The Hasty Heart (play)

The Hasty Heart
Written byJohn Patrick
Characters
  • Yank, an American soldier
  • Digger, an Australian soldier
  • Kiwi, a New Zealand soldier
  • Blossom, an African Basuto soldier
  • Tommy, a Cockney soldier
  • Margaret, a British nurse
  • The Colonel, a British officer
  • Lachlen “Lachie,”, a Scottish soldier
Date premieredJanuary 3, 1945 (1945-01-03)
Place premieredHudson Theatre, New York
Original languageEnglish
Genredrama
Settinga temporary British military hospital somewhere in South-East Asia

The Hasty Heart is a 1945 American stage play by John Patrick.[1] It ran on Broadway for 207 performances.[2]

It was adapted as a 1949 feature film as well as several times for radio and television.

Premise

In a convalescent ward of a hospital in Burma, the personality of a mortally ill Scottish soldier is changed by the sympathetic treatment of his fellow patients.

Original Broadway cast

  • Richard Basehart as Lachlen
  • Anne Burr as Margaret
  • John Campbell as Digger
  • Douglas Chandler as Tommy
  • Victor Chapin as Kiwi
  • Edward Cooper as Colonel
  • Robert Earl Jones as Blossom
  • John Lund as Yank
  • Francis Nielsen as Orderly

Production history

The play was produced by Lindsay and Crouse. Warner Bros. bought the film rights to the play from American dramatist John Patrick for $100,000 and a percentage of the profits in 1945. It originally announced John Dall would play the lead of Lachie.[3][4]

Reception

Reviewing an out of town try out Variety wrote "it can develop into a good film."[5] Reviewing the show on Broadway the same magazine called it "a drama that provided quite a change of pace from the usual, a war play with a strange locale, one whose central character has a curious outlook but who provides a generous serving of chuckles. Yet it has a serious undertone."[6]

Adaptations

References

  1. ^ Leonard, William Torbert. “The Hasty Heart.” In Theatre: Stage to Screen to Television. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1981.
  2. ^ The Hasty Heart at Playbill
  3. ^ "Screen News: Warners Pay $100,000 Down for 'Hasty Heart' Joan Blondell Gets Top Part". The New York Times. February 19, 1945. p. 21.
  4. ^ Vagg, Stephen (30 July 2025). "Not Quite Movie Stars: John Dall". Filmink. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
  5. ^ "The Hasty Heart". Variety. 13 December 1944. p. 46.
  6. ^ "The Hasty Heart". Variety. 10 January 1945. p. 46.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.