Bitter Sweet

Any film with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy can't be bad. But that's about as good as can be said for this one. "Bitter Sweet" is the second last of eight pairings Hollywood made of the couple. And the film is bitter sweet, in more ways than one. Other reviewers delve into the controversy involving Noel Coward over the Hollywood treatment of his play here. So, I'll stick to the film as its presented here.

Of course it has a bitter sweet ending. But throughout the film, the music itself seems so bitter sweet. There are no memorable tunes and much of Nelson's singing here seems almost bland. Together with that is his seeming dour persona for much of the film There's no bouncy, lively, energetic Eddy that was in his other films. He seemed to always have some dreary thought on his mind. Perhaps it was intended that he play it that way, sort of fitting the story, but I think it backfires. I think this must be about the least of the films that the otherwise lovely couple made together.

In the style of the great "Maytime " , director W.S.Van Dyke(San Francisco, Tarzan, the ape man ) adapted the original operetta by Noel Coward . The movie is a glamorous, romantic piece , wiht a magnificent photograhy, wonderful songs and a pair of unforgettable stars, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy . Music, tragedy, love , all the elements are present in this beautiful picture , a joy for the moviegoer .Nelson and Jeanette sang with passion and his magic is beyond the scenes , his magic truly touched our hearts.

No wonder Noel Coward had such low esteem of what Hollywood could do to his plays. Judging by what comes out on "Bitter Sweet", Mr. Coward had a case. The problem seems to be in the adaptation of the material. Lesser Samuels took too many liberties with the musical, and in a lot of ways, it seems this is a rework of "Maytime", as other contributors to this forum have expressed.

The film had all the right elements going for it, but somehow, this typically English musical is anything but English. W. S. Van Dyke, a director who worked extensively in the genre doesn't appear to have been inspired by the material. MGM gave this film its usual lavish production, yet, this Technicolor film lacks some of the magnificent look the studio gave "Maytime", a black and white movie.

Jeanette MacDonald has a bigger role than her co-star. She also has a more passable British accent, whereas Mr. Eddy, who is supposed to be Austrian, doesn't sound credible. George Sanders is seen as the Baron Von Tranisch, a cad who has an eye for spotting good looking women. Ian Hunter, Sig Rumann, and others are seen in supporting roles.

"Bitter Sweet", while enjoyable, is not one the best films the singing stars duo did for MGM.

A previous reviewer reported the well known story about how upset Noel Coward was at this version of his work that he refused to allow Hollywood to do another adaptation of any of his works. Hollywood in fact never did.

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.

It's 19th century Austria. Music teacher Carl Linden (Nelson Eddy) and his star pupil Sarah Milick (Jeanette MacDonald) are in love. They run off to Vienna to escape her arranged marriage. They struggle to make it. They are literally teaching for food. Baron von Tranisch (George Sanders) takes a liking to Sarah.

This is based on a Noël Coward operetta and apparently, he hated this. It's not my type of music and this starts at a deficit. It doesn't help that the songs aren't that catchy or memorable. I don't particularly care about this couple. The story would work better with a younger Sarah. I'm not looking for a larger age difference. More naivety works better for the story. It did get a couple of Oscar noms for Cinematography and Art Direction. I can see that, but I'm not impressed.