Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald had by this stage made a lot of money for MGM so the studio were willing to pony up for Technicolour for this effort. It actually wasn't really worth it - I mean, it's nice, but colour would have been better in their previous movies - Naughty Marietta took place in colonial Louisiana, Rosie Maria in mountainous Canada, Maytime in wherever the hell that was set, The Girl of the Golden West in the old west. Sweethearts is a screwball comedy which mostly takes place in the world of nightclubs, backstage dressing rooms, radio studios, swish New York apartments and the like. Yes there are some elaborate numbers on stage but it's all pretty much indoors.
All the MacDonald-Eddy films to this date had varied: pure silly operetta, heightened melodrama, road movie. This one is a screwball comedy, written by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell, full of sparky one liners and frantic situations. It's not much of a story - vested interests try to break up a beloved stage star couple (kind of like a singing version of the Lunts) in order to prevent them running off to the movies. A secretary is used to make Jeannette jealous, and that's about it. Things are resolved very quickly.
But it's very bright and funny, with a strong support cast, including Frank Morgan, Mischa Auer and Reginald Gardiner; Eddy wasn't great at comedy but he can be a straight man and Jeannette is lively and sexy - she was very talented.
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