In the opening credits for 1958’s Lonelyhearts, I noticed this was based on a novel by Nathanael West, author of Day of the Locust. That novel was a nasty piece of work, and the 1975 film adaptation stayed true to its spirit. I have not read the source material for Lonelyhearts, but I was curious whether a film of this vintage was going to effectively convey what I assumed would be a similarly cynical tone.
Montgomery Clift stars as a man desperate to get work at a newspaper and so agrees to write a new “Lonelyhearts” column editor Robert Ryan is starting, to answer letters the lovelorn send in for advice. At first, Clift joins his co-workers in cruelly laughing at the contents of these letters. Before long, he is frustrated by his inability to truly help any of these lost souls.
This is the beginning of what Ryan had intended from the time the men first met, to wear down a man with noble intentions until he is as corrupted as himself. When the two men first meet in a bar patronized by the paper’s writers, Ryan is bemused to discover Clift does not smoke or drink. The editor challenges the man on the spot to verbally compose a newspaper story for hm. Clift rises to the challenge with an objective piece detailing his immediate dislike for the editor, as stylized to be like a piece for the paper. Afterward, the nonplussed Ryan says, “I think I have something in my mind for you, a man of your noble nature”, to which Clift replies, “The rack?!” Oh no, it is something far worse, in the form of this doomed assignment.
Ryan later works the knife in more thoroughly when he challenges Clift to phone one of the letter writers, to see if the columnist can do some real good. The letter chosen was written by Maureen Stapleton, a woman trapped in a loveless marriage to a bitter, impotent man. In a moment of weakness, Clift will cross line with her, and this results in an unstable woman obsessing over him.
This is especially stupid of Clift, as Dolores Hart is in love with him. Hart is still living at home, taking care of her father and school-aged brothers while also working as a secretary. I found it interesting it is never addressed why there is no longer a mother in the picture.
Also in the mix of characters is Myrna Loy as Ryan’s long-suffering wife. He is still endlessly needling her over a brief affair she had a decade before, and that was only spurred on by his many indiscretions. It was through Loy that Clift was introduced to her husband, so Ryan incorrectly assumes there is a non-platonic aspect to this friendship.
The performances are interesting all around, though the characters sometimes felt to me as if they were in different films. I did not find Clift believable for a single frame, but he is compelling to watch. This was made after his devastating automobile crash, and he is bug-eyed, twitchy and nervy. I felt anxious watching him. Stapleton is good in this, her feature debut, though I’m not sure her performance warranted her supporting actress Oscar nomination. Still, this is a far cry from what I have come to expect from the future Mrs. Archie Bunker. Loy and Hart are quite believable in their supporting roles. Ryan fares the best of anybody here. I have seen as a physically violent asshole in a few film noirs, but this is the first time I have seen him as such an emotional sadist.
From a technical aspect, this is a very well-made picture. Legendary cinematographer John Alton handled the photography with his exemplary, though restrained, photography. The script is full of amazing dialog, though most of it scanned as false to me. Consider this, which Ryan says to Loy, concerning her long-ago adultery: “You’re my wife but also the mourner of our early romance.” I normally have a very high tolerance for dialog too clever to ever possibly be spoken by actual human beings, but I didn’t quite believe these characters would say much of what emerges from their mouths.
In the end, I was disappointed by Lonelyhearts, finding it far short of the sum of some interesting parts. While I was amazed a major studio could make a film as acerbic as this in the 1950’s, it still felt compromised. That said, it bears some similarities to Day of the Locust, where the only character who could not be corrupted (named Homer Simpson!) must be destroyed. Here, we have Ryan saying of Clift, the man he is forever testing and torturing: “He’s only been good because there has been no incentive to be bad.”
Dir: Vincent J. Donehue
Starring Montgomery Clift, Myrna Loy, Robert Ryan, Dolores Hart, Maureen Stapleton
Watched on Kino Lorber blu-ray