Heart's Desire: More Opera Than Movie

Is this for you?

If you are the type of person who leaves the opera house wishing they had skipped the plot and just got to the arias, you’ll probably enjoy Heart's Desire. It’s an easy, breezy watch for anyone who likes 1930s British production values and, well, Richard Tauber’s lungs. If you’re looking for a tight script or anything resembling actual tension, you’re going to be bored to tears by the second act.

Honestly, the whole thing is just a vessel for Tauber. He walks around Vienna looking perpetually like he’d rather be at a cafe, and then suddenly he’s singing and everything stops. The music is great, sure, but it feels like the movie is constantly pausing just to let him hit a high note. It’s not exactly The Jazz Cinderella where the energy keeps moving.

There’s this one scene where he’s wandering around, and it feels like the director just forgot to yell cut. The silence goes on for way too long. It’s almost charming, in a weirdly amateur way.

The "Talent Scout" Thing

The sister character is tasked with dragging him to England, and her persistence is actually kind of exhausting. You watch her and wonder, why does she care this much? She acts like he’s the only singer in Europe. It makes the whole premise feel a bit thin, like a side-story that got stretched into a feature-length film.

The supporting cast? They're mostly there to nod and look impressed while Tauber sings. It’s not quite as dynamic as the chaos you see in something like The Girl from Everywhere, but it gets the job done. George Graves shows up and does his thing, which is mostly just being a presence in the room.

• The singing is genuinely impressive, even through the crackly audio.
• The scenery shifts from Vienna to England, but it all kind of looks like the same studio lot.
• There are moments where the acting feels totally unscripted, which I actually liked.

It’s not a masterpiece. It doesn’t try to be. It’s a bit like watching a filmed stage show that keeps forgetting it’s supposed to be a movie. If you’ve seen Speed or even the weirdness of Scram!, this is a much slower, more polite experience.

Still, Tauber has this warmth to him that’s hard to dislike. He isn't acting as much as he’s just *existing* in the frame until the next song starts. Sometimes that’s enough. 🎶