Main Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Charles Boyer, John Beal, Jean Hersholt, Sam Hardy
Release Year: 1935
Country: US
Run Time: 78 minutes
Plot
Katharine Hepburn suffers nobly while her philandering conductor husband Charles Boyer dallies with the likes of Helene Millard in this overheated melodrama directed by Philip Moeller of the renowned Theater Guild. Although receiving plenty of warning, prim lady composer Constance Roberti (Hepburn) is still devastated when her new husband, Franz (Boyer), is spotted dining with glamorous Sylvia (Millard) and promptly leaves him. A dipsomaniac, Roberti finds solace in a bottle and is soon reduced to playing in a seedy dive. Constance finds him there and after playing “their song” on the honky-tonk, Roberti resolves to go straight and return to the world of classical music. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Review
Francis Lederer reportedly walked out on Break of Hearts after a few days of filming, claiming that Katharine Hepburn was given “all the breaks in camera angles.” There is some truth to the accusation: Hepburn does steal what there is to steal here but it was this kind of cinematic malarkey that finally prompted exasperated exhibitors to name her “box office poison.” Break of Hearts, truth be told, is a decidedly dated museum piece with very little entertainment value. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Break of Hearts is a 1935RKO film starring Katharine Hepburn and Charles Boyer. The screenplay was written by the team of Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman, with Anthony Veiller, from a story by Lester 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." (Francis Lederer actually was first signed-up lead, but the producers replaced him with Charles Boyer.)
