''After His Own Heart'' is a 1919 American silent

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film based on a 1919 short story of the same name by

Ben Ames Williams Ben Ames Williams (March 7, 1889 – February 4, 1953) was an American novelist and writer of short stories; he wrote hundreds of short stories and over 30 novels. Among his novels are ''Come Spring'' (1940), ''Leave Her to Heaven'' (1944) ...

. It was adapted for the screen by Albert Shelby Le Vino and directed by

Harry L. Franklin Harry L. Franklin (September 5, 1880 – July 3, 1927) was a director of silent films in the United States. Life Franklin was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and began his film directing career as an assistant to Edwin Carewe. He worked for Me ...

. The film stars

Hale Hamilton Hale Rice Hamilton (February 28, 1880 – May 19, 1942) was an American actor, writer and producer. Biography Hamilton was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1880. (His birth year is sometimes listed as either 1879 or 1883.) Hamilton's Broadway debut w ...

and

Naomi Childers Naomi Weston Childers (November 15, 1892 – May 9, 1964), was an American silent film actress whose career lasted until the mid-20th century. English ancestry, child actress She was born of English parentage in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Later ...

and was distributed by Metro Pictures Corp., a forerunner of

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

. A copy of the film is archived at the

Cinémathèque Française The Cinémathèque Française (), founded in 1936, is a French non-profit film organization that holds one of the largest archives of film documents and film-related objects in the world. Based in Paris's 12th arrondissement, the archive offers ...

under the title ''Une Cure Merveilleuse''.

Plot

Thomas Wentworth Duncan, a

millionaire A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. Depending on the currency, a certain level of prestige is associated with being a millionaire. In countries that use the short scal ...

, faces the prospect of being broke after a fraudulent

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to t ...

absconds with his money. Duncan is now faced with getting a job to support himself, but he has never been accustomed to doing anything more strenuous than

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

. Duncan has also fallen in love with Sally Reeves, an old flame, but he realizes he no longer has the fortune and lifestyle to which she is accustomed and obviously cannot ask her to marry him. After returning from a gala that he fully expects to be his last one with his elite friends, he finds a mysterious letter on his table inscribed "personal and important". The letter informs him that his financial woes are well known to the letter-writer and if he will give one month to an unexplained project, the sender will pay him $250,000. Duncan decides to reject the offer in the letter, but the thought of being with Sally makes him change his mind. The next day, a limousine arrives for Duncan and with it a huge man whom he names Goliath. Duncan is taken to the hospital of Dr. Spleen, a fanatic who wants to transplant Duncan's perfectly good heart into the body of Judah P. Corpus, Sally’s rich uncle, who wants to remain young. When Duncan learns that Spleen's previous

heart transplant A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. , the most common proce ...

patients, which were two dogs, that both died, he becomes nervous and wants out of the deal, but he is prevented from leaving by Goliath. As Spleen is about to perform the operation, the excitement proves to be too much for him and he drops dead. Sally's uncle doesn't know that the Dr. has died, and thinks the operation has been performed. After leaving the hospital, Duncan receives news from the authorities that the trustee has been found and that his fortune is saved, so he and Sally can now get married.

Cast

— Thomas Wentworth Duncan *

— Sally Reeves *Mrs. Louis — Mrs. Martin * Frank Hayes — Vincent * Harry Carter — Dr. Spleen *

William V. Mong William V. Mong (June 25, 1875 – December 10, 1940) was an American film actor, screenwriter and director. He appeared in almost 200 films between 1910 and 1939. His directing (1911–1918) and screenwriting (1911–1922) were mostly for ...

— Judah P. Corpus *

Herbert Pryor Herbert Prior (2 July 1867 – 3 October 1954) was an English silent film actor. He appeared in more than 260 films between 1908 and 1934. He was born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, and died in Los Angeles, California. Prior was married to actress ...

— Adrian Keep *Stanley Sanford — Goliath

Background

The film is based on the

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

''After His Own Heart'' by

, published in

All-Story Weekly ''Argosy'', later titled ''The Argosy'', ''Argosy All-Story Weekly'' and ''The New Golden Argosy'', was an American pulp magazine from 1882 through 1978, published by Frank Munsey until its sale to Popular Publications in 1942. It is the first ...

, January 1919.

Metro Pictures Metro Pictures Corporation was a Film, motion picture production company founded in early 1915 in Jacksonville, Florida. It was a forerunner of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The company produced its films in New York, Los Angeles, and sometimes at leas ...

obtained the story especially for Hamilton, who was a popular stage comedian at the time. The

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

thought his appeal would carry over into the

film adaption A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

. The publicity department at Metro suggested to exhibitors showing the film that they use tag lines to promote the film, such as: ''"Thomas wanted to give his heart away and these people wanted to buy it!'' — and — What ''kind of heart is worth a quarter of a million dollars?"'' The studio was also concerned with the horror aspect of the plot, and assured exhibitors: “Don’t by any chance infer from the story that the picture has a gruesome touch. The theme is treated from the farce angle and unfolds many laughs without giving any ugly thrills.”

Reviews and reception

Peter Milne wrote in his review for ''

Motion Picture News The ''Motion Picture News'' was an American film industry trade paper published from 1913 to 1930. History The publication was created through the 1913 merger of the ''Moving Picture News'' founded in 1908 and ''The Exhibitors' Times'', founded ...

'', that the "various scenes between the hero and his captors have a high comedy value", but thought the early scenes were "held too long and the detail introduced is tiring". Overall, he said the film "brings a goodly number of laughs". In Hanford C. Judson's review for ''

The Moving Picture World The ''Moving Picture World'' was an influential early trade journal for the American film industry, from 1907 to 1927. An industry powerhouse at its height, ''Moving Picture World'' frequently reiterated its independence from the film studios. I ...

'', he stated that the film has "touches of fresh humor" and noted that the character "most strikingly acted" was Dr. Spleen, played by Harry Carter. Judson opined that the part "fits him to perfection, and he makes the situation quite convincing." A review in the '' Exhibitors Herald'' was critical of the film, saying that "there are no incidents or story angles that bring forth more than mildly amused smiles from a chance audience". The ''Herald'' said that a "drop-in gathering" at a Chicago theater "seemed to find little in the play to amuse them".

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0182680, title=After His Own Heart 1919 films American silent feature films American black-and-white films 1910s English-language films 1919 comedy-drama films 1910s American films Silent American comedy-drama films English-language comedy-drama films