STAGE REVIEW : This ‘Heart’ Is in the Right Place : The Huntington Beach Playhouse’s gentle touch and a first-rate set design make for an effective revival of the 1945 Broadway melodrama.

“The Hasty Heart” started out in 1945 as a successful Broadway play and four years later became a movie starring Patricia Neal, Richard Todd and Ronald Reagan. It’s easy to see how it ended up in Hollywood. John Patrick’s story about a Scottish soldier during World War II, who learns about friendship and love just before his death, is pure melodrama, the kind of old-fashioned heart massage designed to open the tear ducts.

It’s effective only if you leave your cynicism at the door.

That’s not so hard to do at the Huntington Beach Playhouse, where the long-ignored work is being revived. There are times when you might feel a groan rising up, but things develop gently and sweetly (if predictably), thanks to a capable amateur staging that, more often then not, avoids the overwrought gesture.

The play is set in a medical barracks (Martin Eckmann’s green-gray tropical set is first-rate by community theater standards) somewhere in Burma where several soldiers are recuperating. It’s like a rainbow coalition in there, with an American, an Australian, a Brit, a New Zealander, even an African tribesman.

They’re a sassy lot, all wisecracks and grousing, who turn reflective when told of the imminent arrival of Lachlen MacLachlen, the Scot who doesn’t know he’s dying of a bum kidney.

Lachlen is a proud, irascible sort with a sad past. He isn’t interested in making friends, but that doesn’t stop the boys from trying. And, yep, by play’s end he’s best buddies with them all.

A few scenes are rather precious but under Cyndi Mitchell’s direction, the cast keeps the sentimentality from becoming overripe. And even when the accents fluctuate, they don’t torpedo the relationships, especially between Lachlen (Jim Brandt) and Yank (Al Caramatti). Brandt and Caramatti carefully define their characters, as does Karen Razler as the kind-beyond-belief nurse who falls for Lachlen. The supporting actors, especially Bill Vetro as Kiwi and Kevin O’Loane as Digger, keep pace.

‘The Hasty Heart’

A Huntington Beach Playhouse production of John Patrick’s play, directed by Cyndi Mitchell. With Jim Brandt, Al Caramatti, Cameron Simbro, Kevin O’Loane, Bill Vetro, Jesse T. Wilkins, Russell Towne, Karen Razler and Robert Bruce. Set by Martin Eckmann. Sound by Cyndi Mitchell. Lighting by Jeff Warner. Costumes by Mary Eckmann and Evelyn Dart. Continues Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through Aug. 15 at 21141 Strathmoor Lane, Huntington Beach. Tickets: $6 to $8. (714) 832-1405.