[go: up one dir, main page]

    Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsEmmysSan Diego Comic-ConSummer Watch GuideToronto Int'l Film FestivalSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Amants

Original title: Sweethearts
  • 1938
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 54m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
768
YOUR RATING
Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in Amants (1938)
ComedyMusicalMysteryRomance

The team behind a successful Broadway production tries to stop the married stars from transitioning to Hollywood.The team behind a successful Broadway production tries to stop the married stars from transitioning to Hollywood.The team behind a successful Broadway production tries to stop the married stars from transitioning to Hollywood.

  • Directors
    • W.S. Van Dyke
    • Robert Z. Leonard
  • Writers
    • Frédérique De Grésac
    • Harry B. Smith
    • Robert B. Smith
  • Stars
    • Jeanette MacDonald
    • Nelson Eddy
    • Frank Morgan
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    768
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • W.S. Van Dyke
      • Robert Z. Leonard
    • Writers
      • Frédérique De Grésac
      • Harry B. Smith
      • Robert B. Smith
    • Stars
      • Jeanette MacDonald
      • Nelson Eddy
      • Frank Morgan
    • 28User reviews
    • 8Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 2 Oscars
      • 5 wins & 2 nominations total

    Photos34

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 26
    View Poster

    Top cast99+

    Edit
    Jeanette MacDonald
    Jeanette MacDonald
    • Gwen Marlowe
    Nelson Eddy
    Nelson Eddy
    • Ernest Lane
    Frank Morgan
    Frank Morgan
    • Felix Lehman
    Ray Bolger
    Ray Bolger
    • Hans
    Florence Rice
    Florence Rice
    • Kay Jordan
    Mischa Auer
    Mischa Auer
    • Leo Kronk
    Herman Bing
    Herman Bing
    • Oscar Engel
    George Barbier
    George Barbier
    • Benjamin Silver
    Reginald Gardiner
    Reginald Gardiner
    • Norman Trumpett
    Fay Holden
    Fay Holden
    • Hannah
    Allyn Joslyn
    Allyn Joslyn
    • Dink
    Lucile Watson
    Lucile Watson
    • Mrs. Marlowe
    Gene Lockhart
    Gene Lockhart
    • Augustus
    Kathleen Lockhart
    Kathleen Lockhart
    • Aunt Amelia
    Berton Churchill
    Berton Churchill
    • Sheridan
    Terry Kilburn
    Terry Kilburn
    • Brother
    Raymond Walburn
    Raymond Walburn
    • Orlando
    Douglas McPhail
    • Harvey
    • Directors
      • W.S. Van Dyke
      • Robert Z. Leonard
    • Writers
      • Frédérique De Grésac
      • Harry B. Smith
      • Robert B. Smith
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews28

    6.2768
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    didi-5

    Broadway to Hollywood in glorious colour

    A high-budget offering for MGM stars Nelson Eddy and Jeanette Macdonald, and the studio's first film to be released in Technicolor (Maytime had been started but not completed in this process), centres on a lovey-dovey couple who have worked for years in a Broadway success and are offered the chance to work in Hollywood. How do their theatre collaborators stop them going there?

    Unusually for films featuring the Singing Sweethearts, this one has a sparky and funny script (largely by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell) from which it benefits. Not many songs have survived from the Broadway production of the real 'Sweethearts' (sadly, the omissions include 'The Cricket on the Hearth', which was really quite a sweet song), and others have been added to flesh out the Hollywood fantasy. Perhaps the best numbers are 'Pretty as a Picture' and 'On Parade'.

    In support are Frank Morgan ('the Wizard of Oz'), Ray Bolger (not used anywhere near enough), and the poor man's Eddy and Macdonald, Douglas MacPhail and Betty Jaynes, who suffer from a total lack of charisma. The leads themselves are fine and do with the more meaty than usual material. Perhaps their more slushy collaborations such as 'Rose Marie' and 'Maytime' are better overall, but 'Sweethearts' is definitely worth a look.
    Doylenf

    Jeanette and Nelson in their first technicolor musical...

    MGM spared no expense in dressing up the sets and costumes for an opulent technicolor musical starring America's singing sweethearts, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. They even included a witty script by Dorothy Parker, songs by Victor Herbert and a supporting cast that included Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Reginald Gardiner and Allyn Joslyn. But changing tastes have made this one questionable material for today's audiences.

    This time the stars are not in period costumes. The story is a contemporary one about two stage stars tired of appearing for the sixth straight year on Broadway in a musical called "Sweethearts" who decide to give Hollywood a try. Plot complications occur when blustery Frank Morgan uses trickery to make Jeanette believe Nelson is cheating on her. Everything is straightened out for a happy ending that reunites the two stars and has them both returning to the Broadway scene where their hearts truly lie.

    Fans of the famous duo will undoubtedly enjoy this one, but today's movie fans are likely to be put off by much of the humor. Acting styles and singing tastes have changed drastically since 1938. The stars are in fine voice but the songs are not among Herbert's best and, while there are a few amusing moments, the film has a very dated quality both in story and acting that makes it sometimes seem like an unpleasant pill to swallow.

    This is true even though both stars are photographed to advantage and are still at their physical peak here--but as a musical, despite the technicolor trimmings, it falls short of being a real winner.
    8bkoganbing

    "All others end the way we start, forever we'll be Sweethearts."

    Sweethearts is the first of two of the Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy films to be done in technicolor, the second at last being Bittersweet. It is also the first MGM film done in modern technicolor, though in Jeanette's The Cat and the Fiddle, the last 10 minutes were in color. And it is the only one of their films besides Bittersweet where they start off as man and wife.

    The original operetta by Victor Herbert was done in 1913 and it was in fact a story set in Holland as the numbers do show. But this film is like the later one Nelson did with Rise Stevens, The Chocolate Soldier, in that he and Stevens are husband and wife appearing in The Chocolate Soldier while the plot of that is taken from Ferenc Molnar's The Guardsman.

    Sweethearts has an original script by Dorothy Parker and it involves two happily married singing co-stars of a long running operetta, named Sweethearts. They've been appearing on Broadway for seven years in the same show.

    In fact a whole cottage industry has grown up around Sweethearts. Producer Frank Morgan, songwriter Herman Bing, librettist Mischa Auer have had it real good for seven years. They've been quite content to live off the box office of Sweethearts as long as MacDonald and Eddy keep appearing. Also the extended families of both Eddy and MacDonald live off of them as well.

    When Reginald Gardiner woos them on behalf of Hollywood producer George Barbier, panic ensues among the ranks of the cottage industry. These people might actually have to go to work.

    Knowing Dorothy Parker wrote 50% of the script, you can imagine it is a witty one. Jeanette and Nelson are in good voice and the musical calls for a large number of duets. They sing the title song, For Every Lover Meets His Fate, and an interpolated non Victor Herbert song, Our Little Grey Home in the West in anticipation of their California excursion. In addition Jeanette sings A Summer Serenade which was originally an instrumental Victor Herbert composition entitled Badinage. Robert Wright and Chet Forrest gave it some lyrics for the film. Nelson has a good typical Nelson marching song in On Parade.

    After appearing with Nelson Eddy in Rosalie as a sidekick Ray Bolger didn't have as many scenes, but got to show his dancing talent a lot more in the Wooden Shoes number. Jeanette personally interceded with Louis B. Mayer and got Douglas MacPhail and Betty Jaynes cast as their understudies.

    MacPhail and Jaynes married later on, but divorced after MacPhail's career took a nosedive in the early Forties. He was a good singer who you might remember appeared with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in Babes in Arms and later introduced the Cole Porter classic, I Concentrate on You in Broadway Melody of 1940. Tragically he took his own life after the divorce for God only knows what reasons.

    For Jeanette and Nelson fans and for those who like to see Ray Bolger in something else besides The Wizard of Oz, Sweethearts in highly recommended.
    6planktonrules

    Lots of music...and color.

    While there films are not nearly so popular today, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy were incredibly hot properties for MGM and this would explain why MGM made "Sweethearts" in full Technicolor...something they'd never done with a full length film. Many studios had made films using cheaper (and inferior) color stock such as Two-Color Technicolor and the new, improved full color from Technicolor was expensive and MGM pulled out all the stops for their big team.

    MacDonald and Eddy play Gwen Marlowe and Ernest Lane, a pair of Broadway stars who have been packing theaters for years with their latest show, "Sweethearts". Not surprisingly, Hollywood comes knocking...and Marlowe and Lane's handlers do their best to try to hold on to them and prevent their defection to the West Coast.

    As you watch this, you might think that the Technicolor is a bit garish and intense. This was often the case with early Technicolor...partly because of the film process and partly because its inventor insisted that his ex-wife, Natalie Kalmus, be the color consultant...and she determined the colors of the costumes, sets and the like. And, of the stars, MacDonald comes off the worst because she appears so incredibly ruddy in the film....and rather unnatural.

    As you'd expect in one of their films, there is a LOT of singing...intense singing and big stage production numbers. This is the style of their films...a style which seemed to grow less and less popular into the 1940s and 50s. You either like it or you don't. As for the rest of the story, it's enjoyable and well made. I didn't mind the story at first, but found it really tanked when MacDonald's character changed...becoming rather demanding and nasty and VERY jealous. This was NOT a welcome story element. I also found the musical numbers difficult to enjoy because it's a style I've never been all that fond of seeing and hearing in films.
    6AlsExGal

    Disappointingly long and bland

    This one is notable for being MGM's first Technicolor movie. "Sweethearts" won cinematographers Oliver Marsh and Allan Davey special Oscars for their work with color film. MacDonald looks gorgeous--black and white didn't do her justice.

    The music is pleasant enough, but not memorable. The couple is nauseatingly in love through the first hour, starring in a long running Broadway production - "Sweethearts". Unable to find rest during their six year production, the two are enticed to go to Hollywood instead, being promised lots of breaks between films. The normally feuding creative forces/producers of "Sweethearts" realize that this is the end of the gravy train, so they hatch a plan to keep the two from leaving. Complications ensue.

    When MacDonald and Eddy aren't singing, the film seems endless. Not even the scenes with animals make this amusing. Eddy is the one who brings off some sight gags--three of them to be exact. Frank Morgan and the rest of the cast are stranded without any funny lines. They just made me groan--and I'm an easy laugher. It's hard to make Frank Morgan unfunny.

    Trivia I noticed--the opening operetta is on the same set that "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936) used for the "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" number. There is a lengthy end credit explaining that the actors on the screen didn't write the 1913 operetta "Sweethearts". MacDonald has a five minute fashion show and proves she looks good in any outfit, no matter how misguided.

    If you see this, watch the first thirty minutes and the fashion show for the cinematographers playing with colors, then fast forward between songs.

    More like this

    Le Mystère de la plage perdue
    7.2
    Le Mystère de la plage perdue
    Le chant du printemps
    7.2
    Le chant du printemps
    La belle cabaretière
    6.3
    La belle cabaretière
    Escale à Hollywood
    7.0
    Escale à Hollywood
    Ma vie est une chanson
    6.4
    Ma vie est une chanson
    Lili
    7.2
    Lili
    Au revoir Mr. Chips!
    7.9
    Au revoir Mr. Chips!
    Saratoga
    6.5
    Saratoga
    Le crime de la semaine
    6.6
    Le crime de la semaine
    La fugue de Mariette
    6.5
    La fugue de Mariette
    Ils étaient trois
    7.4
    Ils étaient trois
    Une heure près de toi
    7.0
    Une heure près de toi

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      This is MGM's first full-length film to feature a different lion roaring in the logo, by the name of Tanner. He appeared at the beginning of MGM's Technicolor feature films and cartoons from 1936 to 1956 and later, from 1963 to 1967.
    • Quotes

      Felix Lehman: [Counting on Gwen and Ernest's gullibility] I'm an old man and I don't get many pleasures, but you go ahead. Just think about yourselves. Forget about me.

    • Crazy credits
      A written epilogue explains: "In our screen play, certain dramatic liberties have been taken with the operetta 'SWEETHEARTS'. We depict the scenes from the operetta as though it was a recent production presented by a wholly fictitious producer Felix Lehman and composed and written by two wholly imaginary persons Oscar Engel and Leo Kronk whereas the stage operetta 'SWEETHEARTS' was actually written and produced on the stage about 1913, Victor Herbert composing the music and Frédérique De Grésac (as Fred de Gresac), Robert B. Smith and Harry B. Smith writing the book and lyrics."
    • Connections
      Featured in Nelson and Jeanette (1993)
    • Soundtracks
      Sweethearts
      (1938) (uncredited)

      Music by Victor Herbert (1913)

      Lyrics by Bob Wright and Chet Forrest

      Played during the opening credits and often in the score

      Performed by Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy

      Reprised by them for a radio broadcast with chorus

      Later sung by MacDonald with Douglas McPhail and Eddy with Betty Jaynes

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 5, 1946 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Sweethearts
    • Filming locations
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 54m(114 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.