelor named Richard Nugent. Through no fault of his own, the artist ends up in court before Judge Margaret Turner who recognizes his innocence but warns him not to appear before her again on a similar charge, caused by a lady in a night club.,. The situation then become complicated by Nugent's appearance before a high-school class as speaker, an event at which Margaret's daughter falls in love with him despite or because of the difference in their ages. Margaret enlists his help when a casual put-off remark results in the daughter's showing up at Nugent's apartment to be painted. Her idea is to have him continue to see Susan, in the hopes the daughter will realize she belongs with someone nearer her own age. The result is merriment that takes many forms, including physical contests at a picnic where Nugent finds himself the rival of Margaret's boyfriend while trying to lose for Susan's sake; a basketball game where he must champion her erstwhile beau from the bleachers; and family occasions where the dialogue turns frequently hilarious. The best thing about this screwball comedy, to me as a writer, is the gradual development of relationships it allows the audience to share. Fundamentally, the film concerns five persons--Nugent, played with charm by Cary Grant, intelligent Myrna Loy as Margaret, pretty Shirley Temple as a fast-growing Susan, her daughter, Rudy Vallee as Grant's rival, prefiguring his stuffy role in "How to Succeed in Business" and other comedies, and Lillian Randolph as long-suffering Bessie, the family's maid and confidant-adviser. The happy ending achieved for all in this story-line is the result of the common sense shown by Loy and Grant; the 'screwball' aspect which is not a genre, but rather a way-of-handling social-mores comedy, is here made to serve a plot that involves several hard-working normative people in a situation that should never have happened but has in fact happened. The production values of this bright comedy are far-above-average I suggest in every respect. Leigh Harline's music is understated and very useful, and the cinematography by Robert de Grasse and Nichloas Musuraca is high-contrast B/W and very good in a number of types of scenes. Director Irving Reis and writer Sidney Sheldon keep the film's pace and style very swift and consistent. Art Direction by Carroll Clark and Albert S. D'Agostino and the set decorations by James Altwies and Darrell Silvera add to the elegance and fun of the production. Edward Stevenson provided the gowns. Among the cast, Cary Grant is very-well cast it seems to me as the suave, womanizing and genial Nugent; he also portrays exasperation very nicely, and his reading of comedic one-liners is one of his best professional strengths. Myrna Loy suggests her sensuous side so well that she fits perfectly the stuffy role of a judge who is decidedly unstuffy. Her confidant in the film other than Randolph is Ray Collins, always a great listener and man with a wisecrack or sage advice. Temple is very good indeed as a teenager; her teenaged films are for me the best of her filmic outings. Vallee created a whole new career for himself as droll comedic second-lead with this impersonation; and Randolph is very strong as the understanding servant-cum-friend. Others in the cast include Veda Ann Borg, Dan Tobin, Harry Davenport and Ransom Sherman. All the younger people in the film are well-chosen by my standards. The film introduces the nonsensical "You remind me of a man" mnemonic, which became the springboard for "The Power", Frank M. Robinson's sci-fi classic, and a fine film of the 1960s. This is a dialogue and situation comedy with elements of satire and more. It is frequently as good as its award-winning screenplay would lead one to expect it would be, and then some. Civilized angst about the younger generation perhaps never seemed to be funnier than in this movie.


I enjoy watching Cary Grant may a fool of himself, he will do what it takes to make a movie funny, but the star of this movie is Myrna Loy, she was in her forties, but she look like she was only in her thirties, and still sexy. he relax way of acting was wonderful to watch, never over acting, therefore she was quite believable, throw in a seventeen year old Shirly Temple, and the other supporting cast and you have a wonderful little movie. I won't spoil it for you, but I would surely recommend this movie for a enjoyable night watching movie. The funniest part of this movie is the race, I could not stop laughing, it was stupid, but rather funny. I think anyone who like Cary Grant and the lovely Myrna Loy will love this movie.


This is pure, innocent fun. If you're not too jaded by modern life, this film will tickle you. Cary Grant is in fine comic form, as are the rest of the cast.

The thing that really got me, the first time I saw this film, was how gorgeous Shirley Temple was as a young woman. I was only used to seeing her as a little girl in her early movies, but wow, she grew up quite well. Very easy on the eyes. I felt the same way about her when I saw Fort Apache. Fact is, if I was 17 in 1947, they'd have to use fire hoses to keep me away from her. Oh, that little button nose....

The cast comes together well and keeps your interest all the way through. One of those early comedies that doesn't require harsh language, nudity, or gross-out jokes to get its laughs.

This is a movie that I can always enjoy every time it shows up on TV. Great performances by all.

"Mellow greetings, Yookie-Dookie!" (You'll understand why that is funny if you see the movie.)


This movie is full of fun; Cary Grant and Myrna Loy should have had more comedy roles together! If you liked Cary in "Bringing Up Baby" and Myrna in "Love Crazy" you will enjoy this one. Even your teenagers will like this(although they may roll their eyes in disbelief when they find out its in black and white!). The movie is a tasty blend of slapstick humor, the perils of interpersonal relationships and a particularly brilliant bit of artifice involving a mantel and a doll-(keep an eye out for it towards the end of the movie-it happens rather quickly!) I suppose it sounds trite to say it-but this film is just plain, good, old-fashioned, clean fun. I think it is a timeless classic that will continue to appeal to audiences in the future.


I've always loved everything that Cary Grant has done, and this is no exception. A fast-paced, well-written and witty script does more than just show off the three main actors, Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple, it gives some of the funniest lines to the supporting cast.

Despite it's highly predictable plot, it isn't the outcome that kept me watching, but the wonderful witty script and comic timing. I understand that the behind the scenes tension, secondary to Ms. Loy being accused of a communist by McCarthy, was thick. But you would never guess it. The actors appear to be thoroughly, and genuinely enjoying themselves.

And it's that obvious pleasure that oozes out of the screen and into the audience. More than once, I caught myself laughing out loud. Definitely one to take time out and enjoy!


I wasn't expecting to much from this movie but was pleasantly surprised. Though the plot is a quite far fetched I couldn't help but fall in love with this fairy tale. So often with modern Hollywood comedies the laughs are from base and uninteresting humour. Not so here. The jokes are well thought out and do not challenge ones intelligence. I'm not a prude and the humour here is not prudish. Sometimes very subtle....as when Grant admires Loy's breasts at their meeting in an upscale restaurant. A prime example of a 1940s screen writer slipping one past the Hollywood censors. This movie has no dead spots...no lulls and entertains from beginning to end.


Myrna Loy is a judge who sentences Cary Grant to Shirley Temple in "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer," also starring Rudy Vallee, Johnny Sands, Ray Collins, and Veda Ann Borg. Grant is Richard Nugent, an artist who gets into some trouble and comes before Judge Turner (Loy). He leaves court and heads for a high school to give a lecture, only to encounter Judge Turner's 17 going on 35-year-old sister, Susan, played by Shirley Temple. Like the rest of the girls in the audience, Susan thinks Richard is dreamy but takes things a step further. She corners him in a room for a school paper interview and asks important artistic questions such as, "Are you married?" and "Have you ever been in love?" To get rid of her, Richard agrees to paint her portrait as America. When he returns home that evening, Susan is waiting in his apartment. Moments later, Richard is in jail, the Judge having figured out where her niece has gone. The court psychiatrist (Collins) talks the Judge into letting Susan get Nugent out of her system. It doesn't sit well with Richard, or Susan's quasi-boyfriend (Sands).

Grant's comic timing and mastery at underplaying is evident here as he reluctantly dates Susan, even dressing down and switching cars with her boyfriend to disillusion her. The scene at the picnic, when he tries his hands (and legs) at several events is hilarious. Toward the end of the film, he takes Judge Turner to dinner; before long, the entire cast is at the table talking and arguing as the waiters continually sing "Happy Birthday" to one customer after another, and a diner at another table tries to retrieve Rudy Vallee's chair for his own party - it's a great scene. Loy is sophisticated and glamorous which belies her judge-like decorum in the courtroom, where she's all sternness and intelligence. Temple is very funny as she tries to appear older and calls Grant "Dickie." Her pseudosophisticated talk and haughtiness are amusing, but Temple is at her best when she's being what she is - a teenager. Johnny Sands is positively adorable as her boyfriend Jerry. His bio says he got fan mail until the day he died - I can believe it.

This is such a delightful movie, with a wonderful script by Sidney Sheldon and marvelous performances. The next time you're feeling blue, remember: "You remind me of a man!" "What man?" "The man with the power!" "What power?" "The power of whodo!" "Whodo?" "You do!" "What?" "You remind me of a man!"