My Foolish Heart (1949)

No thank you. My Foolish Heart is a real mess. It starts off by giving us a portrait of a young woman as a spoiled bitch – this is the kind of part Susan Hayward would excel at playing forever – but then we are supposed, somehow, to see her as an innocent kid falling in love and all that jazz. Didn't work for a second. You set up a thing like that and it's difficult to break. 

Even worse, this part could've been played by any actress from the period and we would've gotten a similar performance. It's just not that great a part. It's a version of Olivia De Havilland's part in To Each His Own (a movie I also disliked, for the record). 

Incidentally, was 1949 the worst year for Best Actress nominees ever? No wonder De Havilland won her second Oscar for The Heiress. It's easily the best performance among these 5 nominees. 

Worse yet, Dana Andrews, who is top billed in My Foolish Heart, phones his performance in! A mess from start to finish. I never even got around to liking any of the characters! Except Robert Keith. He's at least having fun in all of his scenes.