Second-Hand Hearts

SECOND HAND HEARTS is a movie out of its time, not so much old-fashioned as strangely time-warped. The script apparently dates from 1969 and was written by Charles Eastman, one of Hollywood's most renowned unproduced screenwriters. Even had it been made in 1969, SECOND HAND HEARTS would have seemed both forward and backward-looking. It obviously picks up on 60s comedies of sentimental non-conformity and anticipates the trend of the 70s, which is to put them on the road. Actually made at the end of the 70s, it now looks like a carricature of both trends, with an overlay of a more recent sub-genre, country and western lonelyhearts. Robert Blake and Babara Harris appear here as two down-and-nearly-out Texans engaged in making a paper marriage a real one, who in the end will learn to accept their anxieties and their shortcomings.