Tonight's Movie: Sweethearts (1938) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

MGM's frequent singing screen team of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy star as SWEETHEARTS (1938), just released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection.

The movie has had two prior Warner Archive DVD releases, as a single title in 2011 and as part of a MacDonald-Eddy collection in 2015.

I reviewed the film when the 2015 set came out and loved it, and I'm happy to report that this Blu-ray - the first MacDonald-Eddy film released in that format - provides an even more spectacular viewing experience than the DVD.

I love all of MacDonald and Eddy's movies together but find SWEETHEARTS a particular charmer; it's probably my favorite, along with NEW MOON (1940). The couple seem to be having a wonderful time throughout the film, and their good humor is contagious.

Gwen (MacDonald) and Ernest (Eddy) are singing stars simultaneously celebrating their sixth wedding anniversary and the sixth anniversary of their hugely successful Broadway show, SWEETHEARTS.

Gwen and Ernest continue to be deliriously happy together but are beginning to weary of their packed schedules, which allow them little time together; when they're not at the theater they're often performing on the radio or recording, and that's just for starters. Living with their extended family members doesn't make it easy for them to enjoy time alone, either!

Accepting an invitation to go to Hollywood and make a movie sounds like a nice break, but their theatrical producer Felix (Frank Morgan) and others cook up a devious scheme to keep them from making the trip to the West Coast...

Except for the latter part of the movie, when the couple briefly separate due to their selfish employer's tricks, this movie is a bubbly delight. The script by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell is witty and frequently quite amusing, such as a phone conversation where a studio head makes clear movie-making isn't as easy as Gwen and Ernest have been told.

MacDonald and Eddy are so relaxed and affectionate here that it seems as though we're seeing beyond their characters to a couple who genuinely enjoyed working together. Their interactions around a piano while singing "Pretty as a Picture" are charming, and I also love Jeanette's bemused expressions when a disheveled Nelson runs into a radio studio just in time to begin their duet. They're great fun together throughout.

Besides Morgan, MacDonald and Eddy are supported by the kind of cast you just don't see in movies anymore, including Florence Rice, Ray Bolger, Gene and Kathleen Lockhart, Lucile Watson, Mischa Auer, Reginald Gardiner, Allyn Joslyn, Fay Holden, Olin Howland, Douglas MacPhail, Betty Jaynes, and Raymond Walburn. You can even spot Toby Wing as a telephone operator.

Young Terry Kilburn may be the only surviving cast member, having just turned 99 a few days ago.

SWEETHEARTS runs 114 minutes. It was directed by W.S. Van Dyke and the uncredited Robert Z. Leonard. It was filmed in Technicolor by Oliver T. Marsh and Allen Davey.

The Blu-ray print is absolutely outstanding. The dissolve from the pastel colors of the opening titles to the bright lights of Broadway took my breath away. It's a visual joy and worthy of an upgrade from DVD.

Blu-ray extras consist of the trailer; prerecording tracks recorded June-August 1938; a 30-minute 1946 radio adaptation with MacDonald and Eddy; a three-minute excerpt from the Technicolor short PIRATE PARTY ON CATALINA ISLE (1935); the cartoons COUNT ME OUT (1938) and LOVE AND CURSES (1938); and a song selection menu.

For those weighing an upgrade, the trailer, recording tracks, and radio show were on the DVD, while the other extras are new to this disc.

Recommended.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

Tweet