The Seven Sweethearts
                 
Director: Frank Borzage
Year: 1942
Rating: 5.0
I had read somewhere that this was a musical remake of Pride and Prejudice and the idea that Frank Borzage was directing it pulled me in. Well, any relation to Pride and Prejudice is purely coincidental and I expect this was just a studio assignment for Borzage from MGM. For a guy coming off two anti-Nazi classics with Mortal Storm and Three Comrades (the anti-Nazi material was watered down by the censors), it must have been a letdown. It is well shot and the songs are fine for the time, but it just has very little get up and go. It tries very hard to be charming, heart-warming and sweet but misses by a wide mark with a happy ending that would choke a horse. Normally, I like happy endings but not ones as unconvincing as this.

 

Henry - played by Van Heflin with his usual abrasive lack of charm - is on assignment from New York City to photo the Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan. He gets a little lost because the town refuses to put up signs as does the hotel he intends to stay at. But outside an establishment sits the owner playing an instrument in which neighbors from their homes join in. I knew I was already in trouble with that. Too cutesy even for me. And played by the adorable S.Z. Sakall who is always a big teddy bear. He tells Henry that this is the hotel he is looking for but he doesn't put up signs in case he doesn't like the look of the customer. But Henry is ok. He should have told Henry to keep looking. The hotel is run by his seven daughters - all with male names and all great looking. Clearly from their mother or the MGM reserve. At night they put on shows and this is where the songs come in.

 

The film is clearly meant as a vehicle for Kathryn Grayson - only 20 at the time but having been in MGM training for nearly 2 years. She had debuted in an Andy Hardy film as so many did but MGM wasn't satisfied with her and even after this film didn't do much with her for three years till she finally hit it big in Anchors Aweigh. She has a powerful coloratura soprano that can shatter glass. She falls into the school of the classically trained singers such as Jeanette MacDonald and Deanna Durbin as opposed to most of the rest who sang in a popular style. All three had great careers so clearly this style was very popular back then. Operetta style.

 

Henry is an annoying New Yorker who hits on all the girls with flirtations as old as the pyramids and is manipulated into spending time with the eldest daughter (played by Marsha Hunt, another victim of the blacklist). Why? Because none of the daughters can marry until the eldest does and five of them have beaus. Problem is she is a nut in love with herself and thinking that she has the talent to storm Broadway. Henry though falls for Billie (Grayson) and well you can guess how that all goes. This is normally something I would have liked but it feels so intent on being magical and adorable that I felt manipulated. And it truth I never enjoy Van Heflin. At least he doesn't sing.