"Break of Hearts"

We get a nice concert scene using the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, 4400 Wilshire Blvd., in "Break of Hearts" (RKO, 1935). Here Katherine Hepburn is coming down the house left aisle of the theatre, supposedly a concert venue in New York. The film was directed by Phillip Moeller.

Settling into a seat. She's a composer married to a conductor played by Charles Boyer. He's very late.

A view toward the stage with both audience and musicians restless. 

A look down from the balcony at the Ebell. Still no conductor. 

Boyer arrives backstage. But it's not a scene done at the Ebell. He's been out drinking as he thinks Hepburn doesn't love him anymore. She actually does but has been acting cool as she's heard he's been out with other women. 

Boyer onstage finally at the Ebell. It doesn't go well. He behaves erratically and then falls over. She goes to Reno. He says he's giving up music. Later, after Hepburn has had success with her music she comes across a haggard Boyer and devotes herself to healing him.

Yes, she restores him and he starts conducting once again. And we have a triumphant scene at the end with him back onstage at the Ebell. It's all a bit much. That footage from the end of the film is reused in William Dieterle's "Portrait of Jennie" (Selznick, 1948) when Joseph Cotten and Ethel Barrymore go to a concert at a New York theatre.

 

See the page about the Wilshire Ebell Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of the building and many photos.

On IMDb: "Break of Hearts"