Hearts and Flowers (1919) Poster

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Wildly Uneven, But Lively & Amusing
Snow Leopard16 July 2004
This wildly uneven but lively and amusing short comedy features Louise Fazenda, Phyllis Haver, and Ford Sterling in a series of romantic tangle-ups and other adventures. There are some good slapstick gags, at least one hilarious title card, and plenty of action, with enough of a story to hold most of it together. There are also a couple of sequences that make little sense, aside from adding to the general tone of craziness. It is noticeably risqué, yet almost innocently so, rather than in the heavy, crude way that characterizes so many recent films.

Fazenda and Haver both have a lot of energy, and their characters give everything a spirited pace. Sterling does a good job as well, adding some refinement to his cad of a character, and restraining himself just enough that it works well. Most of the time, the rest of the cast are simply there to react to the main characters, but they generally go about their roles with vigor as well. It gets rather silly at times, and not all of it works, but it keeps you watching and smiling most of the time.
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4/10
Wildy Mack Sennett
DKosty12313 December 2010
Warning: Spoilers
You can tell by the slapstick that Mack Sennett wrote this one. While it is not real smooth, the slap stick is frequent & heavy. There are a couple of things that are pre-code. The woman & woman kiss, it's even a double one that is real amorous is something the code in the 1930's would have never allowed.

The other thing is a bunch of women playing football on a beach. They are tackling each other & kicking the ball. While women'd football has started at minor league levels in some areas of the US today, films of women tackling each other in this era are extremely rare. That includes the shot of a bunch of them after a play laying on their stomachs on a beach. Views of women's backsides like this were really baned in the days of the Hays office.

While the film is wildly organized, it is quite something to see the wild sequences and the lack of censorship working full steam in 1919.
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4/10
just okay but worth seeing for its pre-Code humor
planktonrules7 July 2006
Warning: Spoilers
The story begins at a nightclub. A selfish and evil band leader found out that the flower girl at the club is about to inherit $2,000,000, so he asks her to marry him. At the same time, a short guy at the club also wants to marry her and a stranger (who is actually a lady in drag) also begin showing the flower girl a lot of attention! Wow, this rather ordinary-looking lady is thrilled at all the attention. Ultimately, though, she decides to marry the handsome band leader. However, at the last minute the guy finds out that the flower girl is NOT inheriting any money and he tries to run away--at which point her hillbilly-like family gives chase. This really didn't matter, though, because after they caught him and brought him back to the alter, they found that the girl had just wed the short guy instead and she is quite happy.

The part of the film that definitely would NOT have passed muster in Hollywood a couple decades later were the kissing scenes with the flower girl and the cross-dressing girl. The kisses were pretty prolonged and strongly suggested lesbianism--something they just wouldn't have allowed on film in later years. I thought these scenes were actually pretty innocuous, but times do change.

Overall, it's only a mildly funny or interesting movie short. Worth seeing but also imminently worth skipping.
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4/10
Hardly Noteworthy Except For Pre-Code Same Sex Kiss
jagfx12 March 2000
Hearts And Flowers is an often confusing and hardly noteworthy comedy from the golden age of film. The "plot" revolves roughly around a flower girl and her longing for a man that is "too good" for her. The plot changes too quickly, and so often that one is left scratching his head. This film would hardly be worth remembering were it not for the same sex kisses! Very surprising for a film of its time...
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8/10
Sprightly
boblipton1 May 2002
One of the last comedies directed by Eddie Cline before he left Keystone to direct Buster Keaton's shorts, this is an excellent little comedy with a fine performance by Ford Sterling out of his Dutch Comic makeup. Nice little gag with Louise Fazenda's hat and one of the funniest title cards I have come across: "You have the grace of a hippopotamus, but lack its charm."
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Not Perfect But Worth Watching
Michael_Elliott21 September 2012
Hearts and Flowers (1919)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This Mack Sennett produced comedy starts off rather slow but picks up in the final ten minutes. In the film, a band leader decides to pick up a woman from the audience who just happens to be there with her jealous boyfriend. The leader then picks up a note saying that the local flower girl has struck it rich so he decides to get her instead but this doesn't sit well with the girl that was dumped. HEARTS AND FLOWERS really is two movies in one and they each offer something that makes it worth viewing. The second half is a flat out comedy and one that really works as the flower girl's redneck family shows up at the wedding and it's clear to the band leader that he's about to get beaten. These scenes are incredibly funny including one of the most memorable "baseball" scenes I've ever watched. The first portion of the film is a lot slower and it really drags at spots but there's a scene here that was downright shocking and it's when the "other" girls dresses up as a guy and gives a big kiss to the flower girl on the lips. This girl-on-girl kiss is something that would never happen in a mainstream film for decades so it's pretty shocking seeing it here. HEARTS AND FLOWERS is certainly a mixed bag but it's worth watching.
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