Lonelyhearts (1958) Montgomery Clift

Young and conscientious Adam White has aspirations to write for the Chronicle newspaper. He gets his wish after meeting the newspaper's editor Bill Shrike who offers Adam a position. It's not quite what Adam had envisioned as he is given the assignment of writing the 6-day per week, 1,000-words per edition Miss Lonelyhearts advice column. Bill has ulterior motives for offering Adam this job which concerns in part Bill's unhappy wife, Florence. Initially, Adam treats the assignment with disdain until he starts reading the sound of desperation in some of the incoming letters. Wanting to do right by those letter writers takes its toll on Adam, and in turn on his relationship with his girlfriend, Justy Sargeant. Bill, who wants Adam to write a more entertaining column, suggests that Adam meet one of the letter writers so that he can get a better perspective on the job. After meeting with Fay Doyle, one of those letter writers, and coming to understand her true story compared to what she wrote, Adam reflects further on the job, especially in relation to what he considers his dark past which he is trying to hide from Justy and himself.