Sweethearts

1938 "America's Singing Sweethearts are Sweethearts!"
6.2| 1h54m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 30 December 1938 Released
Producted By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Bickering husband-and-wife stage stars are manipulated into a break-up for publicity purposes.

Genre

Comedy, Music

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Director

W.S. Van Dyke

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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Sweethearts Audience Reviews

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.
Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.
filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
calvinnme This one is notable for being MGM's first Technicolor movie. "Sweethearts" won cinematographers Oliver Marsh and Allan Davey special Oscars for their work with color film. MacDonald looks gorgeous--black and white didn't do her justice.The music is pleasant enough, but not memorable. The couple is nauseatingly in love through the first hour, starring in a long running Broadway production - "Sweethearts". Unable to find rest during their six year production, the two are enticed to go to Hollywood instead, being promised lots of breaks between films. The normally feuding creative forces/producers of "Sweethearts" realize that this is the end of the gravy train, so they hatch a plan to keep the two from leaving. Complications ensue.When MacDonald and Eddy aren't singing, the film seems endless. Not even the scenes with animals make this amusing. Eddy is the one who brings off some sight gags--three of them to be exact. Frank Morgan and the rest of the cast are stranded without any funny lines. They just made me groan--and I'm an easy laugher. It's hard to make Frank Morgan unfunny.Trivia I noticed--the opening operetta is on the same set that "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936) used for the "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" number. There is a lengthy end credit explaining that the actors on the screen didn't write the 1913 operetta "Sweethearts". MacDonald has a five minute fashion show and proves she looks good in any outfit, no matter how misguided.If you see this, watch the first thirty minutes and the fashion show for the cinematographers playing with colors, then fast forward between songs.
radioriot 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.
sschimel Jeanette McDonald was made for Technicolor. She was one of the most gorgeous stars of the 30's, with her beautiful complection and red hair. I think that she has always been underrated as a comedienne and this film really shows off her comedic skills. If only she had a less wooden co-star than Nelson Eddy. The color is superb, and so are the gowns she wears. The dialog's is witty, and part of the reason has to be that Dorothy Parker contributed to the script. Oddly enough, every time I watch this it reminds of another movie from around the same time. I finally figured out what it was. It's Joy Of Living, with Irene Dunneand Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. which also features a Broadway star who is supporting her family of has-beens and never-was. And they came out in the same year.
didi-5 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.