Cross My Heart (1946 film)

Chorus girl Peggy Harper is desperate to marry her fiancé, Oliver Clarke, but Oliver won't marry her until his law practice is a success. Peggy brings Oliver his first client, a burglar. Oliver refuses to work for him as he's a petty criminal. Peggy calls the producer of her nightclub act, Wallace Brent. They come to a deal, Peggy will become Wallace's secretary, in exchange he'll send Oliver business.

The next morning, Peggy goes to Wallace's office to begin work as his secretary. Upon arriving, she finds Peter, an actor who wants to be cast as Hamlet in the title play, which Wallace is reviving. When Wallace arrives, he throws Peter out and begins pawing Peggy. She attempts to distract him by recording a song on his phonograph but to no avail, so she knocks him out and flees.

Later, Peggy returns to Wallace's office with her mother, Eve, to collect her coat. Before they can go inside, the police arrest Peggy with the accusation that she murdered Wallace and stole $12,000 from him. Peggy decides to falsely confess to the murder so that Oliver will get her case. She hopes that Oliver's defense of her will result in him becoming a renowned lawyer. Peggy comes up with a lie about how she murdered Wallace in self-defense. Her lie is then supported by the discovery of the murder weapon in her purse, which genuinely surprises her.

Peggy is subsequently imprisoned. Peter appears at Peggy's cell and reveals he knows that she isn't guilty. Shocked, Peggy tells him to go away. On the defendant stand, Peggy sings an emotional ballad which she claims she sung to Wallace to gain sympathy from the jury. Afterwards, Peter appears with the record that Peggy recorded to distract Wallace. The song Peggy actually sung to Wallace is not the song she sung on the defendant stand, jeopardising her lie. Oliver wrestles the record from Peter and gives it to Eve for safekeeping. Oliver says he'll try his best to get Peggy out of this but after it they're through. The jury deliberates for hours but Peggy is declared not guilty. Oliver keeps his word and breaks off their engagement.

Some time later, Oliver has a successful law practice and Peggy is opening a new nightclub act. Detective Flynn is investigating the murder of Brent as he doubts Peggy's story. Backstage at her act, he gets the real story out of Peggy. Flynn brings Peggy to Oliver, they decide to get back together after the truth is explained to him. Flynn now suspects Peter to be the true murderer. Peggy sends Oliver to track down Peter, who is working at a local theatre.

Flynn and Peggy rush to Wallace's office to look for evidence that Peter committed the crime. In Wallace's desk, they find newspaper clippings about how Peter killed two actors in two separate performances of Hamlet and was declared legally insane. This confirms the suspicion that Peter killed Wallace so they rush to the theatre to tell Oliver.

Peter convinces Oliver to reenact Hamlet with him. Just as he is about to kill Oliver, Peggy arrives with the police. Peter confesses to killing Wallace and Peggy promises Oliver that she'll never lie again.

• "That Little Dream Got Nowhere" — (Written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen) Performed by Betty Hutton
• "How Do You Do It" — (Written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen) Performed by Betty Hutton
• "Love Is The Darndest Thing" — (Written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen) Performed by Betty Hutton
• "It Hasn't Been Chilly In Chile" — (Written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen) Performed by Betty Hutton
• "Does Baby Feel Alright?" — (Written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen)
• "Cross My Heart" — (Written by Robert Emmett Dolan and Larry Neill)

That Little Dream Got Nowhere was recorded by several prominent artists including Dinah Shore, of which it gave her a best-seller record and Bing Crosby.^[2]

Cross My Heart's working title was "Too Good To Be True". Filming took place from December 1944 to February 1945.^[3]

The film premiered at the Paramount Theatre on December 17th, 1946, following the nine week run of Blue Skies, and was opened by The Andrews Sisters and Tony Pastor.^[4][5]

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that, "The farcical tribulations of a little lady who is prone to tell fibs and who is promised, by a most convenient irony, to a young lawyer of the stanchest honesty comprise the scattered substance of Paramount's "Cross My Heart". Crowther then goes on to say that "Expect little more than Miss Hutton playing her usual cuckoo role and a few flighty scenes (and lines of dialogue) which hold the makings of modified laughs. For the writers, Harry Tugend and Claude Binyon, didn't kill themselves on it."^[6]

Variety wrote at the time that, "Cross My Heart is a fragment which Betty Hutton and Sonny Tufts, along with an energetic supporting cast, will have to carry. It's acceptable if not socko film fare, innocuous in its tongue-in-cheek playing. With which audiences will have to go along for best results. If they take it straight—as some of the provincial fans may be inclined, it will have trouble."^[4]