Sweethearts (1938 film)

Sweethearts
Theatrical release poster
Directed byW.S. Van Dyke
Written bybook: Fred de Gresac
Harry B. Smith
Robert B. Smith
Screenplay byAlan Campbell
Dorothy Parker
Laura Perelman
S.J. Perelman
Based onSweethearts (1913)
by Fred de Gresac
Harry B. Smith
Robert Bache Smith[1][2][3]
Produced byHunt Stromberg
StarringJeanette MacDonald
Nelson Eddy
Frank Morgan
CinematographyOliver T. Marsh
Allen M. Davey
Edited byRobert Kern
Music byVictor Herbert
Herbert Stothart
Production
company
Distributed byLoew's, Inc.
Release date
  • December 22, 1938 (1938-12-22)
Running time
114 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.9 million[4]
Box office$2 million (domestic earnings)[4]
$1.2 million (foreign earnings)[4]

Sweethearts is a 1938 American Technicolor musical romance film directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. The screenplay, by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell, uses the “play within a play” device: a Broadway production of the 1913 Victor Herbert operetta is the setting for another pair of sweethearts, the stars of the show. It was the first color film for Nelson or Jeanette (as well as MGM's first three strip Technicolor feature).[5] It was their first film together without uniforms or period costumes.[6]

  1. ^ The Federal Reporter. West Publishing Company. 1921. pp. 213–.
  2. ^ Ken Bloom (18 October 2013). Routledge Guide to Broadway. Routledge. pp. 116–. ISBN 978-1-135-87117-8.
  3. ^ "Sweethearts (1938)". Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
  4. ^ a b c Turk, Edward Baron "Hollywood Diva: A Biography of Jeanette MacDonald" (University of California Press, 1998)
  5. ^ "Sweethearts(1938)". Archived from the original on 2018-06-30.
  6. ^ Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN 0-634-00765-3 page 86