Close to My Heart 1951

Brad Sheridan, Ray Milland, a newspaper columnist, and his wife Midge Sheridan Gene Tierney yearn for a family but hit the same wall many would expect: they cannot have children of their own. In a bid to grow their family, they set their sights on adoption. The adoption agency warns of a long waiting list, but Midge learns of an abandoned child left at the police station. The infant, a boy named Danny, is described as a ward of the juvenile court, which gives the Sheridans a glimmer of possibility. They visit Danny under a ruse—Midge posing as Brad’s secretary—while Brad weighs the moral balance of pursuing a private path to parenthood versus the formal route through the agency. The potential for a quiet, private future pulls at Midge, and she grows increasingly attached to the child, even as Brad tries to restrain his own emotions to keep things practical.

In a moment of reckoning, Brad’s column reveals the abandonment, a move that stings Midge and tests their partnership. The revelation becomes a fault line in their relationship, threatening to derail the adoption before it can truly begin. Into this tension steps Mrs. Morrow, the cautious yet determined head of the adoption agency, portrayed by Fay Bainter Fay Bainter. She inspects the Sheridan home and warns that Danny’s uninvestigated background makes the path to adoption risky. Her experience tells her that a foundling status can help in the short term, but the true test lies in the child’s future and the family’s readiness to welcome him without resolving every mystery.

As Brad digs deeper, a troubling pattern emerges: he learns of a well-known local adoptive family whose child grew up to become a criminal, a cautionary tale that underscores the price of unknown histories. This information fuels his determination to uncover Danny’s past, even as the clock ticks toward a decision that would change all their lives. Brad’s investigation leads him to Arlene, a woman who claims Danny’s mother, Martha, died giving birth in the building where Arlene worked. Arlene insists that the father took the baby, but in truth she took the child herself. She returns a ring that belonged to Martha, a tangible link to a life Brad must now piece together. Brad continues the investigation without Midge’s knowledge, gathering more clues from the boarding house operator, who provides a sweater once worn by Martha.

When Brad shares his discoveries with Midge, Mrs. Morrow again cautions him about interfering with the case, signaling that the agency’s control over the adoption could be compromised by the truth behind Danny’s origins. The trail thickens as Brad learns that Martha had been a respectable schoolteacher who kept company with a man named Edward Hewitt. Brad suspects this Hewitt may have accompanied Martha to Reno with marriage in mind, a theory that could explain how the child ended up with the Shoals of fate rather than a conventional family background.

To test his suspicions, Brad takes the step of publishing Hewitt’s photo in an effort to identify him. The move yields a chilling result: Hewitt’s true identity is Everett Heilner, and his past is stained by murder. Heilner’s curt response—there was no place in his life for a child, and the boy will “never be a cop”—drives home the brutal reality that Danny’s origins carry real danger and judgment.

Brad returns home to a tense, volatile scene. Midge, embittered by the roadblocks and the delays she has faced, tells him that the agency has taken Danny in order to protect him from Brad’s investigations. Brad races to reclaim the child, but a court’s probation officer blocks his path. The turning point arrives when Brad argues with Mrs. Morrow, explaining that a meeting with Heilner’s brother convinced him that nurturing a child is more important than the past. His argument persuades the agency to move forward with the adoption, even as the events have already unsettled the couple’s sense of security.

In the end, the Sheridans stand on the cusp of a new chapter, one built on a careful balance of hope and caution. The tale emphasizes the tension between a child’s ownership of his future and the adults who seek to provide him a stable home. The film leaves Danny’s fate intertwined with the couple’s, a reminder that in the realm of family, love must contend with truth, background, and the unpredictable turns of life. Amid the emotional currents and moral questions, Brad and Midge face the complexity of parenthood with a shared resolve, knowing that their decision to pursue adoption will forever shape who they are as a family.