"My Foolish Heart", a 1949 gem starring Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, Kent Smith, Robert Keith and Jesse Royce Landis is on TCM USA , January 25 2011 at 8:45AM EDT.
I haven't seen this for many years, but remember it as a very touching tearjerker. Dana Andrews is most appreciated these days for his roles as disillusioned characters, but here he plays a really endearing man: good humored, decent, easy going, natural.
The plot is quite the melodrama, told in flashback by Susan Hayward. In the beginning of the film, she is an unsympathetic lush on the verge of divorce. She remembers her college years when "she was a nice girl" and we see the story of her great love.
It's from J.D. Salinger's story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut". Apparently, Salinger was so upset by the "hollywoodization" of his story that he vowed never again to sell film rights to any of his creations.
While the public loved the film, critics dismissed it as another woman's picture. It is quite the damp hanky film but has a skillfull cast and direction makes it work beautifully.
I once answered a survey of "the film character you would like to marry" and my choice was Dana Andrews in "My Foolish Heart".
One day I will post my personal list of tearjerker films - this will be one of them.
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