“The Nearest Thing to Heaven”

Northern Advocate, 29 July 1939, Page 3 (Supplement)

“The Nearest Thing to Heaven”

Making their firn appearance together as a romantic team, Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer have the stellar roles in “The Nearest Thing to Heaven." Produced and directed by Leo McCarey, who was responsible for the Academy prize-winning hit,

"The Awful Truth," the current offering affords Miss Dunne her first straight dramatic role in several years.

Miss Dunne is cast as the luxuryloving fiancee of a wealthy business man who sends her on frequent trips to Europe to collect art objects for him. Returning from one of these missions, she meets Charles Boyer, the notorious Continental playboy.

Although Beyer is also engaged, the shipboard acquaintance of the mundane couple quickly develops into a genuine romance that virtually sweeps them both off their feet. At a brief stepover on the Portguese island of Madeira, the romantic influence of the picturesque background fuses their love into an almost invulnerable solidarity. Boyer, who has known only a caviar-and-champagne life, decides to prove himself worthy of this great love

by a six-month romantic moratorium, during which he will work in Nelw York as an artist. Similarly, Miss Dunne goes to work as a night club singer. At the end of the period, they rush to the established meeting ground, the Empire State Building. Boyer arrives first, (but his sweetheart meets with an automobile accident and is taken to the hospital. Believing that she is permanently lamed. Miss Dunne refrains from notifying Boyer. She prefers that he suffer his disappointment than marry her, who would be a burden.

The plot development mounts to an exciting, heart-gripping climax, after the principals endure an interlude of personal sacrifice.

As the title indicates, romance has its day in “The Nearest Thing to Heaven," even unto the backgrounds. Seldom pictured Madeira Island, Manhattan and all its smart social rendezvous, and a first-rate Atlantic liner, are settings which are at once breathtakingly beautiful and exciting. Miss Dunne sings two numbers in “The Nearest Thing to Heaven," “Sing My Heart.” and “Wishing.” Maria

Ouspenskaya, as Boyer’s grandmother, heads the featured cast of this RKO Radio picture (which includes Lee Bowman and Astrid Allwyn, as the betrothed mates of Miss Dunne and Dover, and Maurice Moscovich, as an old art dealer.