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Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy mini marathon on TCM May 1st

For those of you who need to refresh your memories of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, you may want to check out TCM’s mini-marathon on May 1st.  They will be showing Sweethearts and Maytime, two of the films that have a lot of action going on behind the scenes that isn’t in the scripts!

For example, in Maytime see a very clear photo above of Nelson’s tears during the “Czaritza” scene. And again, he blinks back tears during the “Will You Remember” scene. Jeanette wept too but they cut from her so as not to show too much. Only Nelson’s tears are really visible.

As for Sweethearts, well, it’s just a Nelson Eddy love-fest for the co-star he obviously adores. His hands wander in the “Pretty as a Picture” number, he just beams at her, blows on her neck and if you watch carefully when the camera pulls away from them and features the dancing girls, Jeanette leans over and plants a quick kiss on him. This is the first film I ever saw, I watched it with Jeanette’s sister Blossom and when it was over,  I understood why there was both excitement and heartache over the realization that yes, these two were in love with each other. And Blossom confirmed it.

Watch these films carefully and it will enhance your reading of my new updated edition of Sweethearts.

Here are the screening times (Eastern time) for May 1st:

6:00 AM – The Cat And The Fiddle (with the Technicolor final scene!)
7:30 AM – The Firefly (1937)
10:00 AM – Sweethearts (1938)
12:00 PM – Maytime (1937)