The Hasty Heart (1949)

Adapted from the stage play of the same name, The Hasty Heart is a one note cliche, filled with period conventions, unexceptional acting, and bland staging, it became almost instantly tiresome to watch. The story is about a mostly off putting Scottish stereotype of a solder ( Richard Todd) injured fatally on the final day of the war, only he doesn’t know it. Destined to die of kidney failure within weeks, the commanding officer of this international MASH unit decides to keep the Scotsman around and in the dark until his death, he does however enlist a pretty nurse (Patricia Neal) and five recuperating solders of various nationalities to befriend him and make him ‘happy and comfortable’ in his last days. Mostly the Scotsman (who pines for a kilt and is named Laughlin McLaughlin, lest we risk once taking the emphasis of his being Scottish) is gruff, self righteous, and unlikable. Eventually he comes to believe that this gang of six are his friends, and then he just becomes over needy and annoying. Then he figures out he’s dying and his ‘friends’ knew about it, and he becomes a jerk again (want to wager if he has yet another change of heart before the ending). Movie notable mostly as Neal’s first after beginning her affair with Gary Cooper on the seat of The Fountainhead, and that Ronald Regan (who plays the groups requisite Yank) was reportedly very depressed while shooting this movie having recently been divorced by his wife Jane Wymen. But mostly, its just a bad movie. Grade: D.