The word on the street is that J.D. Salinger was so outraged about what Hollywood did to his short story Uncle Wiggily In Connecticut that he refused point blank to let Hollywood near any of his work despite the astronomical fees they were prepared to pay. Frankly I don't get it. I've read the story in question (which appeared originally in The New Yorker and was collected in Nine Stories or, if you live in the UK, For Esme, With Love And Squalor) and whilst I accept that the Epstein twins did adapt it 'freely' I am able to enjoy both story and film and mine their respective merits. Any movie that boasts a title song as gorgeous as the one fashioned by Victor Young and Ned Washington has a head start on the opposition and when you add a screenplay by the Epstein twins, direction by Mark Robson and a cast to die for you're in the homestretch before the competition are out of the starting stalls. If this had been shot in color and released by Universal audiences would be forgiven for thinking it was by Douglas Sirk in the heart of his 'four-hankie' phase but it isn't Sirk and it IS classy. Watch. Enjoy.
Review of My Foolish Heart
