The team behind a successful Broadway production tries to stop the married stars from transitioning to Hollywood.The team behind a successful Broadway production tries to stop the married stars from transitioning to Hollywood.The team behind a successful Broadway production tries to stop the married stars from transitioning to Hollywood.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 2 wins & 2 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis was MGM's first full-length feature in three-strip Technicolor. As such, viewers can see the constant shift in quality between scenes, chiefly in the makeup, which often appears garish and overstated. One short year later, the process would be perfected in time for The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone With the Wind (1939).
- Quotes
Felix Lehman: [Counting on Gwen and Ernest's gullibility] I'm an old man and I don't get many pleasures, but you go ahead. Just think about yourselves. Forget about me.
- Crazy creditsThe second of two credit titles for Victor Herbert reads "Immortal Melodies by Victor Herbert".
- ConnectionsFeatured in Nelson and Jeanette (1992)
- SoundtracksSweethearts
(1938) (uncredited)
Music by Victor Herbert (1913)
Lyrics by Bob Wright and Chet Forrest
Played during the opening credits and often in the score
Performed by Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy
Reprised by them for a radio broadcast with chorus
Later sung by MacDonald with Douglas McPhail and Eddy with Betty Jaynes
Featured review
Broadway to Hollywood in glorious colour
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.
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.
helpful•132
- didi-5
- Jun 15, 2003
Details
- Runtime1 hour 54 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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