Sweethearts (1938 film)

Sweethearts
Sweethearts
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	W.S. Van Dyke
Written by	book: Fred de Gresac; Harry B. Smith; Robert B. Smith
Screenplay by	Alan Campbell; Dorothy Parker; Laura Perelman; S.J. Perelman
Based on	Sweethearts (1913); by Fred de Gresac; Harry B. Smith; Robert Bache Smith
Produced by	Hunt Stromberg
Starring	Jeanette MacDonald; Nelson Eddy; Frank Morgan
Cinematography	Oliver T. Marsh; Allen M. Davey
Edited by	Robert Kern
Music by	Victor Herbert; Herbert Stothart
Production; company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by	Loew's, Inc.
Release date	December 22, 1938;
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.9 million
Box office	$2 million (domestic earnings); $1.2 million (foreign earnings)

Sweethearts is a 1938 American Technicolor musical romance film directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. The screenplay, by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell, uses the “play within a play” device: a Broadway production of the 1913 Victor Herbert operetta is the setting for another pair of sweethearts, the stars of the show. It was the first color film for Nelson or Jeanette (as well as MGM's first three strip Technicolor feature).^[5] It was their first film together without uniforms or period costumes.^[6]

Plot

Broadway stars Gwen Marlowe and Ernest Lane are appearing in a 6-year run of Victor Herbert's operetta Sweethearts. They are also very much in love after six years of marriage. Norman Trumpett is a successful Hollywood talent scout under pressure to recruit Marlowe and Lane for his studio, which their Broadway producer Felix Lehman is equally determined to prevent.

The couple's attempts to rest and be together are repeatedly thwarted by professional and personal demands made on their time, talents and money by Lehman and their own theatrical families - who also live with them. Frustrated beyond endurance and seduced by Trumpett's idyllic (and false) description of working conditions in Hollywood, they decide to quit the show and take the Hollywood offer. (In guise of buying a new wardrobe for the trip Jeanette MacDonald models fashions of 1938.)

This spells “the end” for the Broadway production, news so devastating that constantly feuding playwright Leo Kronk and composer Oscar Engel stop fighting long enough for Lehman, Kronk and company to hatch a counter-plot. By convincing Marlowe that Lane is having an affair with his pretty secretary Kay Jordan they split-up the happy couple, putting an end to the Hollywood deal and allowing Lehman to mount two separate touring companies of the show, each with one star and one understudy.

Delighted with the outcome, Engel produces Kronk's new play - which closes in a week. From a Variety review of the play, Marlowe and Lane realize they were tricked and join forces to confront Lehman, but nonetheless resume the Broadway run of Sweethearts together.

Cast

Jeanette MacDonald as Gwen Marlowe
Nelson Eddy as Ernest Lane
Frank Morgan as Felix Lehman
Ray Bolger as Hans
Florence Rice as Kay Jordan
Mischa Auer as Leo Kronk
Herman Bing as Oscar Engel
George Barbier as Benjamin Silver
Reginald Gardiner as Norman Trumpett
Fay Holden as Hannah
Allyn Joslyn as Dink
Lucile Watson as Mrs. Marlowe
Gene Lockhart as Augustus
Kathleen Lockhart as Aunt Amelia
Berton Churchill as Sheridan
Terry Kilburn as Brother
Raymond Walburn as Orlando
Douglas McPhail as Harvey
Betty Jaynes as Una
Olin Howland as Appleby
Dalies Frantz as Concert Pianist

Awards

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Sound Recording (Douglas Shearer) and Best Music, Scoring (Herbert Stothart).^[7] The film was MGM's first feature-length color film, and it received an Honorary Academy Award for its colour cinematography.^[8]

References

^ The Federal Reporter. West Publishing Company. 1921. pp. 213–.
^ Ken Bloom (18 October 2013). Routledge Guide to Broadway. Routledge. pp. 116–. ISBN 978-1-135-87117-8.
^ "Sweethearts (1938)". Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
^ ^a ^b ^c Turk, Edward Baron "Hollywood Diva: A Biography of Jeanette MacDonald" (University of California Press, 1998)
^ "Sweethearts(1938)". Archived from the original on 2018-06-30.
^ Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN 0-634-00765-3 page 86
^ "The 11th Academy Awards (1939) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
^ "1939 Academy Awards". Archived from the original on 2016-11-05.

External links

Sweethearts at IMDb
Sweethearts at AllMovie
Sweethearts at the TCM Movie Database
Sweethearts at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films

[1] The Federal Reporter. West Publishing Company. 1921. pp. 213–.

[Bloom2013-2] Ken Bloom (18 October 2013). Routledge Guide to Broadway. Routledge. pp. 116–. ISBN 978-1-135-87117-8.

[3] "Sweethearts (1938)". Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.

[Turk-4] Turk, Edward Baron "Hollywood Diva: A Biography of Jeanette MacDonald" (University of California Press, 1998)

[5] "Sweethearts(1938)". Archived from the original on 2018-06-30.

[6] Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN 0-634-00765-3 page 86

[Oscars1939-7] "The 11th Academy Awards (1939) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-10.

[8] "1939 Academy Awards". Archived from the original on 2016-11-05.

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