Coming at the tail end of Jeff Bridges' string of interesting early '70s films -- The Last Picture Show, Fat City, Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, and Rancho Deluxe -- I can understand why Hearts of the West tends to get overlooked. It's a simple and amiable Depression-era comedy featuring Bridges as a naïve farmboy/aspiring novelist ("Lewis Tater, sir, T-A-T-E-R") who accidentally becomes a silver screen cowboy. (That the goofy and unassuming Bridges is being groomed as a heavy is one of the better jokes. Andy Griffith's pet rock is another.)It's never hilarious but it is consistently amusing. Bridges, Griffith, Alan Arkin, and Blythe Danner all do good character work, and the movie quietly toasts a bygone era of filmmaking without getting all sentimental about it. And with only 877 Letterboxd watchers, it seems severely underseen for what it does have to offer.It also has one of the greatest collections of "that guy" actors I've ever seen in one movie: Alex Rocco, Richard B. Shull, Anthony James, Frank Cady, Herb Edelman, Burton Gilliam, Matt Clark, Dub Taylor, Richard Stahl, Thayer David, and William Christopher. Did I mention Donald Pleasance is in this, too? It's on the TCM app for a few more days if anyone wants to check it out.
When I first moved to LA in early 2000s I lived just around the corner from Sunset Blvd and Gower Street or as it was nicknamed back in the golden days "Gower Gulch." By 2004 it housed Sunset Gower Studios and a shopping center with a Rite-Aid and a Baskin Robbins, but apparently back in the old days it was where you would hang out if you were trying to break into western films. Even after I arrived in tinseltown the place still seemed a little magicalHeart of the West, while not a great film, is kind of what I imagine it was like at Gower Gulch in the 20s & 30s. It's what my wife would deem a cute movie. It's a fun watch, has a spectacular cast and even though I wasn't crazy with Jeff Bridge's "a tad too dopey" performance it still kept my interest and warmed my heart. You can never go wrong with Andy Griffith whether he's playing a good guy or even a bad one. Here he does a bit of both!In all honesty it's probably a two and a half star film made from a two star script, but there are so many sweet moments, fun performances and neat locations that evoke old Los Angeles that I couldn't help giving it a little extra love. I think it's worth a watch.Has there ever been an actor who probably lived more off Walter Matthau's table scraps than Richard B Schull. He had to be your first call if a film was looking for a Matthau type but couldn't afford his quote or seeking, god forbid, a surlier Matthau.
I came across this film tonight while scrolling through TCM. I’d never heard of it, but the plot description, “An aspiring Western novelist in ’30s Hollywood becomes a low-budget cowboy star,” caught my attention. Then I saw that it starred a young Jeff Bridges, and I knew I had to watch.As a fan of movies about this era of Hollywood, I was hopeful that I would enjoy Hearts of the West, but unfortunately, I was disappointed. The film is supposed to be a comedy, but the laughs just weren’t there for me. I just couldn’t get on board with the overall tone of the film, and there was also a whole subplot involving a pair of crooks who pursued Bridges’ character to California that I didn’t like at all.I was also underwhelmed by the performances. In fact, none of them particularly stood out—not Jeff Bridges as the aspiring novelist, Alan Arkin as the loud, obnoxious movie producer, or Andy Griffith as the veteran bit player who was once a star.For me, there was simply nothing memorable here.
