Seven Sweethearts

Seven Sweethearts
Seven Sweethearts
	Van Heflin and Kathryn Grayson
Directed by	Frank Borzage
Written by	Ferenc Herczeg play
Screenplay by	Walter Reisch; Leo Townsend
Based on	Seven Sisters
Produced by	Frank Borzage; Joe Pasternak
Starring	Kathryn Grayson; Marsha Hunt; Cecilia Parker; Van Heflin
Cinematography	George J. Folsey; Leonard Smith
Edited by	Blanche Sewell
Music by	Franz Waxman
Production; company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by	Loew's Inc.
Release date	November 13, 1942
Running time	98 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$752,000
Box office	$1,686,000

Seven Sweethearts is a 1942 musical film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Kathryn Grayson, Marsha Hunt and Van Heflin.

Seven Sweethearts generated legal trouble seven years later. In 1949, Hungarian playwright Ferenc Herczeg sued MGM, producer Joe Pasternak and screenwriters Walter Reisch and Leo Townsend for $200,000, claiming they had plagiarized his play Seven Sisters, which he had written in 1903 and which Paramount Pictures had adapted into The Seven Sisters a 1915 movie starring Madge Evans.^[2]

Kathryn Grayson's real-life sister, Frances Raeburn, played "Cornelius."

Plot summary

Mr. Van Maaster (S.Z. Sakall) is a hotelier in Little Delft, Michigan. By family tradition, the oldest of his seven daughters must marry first. But Regina (Marsha Hunt) wants to go to New York, to become an actress. The youngest, Billie (Kathryn Grayson), has the sweetest singing voice, and she ends up marrying Henry Taggart (Van Heflin) while the other sisters including Regina also get married at the same time, so all sisters marry in the same ceremony.^[3] Although sometimes tagged as a musical, all the songs in the film are diegetic, i.e. there is no unheard accompaniment to the songs, and all with Billie as soloist. They include an English-lyric ("There is a Dreamboat on High") version of a berceuse (Wiegenlied/lullaby), long attributed (and in the film) to Mozart but in fact composed by Friedrich Fleischmann (Schlafe, mein Prinzchen, schlaf ein, 1799)^[4] Interestingly, a scene where a pianist-lodger plays a melody intended to lull the father/hotelier to sleep features Rock-a-bye Baby, derived from the often-retexted English ballad Lillibullero, itself derived from the quickstep section of a march by Henry Purcell. At a climactic moment in the tulip festival, she sings the beginning of the aria, "Je suis Titania" (polonaise, from Act II, Scene 2 of the French opera Mignon by Ambroise Thomas, lyrics by Jules Barbier). Other songs featuring Kathryn Grayson as soloist, by the songwriting team of Walter Jurmann (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics), include "You and the Waltz and I", "Little Tingle Tangle Toes", and "Tulip Time".

Cast

Kathryn Grayson as Billie Van Maaster
Marsha Hunt as Regina 'Reggie' Van Maaster
Cecilia Parker as Victor Van Maaster
Peggy Moran as Albert 'Al' Van Maaster
Dorothy Morris as Peter Van Maaster
Frances Rafferty as George Van Maaster
Frances Raeburn as Cornelius Van Maaster
Van Heflin as Henry Taggart
Carl Esmond as Carl Randall
Michael Butler as Bernard Groton, Peter's Beau
Cliff Danielson as Martin Leyden, Victor's Beau
William Roberts as Anthony Vreeland, Cornelius' Beau
James Warren as Theodore Vaney, Albert's Beau
Dick Simmons as Paul Brandt, George's Beau
S. Z. Sakall as Mr. Van Maaster, the Father
Diana Lewis as Mrs. Nugent
Lewis Howard as Mr. Nugent
Donald Meek as Reverend Howgan
Louise Beavers as Petunia

Reception

According to MGM records the film made $638,000 in the US and Canada and $1,048,000 elsewhere (a rarity for MGM, as most movies earned more money domestically until after WWII);^[5] this gave the studio a profit of $364,000.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
^ http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2833/Seven-Sweethearts/articles.html
^ http://www.allmovie.com/movie/seven-sweethearts-v109574
^ or Bernhard Flies. Goretzki, Elfriede; Krickenberg, Dieter (1988). "Das Wiegenlied 'von Mozart'". Mitteilungen der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum. 36 (1–4). Salzburg: 114–118.
^ Kyle W. J. Tabbernor, "'Subbed-Titles': Hollywood, the Art House Market and the Best Foreign Language Film Category at the Oscars" (Ph.D. diss., University of Western Ontario, 2013), 16-17. See also Richard Shale, The Academy Awards Index: The Complete Categorical and Chronological Record (Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1993), 277.

External links

Seven Sweethearts at IMDb
Seven Sweethearts at AllMovie
Seven Sweethearts at the TCM Movie Database
Seven Sweethearts at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films

[Mannix-1] The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.

[2] ttp://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2833/Seven-Sweethearts/articles.html

[3] ttp://www.allmovie.com/movie/seven-sweethearts-v109574

[4] r Bernhard Flies. Goretzki, Elfriede; Krickenberg, Dieter (1988). "Das Wiegenlied 'von Mozart'". Mitteilungen der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum. 36 (1–4). Salzburg: 114–118.

[5] Kyle W. J. Tabbernor, "'Subbed-Titles': Hollywood, the Art House Market and the Best Foreign Language Film Category at the Oscars" (Ph.D. diss., University of Western Ontario, 2013), 16-17. See also Richard Shale, The Academy Awards Index: The Complete Categorical and Chronological Record (Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1993), 277.

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