The Secret Heart

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The Secret Heart

Directed by	Robert Z. Leonard
Produced by	Edwin H. Knopf
Written by	Anne Morrison Chapin Whitfield Cook Rose Franken (story) William Brown Meloney (story)
Starring	Claudette Colbert Walter Pidgeon June Allyson
Music by	Bronislau Kaper
Cinematography	George J. Folsey
Editing by	Adrienne Fazan
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (theatrical)
Release date(s)	25 December 1946
Running time	97 min
Country	USA
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Secret Heart is a 1946 film directed by Robert Z. Leonard, and starring Claudette Colbert, Walter Pidgeon and June Allyson.

[edit] Plot

Lee is engaged to marry Larry Adams, a spendthrift widower with two children, son Chase and daughter Penny. Lee had been living in England with her guardian aunt, who didn't approve of the match since Larry was an alcoholic, and while returning to America on an ocean liner, she meets Chris Matthews, a close friend of Larry's. Despite her loving feelings for Chris, she marries Larry, and moves to his farm in Rhode Island. Larry's talent is playing the piano, which he teaches Penny, but he gave up this ambition to work in a bank, to please his father. This frustrated ambition has ruined his life, and over the next two years Lee tries to confront his alcoholism, while trying to win Penny's confidence. While Lee is out for the night with Chris, Larry dies, his body found at the bottom of a cliff. He had committed suicide after two years of marriage, and on his death, it is reported that Larry had embezzled money from his clients. Lee sends Chris away and moves the family away from the farm, to New York where she takes a job to pay off Larry's debts, and withholds the truth from Penny, wanting to shield her from the stigma of scandal. Penny makes a hero out of Larry, who she believes died of a heart attack, and is unable to embrace Lee, who is now left to look after them alone.

Ten years later, Penny, who behaves strangely, has dropped out of school and plays the piano incessantly for her father's memory when nobody else is around, is the patient of psychiatrist Dr. Rossiger. Lee goes to see him, concerned about Penny's behaviour, and the story up to this point is recalled in flashback. The doctor advises that they move back to the farm for the summer, since that is where the death occurred, and he believes that confronting the past will help cure Penny. Chase returns from the navy after three years and seeks a job with Chris, who now owns a shipyard. He introduces Penny to his navy friend Brandon Reynolds. They all move to the farm, together with Chase's friend Kay Burns, where Chris reenters Lee's life after a ten-year absence, and Lee realizes that it was Chris she loved all along and let get away. Once at the farm, Penny becomes disenchanted with her father's memory when Chase tells her the truth, and becomes despondent, feeling that Chris is the only person she can confide in. Although Brandon is interested in Penny, she loves Chris, and is devistated when she finds him in Lee's arms. Penny then tries to kill herself by jumping off a cliff, as Larry had done, but Lee intervenes in time to prevent it. The healing process begins and when Lee tells Penny the complete story of her father's life, Penny is finally able to embrace Lee. At the end Penny graduates, having adopted Chris as her father, and resumes her romance with Brandon