It starred Christie MacDonald and Edwin Wilson. By 1938, every major studio except MGM had begun issuing highly successful Technicolor films, films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , The Adventures of Robin Hood, Trail of the Lonesome Pine, Ramona, The Garden of Allah, Ebb Tide , even the British film Wings of the Morning issued through Twentieth Century-Fox. Audiences weren't fooled and voted at the box office for the exciting new color films. Finally, MGM relented. Fortunately, its maiden effort, Sweethearts , was an auspicious kickoff to the torrent of MGM Technicolor musicals to follow.
Sweethearts is a happy, delicious bonbon of a musical, rich and utterly satisfying.
Traditionally, they were confined to brown, dark green, and navy blue. Adrian costumed Jeanette in yellow, shell pink, and fire-engine red. More than a dozen of MGM's best character actors strut their stuff, and the production numbers are glorious. The original 1913 stage Sweethearts provided an improbable story of a foundling raised by the proprietor of the Laundry of the White Geese who discovers before the final curtain that she is really the crown princess of Zilania, and, therefore, eligible to marry the prince whom she had earlier rejected because of her lowly station. Even true MacDonald-Eddy believers would have found this a little difficult to accept in 1938.