Dalies Frantz Movies

This soapy drama stars Hedy Lamarr as a would be model who meets a research doctor en route to the US from Europe. They meet when Dr. Spencer Tracy prevents her from taking a suicidal plunge from the upper decks of the ocean liner. It seems that Lamarr had been involved with married man Kent Taylor. When he reneged on his promise to divorce his wife Mona Barrie, she decided to end it all. Finding her extraordinarily beautiful, the doctor suggests she join him in his research. The two end up at a slum clinic and it doesn't take long for the doctor to fall completely in love with her. He convinces her to marry him and soon after the wedding, he exchanges life in the clinic for an upscale practice uptown. Servicing the rich is lucrative and soon he has provided his high maintenance wife with a luxurious life. Unfortunately for him, she appreciates his work and sacrifices not a whit, and as soon as she can attempts to respark a romance with Taylor whom she has never stopped loving. Fortunately for the doctor, Lamarr eventually comes to her senses and marital bliss ensues. This film had a troubled history with all of it due to Louis B. Mayer's obsession with making Lamarr the brightest star in the MGM galaxy. Originally the film was directed by Joseph von Sternberg, but he grew frustrated and tired by Mayer's constant interference and quit the film as did the next director, Frank Borzage. As a result an enormous amount of footage was discarded. Finally reliable W.S. Van Dyke was placed on the production and it was completed. Unfortunately, despite all that effort, the film bombed at the box office. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Contrary to popular belief, the Nelson Eddy-Jeanette MacDonald Technicolor confection Sweethearts is not based on the 1913 Victor Herbert operetta of the same name (though most of Herbert's songs remain intact), but a Dorothy Parker-Alan Campbell brainstorm about a popular Broadway singing duo, starring in a long-running production of Sweethearts. The early portions of the film take place during a purported presentation of the Herbert piece, with Eddy and MacDonald singing their hearts out and Ray Bolger providing comic relief. We then segue into a long sequence wherein producer Frank Morgan, celebrating Sweethearts's six-year run, insists that Eddy and MacDonald attend a lavish party, where the weary performers are called upon to continue singing throughout the evening. Hoping for a few moments alone after escaping the party, Eddy and MacDonald are besieged at their apartment by friends, co-workers, hangers-on and sponging relatives. Seeking peace and quiet, the couple agrees to leave Sweethearts for the comparative calm of Hollywood. But their entourage, fearing that they'll lose their meal ticket if Eddy and MacDonald leave New York, arrange to inaugurate two profitable road companies of Sweethearts by contriving to split up the loving couple. Cleverly sidestepping the sugary sweet sentimentality that one might expect from an MGM musical of the era, the delightful Sweethearts is hampered only by its overlength. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide