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Bitter Sweet

Director: W. S. Van Dyke II (Dir) Release Date: 8 Nov 1940 Production Date: mid-Jul--early Sep 1940 Duration (in mins): 92 or 94 Duration (in reels): 10			Print this page Display Movie Summary

Cast:	Jeanette MacDonald	(Sarah Millick)
	Nelson Eddy	(Carl Linden)
	George Sanders	(Baron von Tranisch)
	Ian Hunter	(Lord Shayne)
	Felix Bressart	(Max)
	Edward Ashley	(Harry Daventry)
	Lynne Carver	(Dolly)
	Diana Lewis	(Jane)
	Curt Bois	(Ernst)
	Fay Holden	(Mrs. Millick)
	Sig Rumann	(Herr Schlick)
	Janet Beecher	(Lady Daventry)
	Charles Judels	(Herr Wyler)
	Veda Ann Borg	(Manon)
	Herman Bing	(Market keeper)
	Greta Meyer	(Mama Luden)
	Rosemarie Brancato	(Stage performer)
	Jack Powell	(Stage performer)
	Mauricette Melbourne	(Stage performer)
	Katherine Harris	(Stage performer)
	Neal Kennedy	(Stage performer)
	Andrew Grieve	(Stage performer)
	Music Hall Rockettes
	Corps de Ballet and Glee Club
	Philip Winter	(Edgar)
	Armand Kaliz	(Headwaiter)
	Alexander Pollard	(Butler)
	Colin Campbell	(Sir Arthur Feuchurch)
	Art Berry Sr.	(Cabbie)
	Sam Savitsky	(Bearded man)
	Howard Lang	(Pawnbroker)
	Lester Scharff	(Man on stairs)
	Hans Joby	(Man on stairs)
	Jeff Corey	(Man on stairs)
	Paul E. Burns	(Lathered man)
	Hans Conried	(Rudolph)
	John Hendrick	(Fritz)
	Ruth Tobey	(Market keeper's child)
	Warren Rock	(Wyler's secretary)
	William Tannen	(Secretary at employment agency)
	Davison Clark	(Attendant)
	Jean DeBriac	(Croupier)
	Erno Verebes	(Orderly)
	Pamela Randall	(Hansi)
	Muriel Goodspeed	(Freda)
	Earl Wallace	(Wine waiter)
	Louis Natheaux	(Officer)
	Margaret Bert	(Woman on stairs)
	Julius Tannen	(Schlick's companion)
	Armand Cortes	(Second croupier)
	Irene Colman	(Girl in casino)
	June Wilkins	(Girl in casino)
	Jack Chefe	(Waiter)
	Gino Corrado	(Waiter)
	Max Barwyn	(Bartender)
	Eugene Beday	(Civilian)
	Paul Oman	(Violinist)
	Muriel Goodspeed
	J. D. Jewkes
	Charles Prescott
	Tim Stark

Summary:

In the late Nineteenth century, on the evening of her engagement party to stodgy Harry Daventry, Sarah Millick foresakes her fiancé for the love of her Viennese music teacher, Carl Linden. After eloping to Vienna, the newlyweds take up residence in Carl's garret, and are welcomed by his friends Max, Ernst and Mama Luden. Sarah inspires Carl to complete the operetta that he is composing, but when he is unable to sell his work, the couple suffer financial hardships. They are at their most desperate when Sarah convinces a local grocer to let her give his daughter singing lessons, but is fired a few minutes later when Carl tries to convince the grocer to hire him to do the job. When the grocer angrily orders them both out, they return to their flat. Their fortunes start to change when Max and Ernst pawn a piece of their furniture to buy some meat and bread, after which the group decides to become street musicians. One afternoon, as they are performing on the streets of Baden, Sarah attracts the attention of Lord Shayne, as well as the lecherous Baron von Tranisch, who gets her a job at Schlick's Cafe. At the cafe, Sarah learns that the Baron is her benefactor when he comes to claim his reward, and she quits her job. She returns to sing, however, when Lord Shayne brings impressario Herr Wyler to hear Carl's operetta. As Sarah performs for Herr Wyler, the drunken Baron accosts her. To defend his wife's honor, Carl fights a duel in which he dies at the Baron's sword. Although Carl dies, he lives on in his music when Herr Wyler agrees to stage his operetta, and Sarah remains in Vienna to star in the production. After the premiere of the opera, Sarah returns to their flat and, knowing that Carl is not dead as long as his music continues, sings to him as she gazes across the Vienese sky

Production Company:	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.	(Loew's, Inc.)
Distribution Company:	Loew's Inc.
Director:	W. S. Van Dyke II	(Dir)
	Hugh Boswell	(Asst dir)
Producer:	Victor Saville	(Prod)
Writer:	Lesser Samuels	(Scr)
Art Direction:	Cedric Gibbons	(Art dir)
	John Detlie	(Art dir assoc)
Film Editor:	Harold F. Kress	(Film ed)
Set Decoration:	Edwin B. Willis	(Set dec)
Costumes:	Adrian	(Gowns)
	Gile Steele	(Men's cost)
Music:	Herbert Stothart	(Mus dir)
	Merrill Pye	(Musical presentation)
Sound:	Douglas Shearer	(Rec dir)
Dance:	Ernst Matray	(Dance dir)
Make Up:	Sydney Guilaroff	(Hair)
	Jack Dawn	(Makeup)
Stand In:	Ann Harriett Lee	(Singing voice double for Jeanette MacDonald in "Tokay" number)
	Lorraine Bridges	(Vocal stand-in for Jeanette MacDonald)
	Earl Covert	(Vocal stand-in for Nelson Eddy)
Color Personnel:	Natalie Kalmus	(Technicolor dir)
	Henri Jaffa	(Assoc)
	Allen Davey	(Technicolor photog)
Country:	United States

Songs:	Selections from the opera La Bohéme , music by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica; "Zigeuner," "I'll See You Again," "Love in Any Language," "What Is Love," "Kiss Me," "If You Could Only Come With Me," "The Call of Life," "Tokay," "Serenade in Vienna," "Polka," "Bonne Nuit Merci" and "If Love Were All," words and music by Noël Coward; "Ladies of the Town," words and music by Noël Coward and Gus Kahn; "Dear Little Cafe," music by Noël Coward, additional lyrics by Noël Coward and Gus Kahn; "Una voce poco fabarber," words and music by Gioacchino Antonio Rossini.
Composer:	Noël Coward
	Giuseppe Giacosa
	Luigi Illica
	Giacomo Puccini
	Gioacchino Antonio Rossini
Source Text:	Based on the operetta Bitter Sweet by Noël Coward (London, 18 Jul 1929).
Authors:	Noël Coward

Copyright Claimant	Copyright Date	Copyright Number
Loew's Inc.	14/11/1940 dd/mm/yyyy	LP10114

PCA NO:	6648
Physical Properties:	col:	Technicolor
	Sd:	Western Electric Sound System


Genre:	Musical

Subjects (Major):	Composers
	Marriage
	Singers

Subjects (Minor):	Austrians
	Duels
	Elopement
	English
	Financial crisis
	Lechery
	Snobs and snobbishness
	Vienna (Austria)

Note:	A HR production chart adds Leni Lynn to the cast, but her participation in the final film has not been confirmed. Some of the lyrics in the "Tokay" number were dubbed for Jeanette MacDonald by Ann Harriette Lee, who also instructed MacDonald in French accents and pronunciation for the number. The picture was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Color Photography. According to news items in HR in early 1932, Paramount Pictures was planning to film a two-strip Technicolor version of the Noel Coward operetta. The picture was planned as a spring or summer production and was to star Jeanette MacDonald. Although that version was never made, in 1933, Herbert Wilcox directed Anna Neagle in a British version of the operetta. Irene Dunne appeared in a Lux Radio Theatre version of the story on 5 Nov 1936.

Bibliographic Sources:	Date	Page
Daily Variety	13 Nov 40	p. 3.
Film Daily	20 Nov 40	p. 7.
Hollywood Reporter	11 Feb 32	p. 1.
Hollywood Reporter	16 Feb 32	p. 2.
Hollywood Reporter	12 Jul 40	pp. 8-9.
Hollywood Reporter	9 Sep 40	p. 5.
Hollywood Reporter	13 Nov 40	p. 3.
Motion Picture Daily	18 Nov 40	p. 5.
Motion Picture Herald	16 Nov 40	p. 41.
New York Times	22 Nov 40	p. 27.
Variety	20 Nov 40	p. 16.

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The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.



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