Break of Hearts

1935 "Twenty-two and wonderful... as Booth Tarkington's loveliest heroine!"

Break of Hearts

5.8 | 1h18m | NR | en | Drama

Constance, a poor but aspiring composer, meets the great conductor, Franz, through their old music teacher. They fall in love, despite Constance knowing about Franz's weakness for pretty women.

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5.8 | 1h18m | NR | en | Drama , Romance | More Info

Released: May. 31,1935 | Released Producted By: RKO Radio Pictures , Country: Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:

Synopsis

Constance, a poor but aspiring composer, meets the great conductor, Franz, through their old music teacher. They fall in love, despite Constance knowing about Franz's weakness for pretty women.

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Cast

Katharine Hepburn , Charles Boyer , John Beal

Director

Van Nest Polglase

Producted By

RKO Radio Pictures ,

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Trailers & Images

Cast

Katharine Hepburn

as Constance Dane Roberti

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Charles Boyer

as Franz Roberti

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John Beal

as Johnny Lawrence

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Reviews

st-shot Two of the most distinguishable voices in film history Charles Boyer and Kate Hepburn find romance in this rather ineffective romantic melodrama involving a famous conductor and a struggling composer. It's a rather tepid Intermezzo.World famous conductor and womanizer Franz Roberti drops by an old friend's and meets Constance Dane a music teacher and aspirant composer. He's pleasant to her but no more. When she can't get a ticket to his sold out show she sneaks into a rehearsal and creates a scene that first annoys and then charms Roberti. They go out and Roberti lays out his Casanova MO to her but much to his surprise finds himself falling in love and marrying her. They globe trot on their honeymoon and all is well until she discovers he has returned to his old ways and decides to leave him. Crestfallen they almost reconcile but she rejects him and he takes to drink sabotaging his career.The early scenes between the pair falling in love has a charming energy as Boyer's dark eyed intensity and magnificent inflection charm Hepburn's bedazzled beauty. But once the honeymoon ends and Constance books the film descends into a mawkish affair it can't climb out of with both leads becoming a touch too strident.Philip Moeller's direction is flat and uninspired as he relies heavily on Hepburn close-ups and Boyer's roving eye to make his point. Advancing the story choppily and with little form in the process the glossy sets and lavish costumes lack the sweep they deserve with Moeller's camera movements tentative at best. The most ironic moment in the film is when Hepburn launches into discourse on how she will look out for the sodden Roberti eerily reflecting her relationship with Spence a decade away.

bkoganbing Although at first glance Break of Hearts looks like Katharine Hepburn is doing another version of Eva Lovelace. Her Patricia Dane is a young struggling classical composer whose mentor is that old music master Jean Hersholt. Turns out Hersholt also mentored well know symphony conductor Franz Roberti played by Charles Boyer. When they meet he does his little bit to put them together.Here the resemblance to Eva Lovelace ends. Picture young Eva in Morning Glory betrayed by those around her. Kate discovers Boyer is quite the womanizer so rather than let the grass grow under her feet, she responds to the attentions of violinist John Beal. Things get bitter and rather melodramatic as Boyer falls to pieces.There was no conviction in this part for Hepburn in the way that Terry Randall from Stage Door or Eva Lovelace from Morning Glory were. Probably because unlike those two career minded women which Hepburn surely was in real life, here she admits she's got no talent and is willing to do a My Man number to get the drunken dissolute Boyer back on his feet.Definitely not the Kate we all know.

ndisabat I honestly went into this movie thinking it would be god awful like the critics said. I guess I'm prejudice when it comes to Katharine Hepburn.You might say that the way Waterloo Bridge photographed Vivien Leigh is similar to how Hepburn is photographed in Break of Hearts.Her face and her eyes are aglow in nearly every scene. I don't think she was over acting at all like some have said.Boyer does a decent job as the famous composer Franz Roberti.It really isn't a variation of "A Star is Born" like one reviewer has said.Sure the plot's basically mush, but I still enjoyed seeing Hepburn at the height of her youth.It's a good film for Hepburn fans at least.

Daryl Chin (lqualls-dchin) In the 1930s, there were many "adult" dramas about marital maladjustments. This film is striking because the two main characters, played by Katharine Hepburn and Charles Boyer, have musical careers, she as a composer and he as a famous conductor. The movie is sometimes preposterous, but it has an unusual background of classical music, it's nontraditional in its endorsement of female independence, and it has fine performances.