...as Madge Rountree and her buds from the film 'Change of Heart' turn 80! Madge definitely looks concerned about this predicament, but honestly, 80 is looking VERY nice on her!!!
...this film is another one where Ginger is playing a 'less than loveable' character, who ultimately tries to jump in-between a 'destiny' couple of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, thus being a 'mantrap' of sorts... she does well in the role, but these types of roles just never truly 'click' for me, as Ginger typically plays the pristine 'fair' lady of some form or fashion in the majority of her roles, which of course is how most of us fell in love with Ginger in the first place. That notwithstanding, COH is a pretty good film, as a 'love triangle / quadrilateral' unfolds
with the expected twists and turns; Madge is pretty 'self-absorbed', but
still pretty engaging...and definitely wrapping whichever dude she
concerns herself with at the time very neatly around her finger.
Here's the original HueyReview for it, over on the ChangeOfHeart blog. Also, Fox Cinema Archives released COH on DVD awhile back; a good spot to purchase it is from
Movies Unlimited.
However, these types of roles DID bolster Ginger's resume, and gave her invaluable experience in portraying different characters... which obviously aided her in future roles, which culminated in her Oscar-winning performance in Kitty Foyle. And, as usual, Ginger is just SOOOOOOO cute in this one... "Ginger at Fox" was VERY appropriate, y'all...
...speaking of studios, It is also worth noting that this film was released "post-Rio"...
"Flying Down to Rio", of course, paired Ginger with Fred for the first time, and propelled them into stardom. RKO was scrambling to get GandF together again for their own feature film (The Gay Divorcee), and would ultimately 'lock-in' Ginger and Fred with RKO contracts. But Ginger managed to jump into six films between 'Rio' and 'Divorcee',
each of which were pretty fair roles for our girl, with quite diverse
characters, from the 'sucker' role she had to do for RKO's 'Chance At Heaven'
to the 'other woman' roles of this film and Warner's 'Upper World'.
Change of Heart was the next-to-last 'non-RKO' film (Upper World was the last) that Ginger would be in for quite awhile, as GandF would generally keep RKO afloat for the next 5-6 years. Of course, once an actor/actress was 'hot' in the Golden Age of Hollywood, a studio would promptly lock them down; in fact, most ALL of them were contracted from the get-go by a major studio. Ginger 'played the field' for a year or so after her Paramount beginnings and RKO-Pathe trio... which seemed to work well as a springboard to stardom, and most likely gave her some 'industry savvy' which would come in handy in negotiating her subsequent contracts.
In the final analysis...
...our little girl's all grown up!!!
...KIG, y'all!!!
Hu
---
