If you like the main players in this picture -- Gaynor, Farrell, Dunn, and Rogers -- then you will enjoy this modest picture. Otherwise it could be around 2-1/2 stars out of 4 stars. It looks economically made and, per IMDb's Release Dates, Fox released it only 3 weeks after Stand Up and Cheer! But could it have been filmed first? Shirley Temple is very recognizable in the film, for all of the 3/4 of a second that she is on camera, without even a chance to speak. If Stand Up and Cheer! gave to her her breakthrough role, then why was she all but cut from Change of Heart? Another missed opportunity was Mischa Auer's who has maybe 5 seconds and 1 line. Symptoms of what encouraged Fox to merge the next year with Twentieth Century Pictures?As other reviewers have mentioned, this is still a heartwarming film. Besides the lovey-doveyness of Gaynor and Farrell, Rogers is also fun. She seemingly tries to vamp any guy who comes her way. Dunn's performance reminded me of Johnny Nolan 11 years later in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and here he is even more optimistic, even though they all start out in low rent accommodations.One of my favorite scenes is the 2+ minutes with Gaynor and Farrell on the boat to Coney Island. Not so much for what they talk about as for the background music. The scene starts out showing couples dancing, and the music that the band plays for the 2+ minutes is "Broadway's Gone Hill-Billy" (AKA ...Hillbilly; 1934 recordings used both spellings). Yes, the same song featured in Stand Up and Cheer! Fox, like the other studios, evidently liked to promote its music library. Hillbillyness has nothing to do with either Gaynor or Farrell (neither one particularly sprightly in this scene), and the dancers also appear oblivious to the unsung lyrics, but the tune is still guaranteed to get you out onto the dance floor. Yet another of the enjoyable scenes in Change of Heart.

Change of Heart (1934)** (out of 4) Four friends (Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, James Dunn, Ginger Rogers) graduate college and decide to move from California to New York City so that they can make their dreams come true. At first the four stay together but soon personal relationships start to tear them apart. CHANGE OF HEART has pretty much been forgotten by everyone except for fans of Gaynor and Farrell as this here would be their final film together. They did a total of twelve together and I think it's easy to say that this one here isn't among their best. There are many problems with this film but I think it's rather obvious that the screenplay is simply tired and it doesn't give us anything fresh or original. If you've ever seen a romantic-drama-comedy then you're going to see every twist and turn coming. Even by 1934 standards this thing is pretty cliché ridden and even worse is that it's all too predictable. As you'd expect, along the way there are crossed romances going on. Person A loves person B but person B is in love with person C who in returns is in love with person A. The only thing that keeps this film remotely entertaining is the terrific cast led by Gaynor who is always bright enough to light up any film no matter how routine it is. She's certainly the stand-out here but Rogers is also very good in her role of the not-so-nice girl trying to become a rich actress. Both Farrell and Dunn are good as well and we've even got Dick Foran in his first role. Fans of Shirley Temple will find her here playing a girl named Shirley. CHANGE OF HEART has been forgotten over the years and it's easy to see why. The only ones needing to check this out are fans of the actors.

CHANGE OF HEART (Fox, 1934), directed by John G. Blystone, reunites the ever popular love team of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell for the 12th and final time. Their union, which began with the silent romance story of SEVENTH HEAVEN (1927), expanded successfully for its time through the sound era in an attempt to recapture the magic of their initial pairing. Throughout those seven years and ten additional romancers (one as guest stars in an early musical), their efforts ranged from good to satisfactory, with popularity solely due to the loyalty of their audiences. With each passing year, tastes change in favor for better constructed stories and newcomers on the rise. By 1934, Gaynor and Farrell were on the wane, while the supporting players of James Dunn and Ginger Rogers have juicer roles, especially Rogers, cast against type, as the selfish girl who really doesn't know what she wants in life, thus, jeopardizing her friendship to get what she wants at all cost.The story linked with CHANGE OF HEART has nothing to do with medical students performing heart transplants, but the focus on two couples just graduating from a California college and leaving their roots to fulfill their life's ambition in New York City: Catherine Furness (Janet Gaynor), an orphan, yearns to be a writer. The only luck she has is obtaining employment at a salvage shop making clothes for orphaned babies under the supervision and care of Harriet Hawkins (Beryl Mercer); Chris Thring (Charles Farrell), wants to be an lawyer; Mac McGowan (James Dunn), a radio crooner like Rudy Vallee; and Madge Roundtree (Ginger Rogers), a Broadway actress. In true soap-opera tradition, Mac loves Catherine who secretly loves Chris, who loves Madge, who gives up Chris to move back to California, becoming a "companion" to wealthy producer Howard Jackson (Kenneth Thomson), in order to advance her acting career. Despondent, Chris becomes ill with high fever, leaving Catherine to nurse him back to health. After they marry, Madge, realizing the error of her ways, returns to New York to reclaim Chris, regardless of how Catherine might feel about it.During the 1960s and early 70s, TV Guide magazine used to label this version of CHANGE OF HEART in its schedule. Quite confusing since THE HIT PARADE OF 1943 (Republic) starring John Carroll and Susan Hayward has been retitled CHANGE OF HEART (taken from a hit song from that movie) for television. In Leonard Maltin's earlier edition to his "Movies on TV" book published in the 1980s, he critiques CHANGE OF HEART with a "BOMB" rating, later eliminating his review from subsequent editions. While this can be labeled a companion piece of the much better GENTLEMAN ARE BORN (Warners, 1934) starring Franchot Tone and Jean Muir, having very much the same theme, CHANGE OF HEART does have its flaws, such as accepting these slightly older principal players as college graduates; Dunn's obnoxious personality (which he is supposed to be anyway); Rogers in an unsympathetic role; extensive scene involving Gaynor nursing the bedridden Farrell back to health, each reciting some sappy dialog while she gives him a shave; or Gaynor speaking out her emotions through facial gestures as she did in her silent movies, but on the whole, it's really not that bad.What makes CHANGE OF HEART even more worthy of recommendation for film buffs is the assortment of familiar actors, whether receiving screen credit for their work or not, in smaller roles, including James Gleason as a Coney Island vendor; silent screen's Mary Carr with Jane Darwell each playing mothers during the opening graduation sequence; Gustav Von Seyffertitz as the kindly doctor; Mischa Auer as a party guest; Dick (billed as Nick) Foran taking time to sing, "Who Cares?"; and of course, Shirley Temple. Temple's performance in circulating prints that show on either Fox Movie Channel or Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: August 12, 2016) comes as a bitter disappointment for Temple fans due to the fact that she's hardly in the movie at all. She's actually in for a fraction of a second on the TWA airliner as a little girl who's given a paper airplane. While billed as Shirley during the closing cast listing, chances are that her scene(s) and spoken dialog were cut, an severe oversight from the film editor who didn't have the foresight this child was to become one of Hollywood's biggest/littlest legendary stars.For all it's worth, CHANGE OF HEART is very nostalgic in the way it presents itself: Imagine taking an airplane ride from California to New York in just 15 hours; the cost of 5 cents for the use of a public pay phone; earning $70 a week or paying $30 a month for an apartment. It also succeeds in recapturing New York City the way it was during the Depression era 1930s through its use of montage footage. These reflections of the times gone by makes CHANGE OF HEART, a rarely seen item from the old Fox Studio vaults, a worthy time capsule piece. (***)

Change of Heart is the last of 12 films Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell starred in together. From the late silent period til this 1934 film, they were among the most popular of screen teams. Here they play college graduates aspiring to make it in New York City along with pals Ginger Rogers and James Dunn.Pleasant story of ambition and love among the young set. The film also boasts some solid supporting players, including Jane Darwell, Beryl Mercer (excellent as the salvage lady), Mischa Auer, Dick Foran (billed as Nick?), Irene Franklin, Lillian Harmer, Bess Flowers, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Nella Walker, Mary Carr, Mary Gordon, Shirley Temple (on the plane) and James Gleason.This was one of Rogers' last supporting parts (same year she became a star in Flying Down to Rio). She plays (she's excellent) the selfish Madge who marries a rich man rather than stick with the group and find work. This is probably Rogers' most unsympathetic role. Dunn is a bit much as the Irish crooner. Farrell plays the lovesick goon, and Gaynor (one of the most sympathetic stars of the 30s) plays the fiery redhead who keeps everything going.Nice film with a good view of New York City in 1934.