A woman runs away with her music teacher in order to escape an arranged marriage, but they struggle to make ends meet.A woman runs away with her music teacher in order to escape an arranged marriage, but they struggle to make ends meet.A woman runs away with her music teacher in order to escape an arranged marriage, but they struggle to make ends meet.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 2 nominations total
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- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaExcept for a few shots where she was doubled by Audrey Scott, Jeanette MacDonald did most of her own horseback riding.
- Quotes
Sarah Millick, later Sari Linden: [over a very sparse dinner] Oh well, maybe it's all for the best. I hear more people die from overeating than from any other cause.
Carl Linden: I bet we'll be immortal, then. I hate Herr Weiller.
Sarah Millick, later Sari Linden: I hate the market keeper.
Carl Linden: I hate the landlord.
Sarah Millick, later Sari Linden: That's not fair, *I* was going to hate the landlord. *You* hate Herr Weiller again.
- Crazy creditsOpening credits are shown on an embroidered cross stitch sampler.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Miracle of Sound (1940)
- SoundtracksI'll See You Again
(1929) (uncredited)
Written by Noël Coward
Sung by Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy
Of course you'd have to have something to compare it to and I hope that TCM manages to find the 1933 version that Anna Neagle and Fernand Gravey did for the British cinema.
On its own Bitter Sweet is a mixture of the previous MacDonald/Eddy triumph Maytime with a good hunk of Anna Karenina thrown into the mix. Jeanette MacDonald on an impulse runs off with her music teacher Nelson Eddy to gay old Vienna where they live on love and starve a good deal of the time. In doing the elopement she jilts her fiancé, proper and stuffy Edward Ashley who's an up and coming man in their Foreign Office.
I'm sure Noel Coward didn't complain about what Jeanette and Nelson did vocally with his songs because they're sung beautifully. Jeanette is barely passable for British and Nelson is about as Viennese as John Wayne. MGM knew that and surrounded them with the German colony of Hollywood, Sig Rumann, Curt Bois, Felix Bressart, and Herman Bing. And George Sanders is his usual caddish self as the Baron Von Trannisch who's got a lustful eye for Jeanette.
Noel Coward's plays are comedies of manners with some satirical jibes at British society. His music is universal, but his wit is for the British Isles. I doubt he could have written a western. My guess is that that was what Coward objected to in this film.
Still Jeanette and Nelson fans will like it and until someone at TCM finds the Anna Neagle version that's all we're likely to see.
- bkoganbing
- Feb 15, 2006
Details
- Runtime1 hour 34 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1