Bickering husband-and-wife stage stars are manipulated into a break-up for publicity purposes.
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Reviews
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Broadway stars Jeanette MacDonald (as Gwen Marlowe) and Nelson Eddy (as Ernest Lane) are celebrating six years starring in the highly successful operetta "Sweethearts" and have been happily married for six years, also. They are still very much in love, but find it difficult to have off stage time together without family and work related people hanging around. They plan to leave New York for laid-back Hollywood, which prompts a plot to break up Ms. MacDonald and Mr. Eddy. Everyone figures MacDonald and Eddy are worth less apart, and Hollywood will lose interest in pairing them in movies...The public seems to adore them with young new partners Douglas McPhail (as Harvey Horton) and Betty Jaynes (as Una Wilson), but Hollywood doesn't notice..."Sweethearts" caught MacDonald and Eddy cresting on their wave of success. "Photoplay" magazine gave it their "Best Picture" award and audiences lined up to see the musical team in "Oscar"-winning Technicolor. "Quigley Publications" annual box office stars poll reflected three reasons to see "Sweethearts"; for the year 1938, MacDonald was solo star #14, Eddy polled at #19, and the team shared position #22. Supporting actors Frank Morgan (as Felix Lehman) and featured player Ray Bolger (as Hans) photographed well enough in color for "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), in case anyone was wondering...***** Sweethearts (12/22/38) W.S. Van Dyke ~ Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger
Having heard the song Sweethearts performed by Beverly Sills and Sherrill Milnes I was very interested in seeing this film. And while it does have its problems, I enjoyed it. The story is creaky and Douglas MacPail and Betty Jaynes are rather uncharismatic, however the choreography is nice and sprightly, the production values are absolutely beautiful with lovely costumes and sets and the photography is very good and the music is gorgeous, I just can't get enough of the song Sweethearts. The script has spark and wit, the direction is assured, and the choreography, performances and music ensure there is seldom a dull moment. Ray Bolger while perhaps underused is fun, but the real plaudits go to the leads Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy who are wonderful individually and together. Overall, a lovely film. 8/10 Bethany Cox
I saw this movie for the first time tonight....WOW! I never really liked these two in their other movies but this one is great and the color... superb. My favorite part of the visuals are the on location shots of New York in 1938 IN COLOR! Amazing that the front of NBC still looks the same as it did then. The songs in this picture are much better than most of the "Mountie" movies they did. And Ray Bolger (a year away from "The Wizard of Oz") just steals the opening scene of the movie... too bad they couldn't find another spot for him to dance in this movie. And Frank Morgan (also a year away from "The Wizard of Oz")....how can anybody not like Frank Morgan as the worried producer. He is so much fun in every movie he is in. It is just ashamed that MGM and the other movie studios didn't use color more in these great old movies. What a treasure they would have become. It certainly helps me see the world of my parents and grandparents in real life color, instead of dull black and white. See this movie if you get the chance... just for the fun of it.
A high-budget offering for MGM stars Nelson Eddy and Jeanette Macdonald, and the studio's first film to be released in Technicolor (Maytime had been started but not completed in this process), centres on a lovey-dovey couple who have worked for years in a Broadway success and are offered the chance to work in Hollywood. How do their theatre collaborators stop them going there?Unusually for films featuring the Singing Sweethearts, this one has a sparky and funny script (largely by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell) from which it benefits. Not many songs have survived from the Broadway production of the real 'Sweethearts' (sadly, the omissions include 'The Cricket on the Hearth', which was really quite a sweet song), and others have been added to flesh out the Hollywood fantasy. Perhaps the best numbers are 'Pretty as a Picture' and 'On Parade'.In support are Frank Morgan ('the Wizard of Oz'), Ray Bolger (not used anywhere near enough), and the poor man's Eddy and Macdonald, Douglas MacPhail and Betty Jaynes, who suffer from a total lack of charisma. The leads themselves are fine and do with the more meaty than usual material. Perhaps their more slushy collaborations such as 'Rose Marie' and 'Maytime' are better overall, but 'Sweethearts' is definitely worth a look.