The part of the runaway heiress would have been right up Nancy Carroll's alley. Likewise, I think Virginia Bruce might have been more convincing in Ms. Carroll's part as a scheming shop girl that puts on airs. Ms. Bruce just didn't have the same air of mischief that Nancy Carroll did that could have really added a needed touch of spice to this movie.Yes, there are similarities to "It Happened One Night" as everyone else has mentioned. There's a runaway heiress, a reporter in the know (Frederic March as Bill Spencer) that winds up falling for said heiress, even the heiress running away from the overbearing elder of the family - in this case her grandfather. However, everything else is pretty unique. In IHON Claudette Colbert's character was forced to live like an ordinary Depression era American in order to blend in with the crowd enough that she could get to her fiancée undetected by her father. Here, Joan Butterfield (Virginia Bruce) has an end goal of being one of those average Americans and standing on her own two feet.The delight is in the details here - There's Patsy Kelly as Joan's friend, shop girl Peggy O'Brien, demonstrating a vibrating weight loss machine at work and when the electricity goes out in her small apartment, plugging into the flashing sign outside her window. Of course now it takes twice as long to cook dinner and all of her lamps are flashing on and off. Ms. Kelly is practically the third lead here, and her comic performance as Joan's mentor at living the working class life is pitch perfect. She's noisy and assertive as usual, but she doesn't go overboard. Alan Mowbrey as Peggy's boyfriend, a 40-something chiropractic student living across the hall from Peggy that works nights, is a great comic touch. The two humorously meet on the stairwell each evening for a passionate kiss, he as he heads off to work and she as she heads home from work. Not to be overlooked is Eugene Palette as Bill Spencer's perpetually agitated editor. He and March inflict every comic verbal insult possible on one another yet they just can't seem to live without one another - much like Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. In fact, I found that Palette and March had much more chemistry together than did Frederic March and Virginia Bruce.This is one film where the scenery along the way is much more interesting than the ultimate destination as I felt the conclusion landed with a thud and seemed rather forced. Still I'd recommend it just for all the goofy stuff that you could only find in Hal Roach productions in the 30's. Ultimately it's a satisfying feel-good little film.

Hokey story but the ice skating scene is a hoot. Skaters play the old "cakewalk" game on ice skates. The actors and stunt men did an incredible job with a simple concept taking pratfalls and sliding across the ice. I've never seen anything like it.The rest of the story is full of cringe-worthy sexist gibberish, but there are some fun moments. Stereotypes abound: the evil newsman, the imperious tycoon, the simpleton stringer. The plot is classic boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-back. "She's stubborn and he's too proud."There's also a fun drinking song (newsmen of course).The actors seem to be theater-trained - they seem to shout like they're afraid the mike in the last row won't hear them. But it's still fun.

Though the gimmick of the runaway heiress was beginning to wear thin by 1938, There Goes My Heart still is entertaining enough with a sparkling cast going through it's usual paces.Virginia Bruce is our heiress in this one and reprising his role of hard hitting reporter from Nothing Sacred is Fredric March. Two leads of this magnitude is not usual for the Hal Roach studio which normally was doing two and three reel comedies. But even though this is recycled material it still is served up rather nicely. Best scene for March and Bruce is at the skating rink playing musical chairs on roller skates. March is good, but this was the kind of material Cary Grant would have relished.Hal Roach did give his director Norman McLeod a fabulous supporting cast to work with all going through their various screen images that we love. Best in the group is Patsy Kelly playing the shop-girl who happens to work in Bruce's grandfather's department store and who takes in Bruce not knowing who she is and gets her job at the store. Nancy Carroll the former silent screen star is a jealous co-worker and Irving Bacon is the sexually harassing supervisor. Others in this incredibly good cast are Claude Gillingwater as Bruce's tycoon grandfather, Eugene Palette as March's editor, Arthur Lake as March's friend and newspaper photographer and Alan Mowbray as Kelly's boyfriend studying to be a chiropractor. Yes, Alan Mowbray and Patsy Kelly as a couple. Until i saw this film I never would have believed them as a screen team. Patsy's best moments are demonstrating an exercise machine at the store. You should also see newly hired sales person Virginia Bruce waiting on Marjorie Main.At the very end of the film, former silent screen comic star Harry Langdon plays a minister. At this point in his career, Langdon was accepting any kind of work and part he could get. Nothing especially hilarious about his performance, it's too brief and he's surrounded by too many other high caliber performers in this cast to shine in any way.It's not one of Fredric March's best films, but it's still amusing enough and the ensemble can't be beat.

I think I liked this movie despite the rather formulaic and ridiculous plot because both Viginia Bruce and Frederic March did such a wonderful job with this romantic comedy from Hal Roach Productions.Virginia is the grand-daughter of a very wealthy but extremely overprotective man. He won't let her go anywhere without him and sees danger around every corner. As a result, she is smothered and bored--aching to live a real life. She escapes and establishes a new identity as a regular working girl. However, reporter Frederic March finds out about the ruse and wants to exploit the woman for a buck. However, once they meet, sparks begin to fly and he is torn between riches and his new love.You know about where the movie will end--after all, it's a formulaic romantic comedy from an era when the movies never dared stray from the expected course. However, how delicately and believably the stars follow this formula is what makes this film so worth watching. A cute and satisfying little film.By the way, at the very end there is a cute little cameo by the silent screen star Harry Langdon as the preacher. While his best years in movies were long behind him, he did continue to do small roles in a variety of films over the years.