Sweethearts

Broadway's Gwen Marlowe and Ernest Lane are sweethearts, onstage as stars of Victor Herbert's operetta and offstage as happily marrieds. Then Hollywood beckons, and their fretful stage producer puts the kibosh on any Tinseltown plans by trumping up a romantic triangle that sets the lovebirds feuding.

The 24-karat Golden Age singing team of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy headlines a lavish, gossamer-weight box office smash glittering with songs that showcase their superb voices. Director W.S. Van Dyke provides sophistication, the Dorothy Parker-Alan Campbell script provides rapier wit and the Oscar-winning cinematography provides proof the ravishing, red-haired MacDonald was born for Technicolor.

MGM selected this ripe romantic musical for its first three-strip Technicolor film, and the brazen colors work handily with the excellent vocals of dynamic singing duo Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. The plot surrounds the staging of a Broadway production of the Victor Herbert operetta SWEETHEARTS, giving the picture an easy excuse to include the songs "Pretty as a Picture," "The Game of Love," "Wooden Shoes," "Every Lover Must Meet His Fate," and "Sweethearts," among others. MacDonald and Eddy play performers Gwen and Ernest, who have stuck together through thick and thin. Celebrating the anniversary of their Broadway production of SWEETHEART and their own relationship, the couple decides to move on to Hollywood in the hopes of finding respite from their hectic stage lives. Once the news is out, a scheming Broadway producer and his playwright endeavor to break the lovers up both professionally and romantically. Gwen and Ernest travel the country in separate road shows, keeping tabs on the other through industry journals. But when each reads a review of the marriage wrecker's new play, they both notice that its plot bears a striking resemblance to the occurrences that destroyed their relationship.