Almost four years after Hollywood's first Technicolor three-strip feature film was released, the industry's most prestigious studio, MGM, finally produced its first color film using the latest technology in Jeannette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy's December 1938 "Sweethearts." As a runaway hit, the musical was the pair's first full-length color movie and the first they didn't have to don period costumes. This was also Tanner the lion's first feature front-ending the film within the MGM logo. He appeared in all the studio's Technicolor feature films up to 1954.
MGM's head Louis Mayer had promised his star attraction MacDonald her next film would be in Technicolor. The executive delivered, with the studio using "Sweethearts" as a test run of Technicolor's complex system for its following year 1939 "The Wizard of Oz," where it was in pre-production.
"Sweethearts" used a combination of Victor Herbert's 1913 operetta of the same name and Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell's original screenplay focused on a fictitious Broadway couple (MacDonald and Eddy) singing in the long-running play 'Sweethearts' when a film studio scout lures them to make Hollywood movies. The musical stage's producer, Felix Lehman (Frank Morgan), needs them to remain in his expensive play. He comes up with a plan to convince Marlowe (MacDonald) that her husband Lane (Eddy) is having an affair with his secretary (Florence Rice) in Hollywood, which causes the two lovers to split. They return to the play, but on separate road shows with understudies, when something surprisingly happens.
Film reviewer Laura Grieve praised the musical, saying the motion picture is "a great chance for those who love MacDonald and Eddy to watch them doing everything they do best, singing and having what seems to be a wonderful time together. The audience has a good time too."
"Sweethearts" opens with a lavish sequence with a backdrop resembling the breathtaking number 'Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody' in 1936's Academy Awards Best Picture, "The Great Ziegfeld." MGM used sections from that set to stage 'Sweethearts'" introduction. Also, Ray Bolger, in his only scene, dances like a scarecrow amongst a field of flowers, while Frank Morgan appears as well. Both were beginning preparation for their "Wizard of Oz" filming and displayed similar personalities they would show in the Judy Garland classic.
The actors playing the two understudies, Betty Jaynes and Douglas McPhail, later were in the Busby Berkeley's directed 1939 "Babes in Arms," co-starring alongside Garland and Mickey Rooney. In real life Jaynes and McPhail were married just before filming "Sweethearts." But the marriage soured after three years. McPhail, who initially was hired by MGM to be groomed as the next Nelson Eddy, saw his contract not renewed in the early 1940s. His baritone opera voice was out of style in movies by then. Despondent, he turned to alcohol and committed suicide by poisoning himself in 1944 at the age of 30.
"Sweethearts" set the template for MGM's color musicals with its showy, elaborate sets and vibrant colorful costumes. The MGM landmark film was nominated in two Academy Awards categories, Best Sound Recording (Douglas Shearer) and Best Musical Scoring (Herbert Stothart). Because of its color cinematography, MGM received an Honorary Oscar for this movie.
MGM's head Louis Mayer had promised his star attraction MacDonald her next film would be in Technicolor. The executive delivered, with the studio using "Sweethearts" as a test run of Technicolor's complex system for its following year 1939 "The Wizard of Oz," where it was in pre-production.
"Sweethearts" used a combination of Victor Herbert's 1913 operetta of the same name and Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell's original screenplay focused on a fictitious Broadway couple (MacDonald and Eddy) singing in the long-running play 'Sweethearts' when a film studio scout lures them to make Hollywood movies. The musical stage's producer, Felix Lehman (Frank Morgan), needs them to remain in his expensive play. He comes up with a plan to convince Marlowe (MacDonald) that her husband Lane (Eddy) is having an affair with his secretary (Florence Rice) in Hollywood, which causes the two lovers to split. They return to the play, but on separate road shows with understudies, when something surprisingly happens.
Film reviewer Laura Grieve praised the musical, saying the motion picture is "a great chance for those who love MacDonald and Eddy to watch them doing everything they do best, singing and having what seems to be a wonderful time together. The audience has a good time too."
"Sweethearts" opens with a lavish sequence with a backdrop resembling the breathtaking number 'Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody' in 1936's Academy Awards Best Picture, "The Great Ziegfeld." MGM used sections from that set to stage 'Sweethearts'" introduction. Also, Ray Bolger, in his only scene, dances like a scarecrow amongst a field of flowers, while Frank Morgan appears as well. Both were beginning preparation for their "Wizard of Oz" filming and displayed similar personalities they would show in the Judy Garland classic.
The actors playing the two understudies, Betty Jaynes and Douglas McPhail, later were in the Busby Berkeley's directed 1939 "Babes in Arms," co-starring alongside Garland and Mickey Rooney. In real life Jaynes and McPhail were married just before filming "Sweethearts." But the marriage soured after three years. McPhail, who initially was hired by MGM to be groomed as the next Nelson Eddy, saw his contract not renewed in the early 1940s. His baritone opera voice was out of style in movies by then. Despondent, he turned to alcohol and committed suicide by poisoning himself in 1944 at the age of 30.
"Sweethearts" set the template for MGM's color musicals with its showy, elaborate sets and vibrant colorful costumes. The MGM landmark film was nominated in two Academy Awards categories, Best Sound Recording (Douglas Shearer) and Best Musical Scoring (Herbert Stothart). Because of its color cinematography, MGM received an Honorary Oscar for this movie.