RE: My Foolish Heart

Lee Dirks (ldirks@microsoft.com)
Thu, 15 Jan 1998 09:06:20 -0800 

Agreed, it is some truly BAD cinema and heinous overacting as well. (I taped
it off of AMC years ago as well.)  It is no surprise that Salinger never
worked with Hollywood again.  Nevertheless, it probably is still worth
watching just for curiosity's sake. 
-jld
 

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	D. [SMTP:darjr@shore.net]
	Sent:	Thursday, January 15, 1998 5:43 AM
	To:	bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
	Subject:	Re: My Foolish Heart

	At 10:17 PM 1/14/98 -0800, you wrote:
	>I was wondering if anyone has ever seen the film that was
	>made after "Uncle Wiggly", called "My Foolish Heart"...
	>If anyone has ever seen it, how was it?  I have this nagging
	>fear of irony, after Holden's excessive damnation of Hollywood,
	>that the only Salinger film ever made (although I think I 
	>recall one being made in Eastern Europe or something) is 
	>a huge disgusting mess.  I'm curious, though, since the script
	>was written by the writers of "Casablanca"--although I expect
	>"Casablanca" was the exact sort of film the Holden abhorred.
	>
	>Of course I still want to see it--with a sort of morbid 
	>curiosity--since I think "Uncle Wiggly" is one of Salinger's
	>best.  If anyone has got anything to say about it, please 
	>share.  I'd greatly appreciate it.
	>
	>Brendan


	Brendan and List--

			    Not long after reading Hamiliton's biography of
JDS (such as it was)
	many years ago, I taped "My Foolish Heart" from American Movie
Classics
	(AMC). I'm sure there's been a discussion or three about this one on
the
	list before, but here goes:  IT STINKS!  The screenplay turns
Salinger's
	wonderfully balanced story into a weepy, tear-jerking fiasco.
Worse, the
	screenwriters decided they  weren't going to the follow the original
very
	closely; they essentially tossed out the meaning of the ending of
the story
	and nearly destroyed everyone of Salinger's ironies.  It was this
lack of
	'faithfullness' to the original that may have destoryed any desire
Salinger
	had of selling more to Hollywood.  I know it would have made me
furious had
	I been in his boots. In fact, my wife pleaded with me to turn it off
after
	15 minutes when I tried to show it to her once--it's that bad.  Rent
it to
	see what kind of destruction can take place when screenwriters think
they
	have a better idea than the original.

	Cheers!

		D.