- Break of Hearts
Infobox Film
name = Break of Hearts
image_size = 150px
caption =
director =Philip Moeller
producer =Pandro S. Berman
writer =Lester Cohen (story)Victor Heerman Sarah Y. Mason Victor Heerman
narrator =
starring =Katharine Hepburn Charles Boyer
music =Max Steiner
cinematography =Robert De Grasse
editing = William Hamilton
distributor =RKO Radio Pictures
released =31 May 1935
runtime = 78 min.
country = USA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0026134"Break of Hearts" is a 1935
RKO film starringKatharine Hepburn andCharles Boyer . The screenplay was written by the team ofSarah Y. Mason andVictor Heerman , withAnthony Veiller , from a story byLester Cohen , specifically for Hepburn.Boyer played Franz Roberti, the passionate and eminent musical conductor while Hepburn was Constance Dane, an aspiring but unknown composer. She wants to see his concert, but it is all sold out. When she sneaks into his rehearsal he is smitten by her devotion and gets his orchestra to get it right as they play just for her. Constance marries Franz: he says she is "a most exciting creature" and she has been in love with him for a long time (i.e., "since late this afternoon").
Not long after they get married Constance finds Franz having dinner with a female friend. So Constance responds by going out with her own friend, Johnny Lawrence (John Beal). Johnny wants to marry Constance, but she cannot forget her husband. Franz has been hitting the bottle and pretty much throwing away his career, although exactly which of his many sins is driving him to drink is not really clear. Fortunately, Constance has been working on her concerto.
The best part of this film, directed by
Philip Moeller , comes at the beginning before Franz and Constance get together. The rehearsal sequence has a certain charm, but Franz's interest in Constance is never really believable. The story does have some parallels with "A Star Is Born" but the result is one of Hepburn's least successful efforts at RKO.Originally "Break of Hearts" was intended as a vehicle for Hepburn and
John Barrymore . The film was promoted by RKO's advertising department with the catch phrase: "The star of a million moods "together" with the new idol of the screen."
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