This film is sad waste of some very talented people here. But I think the script was bad and it was probably butchered in the editing department.
This has a Tennessee Williams feel to it. Give these people some southern accents and it could pass superficially for something Tennessee Williams might have done. I wish he had done it.
Monty Clift is a young writer hired by newspaper editor Robert Ryan on a recommendation by his wife Myrna Loy. But Loy and Ryan have a tempestuous marriage. Ryan assigns him a new lonelyhearts column, so he can be a local Ann Landers. Unfortunately Clift gets way too involved in his work both emotionally and physically.
There was obviously some footage missing at least to my eye that would have explained exactly what Loy's and Clift's relationship was. The film opens in a bar hangout for newspapermen and it is there Clift is introduced to Ryan.
Ryan's antipathy to Clift is also not well explained. We know he's a cynic and he's got some great lines in the script, but his motivation for tormenting Clift who he recognizes as a sensitive soul are really not fathomable.
Monty Clift oozed sensitivity from his very pores. So this role is one he can act with no stretch of his marvelous talent. But he should have been given something better to work with.
Maureen Stapleton made her screen debut as a sad sack writer to the Lonelyheart column. She's very good indeed along with her husband Frank Maxwell. There relationship eerily parallels Loy's and Ryan's.
For fans of the cast members see it, but for others it will be disappointing.
This has a Tennessee Williams feel to it. Give these people some southern accents and it could pass superficially for something Tennessee Williams might have done. I wish he had done it.
Monty Clift is a young writer hired by newspaper editor Robert Ryan on a recommendation by his wife Myrna Loy. But Loy and Ryan have a tempestuous marriage. Ryan assigns him a new lonelyhearts column, so he can be a local Ann Landers. Unfortunately Clift gets way too involved in his work both emotionally and physically.
There was obviously some footage missing at least to my eye that would have explained exactly what Loy's and Clift's relationship was. The film opens in a bar hangout for newspapermen and it is there Clift is introduced to Ryan.
Ryan's antipathy to Clift is also not well explained. We know he's a cynic and he's got some great lines in the script, but his motivation for tormenting Clift who he recognizes as a sensitive soul are really not fathomable.
Monty Clift oozed sensitivity from his very pores. So this role is one he can act with no stretch of his marvelous talent. But he should have been given something better to work with.
Maureen Stapleton made her screen debut as a sad sack writer to the Lonelyheart column. She's very good indeed along with her husband Frank Maxwell. There relationship eerily parallels Loy's and Ryan's.
For fans of the cast members see it, but for others it will be disappointing.