Bitter Sweet (1940 film)
| Bitter Sweet | |
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Title card
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| Directed by | W. S. Van Dyke |
| Produced by | Victor Saville |
| Written by | Lesser Samuels |
| Based on |
Bitter Sweet 1929 operetta by Noël Coward |
| Starring |
Jeanette MacDonald Nelson Eddy George Sanders |
| Music by | Gus Kahn |
| Cinematography | Oliver T. Marsh |
| Edited by | Harold F. Kress |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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94 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.1 million |
| Box office | $2.2 million |
Bitter Sweet is a 1940 American Technicolor musical film directed by W. S. Van Dyke, based on the operetta Bitter Sweet by Noël Coward. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for Best Cinematography and the other for Best Art Direction by Cedric Gibbons and John S. Detlie.
The film is based on Coward's stage operetta, which was a hit in 1929 in London. It was filmed twice, first in 1933 in black-and-white (in Britain, with Anna Neagle and Fernand Gravet in the leading roles). The 1940 film is much cut and rewritten, removing much of the operetta's irony. The opening and closing scenes are cut, focusing the film squarely upon the relationship between MacDonald's character, Sarah, and her music teacher, Carl Linden. The opening scene was a flash forward, in which Sarah appears as an elderly woman recalling how she fell in love. One reason for dropping this scene is that it had been appropriated for MGM's 1937 film Maytime. Coward disliked the 1940 film and vowed that no more of his shows would be filmed in Hollywood. In 1951 he told The Daily Express, "I was saving up Bitter Sweet as an investment for my old age. After MGM's dreadful film I can never revive it" on stage.
Set in late 19th century Vienna, the story focuses on the romance between music teacher Carl Linden (Nelson Eddy) and his prize pupil Sarah Milick (Jeanette MacDonald).
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