Sweet Adeline

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Movie
Original title Sweet Adeline
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1934
length 87 minutes
Rod
Director Mervyn LeRoy
script Erwin S. Gelsey
production Warner Brothers
music Jerome Kern
camera Sol Polito
cut Ralph Dawson , Harold McLernon
occupation

Sweet Adeline is the film adaptation of the musical of the same name by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II with Irene Dunne and directed by Mervyn LeRoy in the lead role. The film is loosely based on the musical of the same name by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II

action

The action briefly takes place in the late 1890s, an era known in the United States as the Gay Nineties . Adeline Schmidt is the attraction in her father's beer garden in Hobok . She delights the guests with her singing and is in love with the composer Sid Barnett. Her father doesn't believe in the connection and strongly warns his daughter not to get involved with men from show business. Adeline is pursuing a career as a singer despite her father's concerns. In the end, she marries Sid and her father gives his blessing on the connection.

background

Irene Dunne was the most popular star of her studio RKO in 1934 alongside the duo Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire . The actress came to Hollywood in 1930 as a trained singer , where she was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress in 1931 for her second film role in Cimarron . In the following years, Dunne mainly played long-suffering wives and lovers who suffer endlessly for and because of love. Back Street , No Other Woman or The Age of Innocence repeatedly presented Dunne as the epitome of the selfless woman, which earned her the nickname of female Gandhi. Gradually, however, the star broke away from this role cliché and increasingly played comedies and singing films, for the first time in Stingaree . The success of the film brought her the offer of Warner Brothers to star in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Sweet Adeline . Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the piece in 1929 for Helen Morgan, who had gained fame through her work as the tragic mulatto in Show Boat , another of Kern-Hammerstein's successes. Sweet Adeline had a total of 234 performances and with renewed interest in film musicals, Warners bought the rights. The musical takes place in the late 1890s, a time that was already known and glorified as the good old days, as gay nineties . Among other things, the success of Mae West , whose films were mainly set during this period, had triggered a kind of nostalgia wave.

During the adaptation, almost the entire plot was rewritten and the entire score was removed except for three songs. Most critics criticized these changes and found the events and the new songs rather banal.

Irene Dunne was to appear in three other film adaptations of Kern-Hammerstein musicals by 1937: Roberta , Show Boat and High, Wide, and Handsome .

Songs

Only three songs were taken from the repertoire of the stage version:

  • Here on I
  • Don't You Ever Leave Me as well
  • Why Was I Born? accepted.

Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote numerous new pieces for the film version.

In the course of the plot the following songs can be heard below:

  • The polka dot
  • There'll Be a High Time in the Old Town Tonight
  • Here Am I - Irene Dunne
  • We Were So Young - Irene Dunne
  • Why Was I Born? - Irene Dunne
  • Oriental moon
  • Molly O'Donahue
  • Lonely Feet - Irene Dunne
  • T'Was So Long Ago - Joseph Cawthorn, Irene Dunne, Phil Regan, Hugh Herbert and Nydia Westman
  • Pretty Little Kitty Lee
  • Down where the Wurtzburger flows
  • Don't Ever Leave Me - Irene Dunne

Reviews

The New York Times found the film rather banal.

"The era of fake mustaches and cardboard collars, which has become increasingly popular since Mae West started her career as a historian, was plundered again in" Sweet Adeline, "a very loose adaptation of the Kern-Hammerstein musical romance from five years ago. If Miss West convinced us that the nineties were indeed happy, then "Sweet Adeline" helps to put that impression into perspective. It shows that the decade was also sentimental, naive and a little boring [...] The film mainly allows the excited viewer to listen to Irene Dunne using her cool and pleasant soprano [...] Da Miss Dunne shows the superior and controlled demeanor of a city dweller, it is a little difficult to see the innocent waitress in her. "

Variety criticized the extensive changes to the stage version, which would not have done the film any good:

"[...] apart from the fact that the girl is leaving her father's beer garden in Hoboken despite parental concerns, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, who wrote the original, would not recognize their Addie."

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The age of the handlebar mustache and the inflammable collar, increasingly popular since Mae West turned historian, has been plundered once again in "Sweet Adeline," a loose rewrite of the Kern-Hammerstein musical romance five years ago. If Miss West persuaded us that the Nineties were genuinely gay, "Sweet Adeline" helps to correct the picture by showing that [the] decade was also sentimental, naïve and a little dull. [...] Chiefly it permits the amiable filmgoer to hear Irene Dunne adjusting her cool and pleasant soprano [...] Since Miss Dunne posesses the handsome and aloof manner of the assured metropolitan, it is a little disconcerting to find her enrolled as the innocent maid of the fable.
  2. ↑ [...] except for the fact that the girl leaves her father's Hoboken beer garden to go on the stage against parental objections, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, who wrote the original, wouldn't know their Addie anymore.