Seven Sweethearts

Seven Sweethearts is a 1942 musical film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Kathryn Grayson, Marsha Hunt and Van Heflin.

Seven Sweethearts
Van Heflin and Kathryn Grayson
Directed by	Frank Borzage
Screenplay by	Walter Reisch Leo Townsend
Based on	Seven Sisters 1903 play by Ferenc Herczeg
Produced by	Frank Borzage Joe Pasternak
Starring	Kathryn Grayson Marsha Hunt Cecilia Parker Van Heflin
Cinematography	George J. Folsey Leonard Smith (uncredited)
Edited by	Blanche Sewell
Music by	Franz Waxman
Production company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by	Loew's Inc.
Release date	November 13, 1942 (1942-11-13)
Running time	98 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$752,000[1]
Box office	$1,686,000[1]

In 1949, Hungarian playwright Ferenc Herczeg sued MGM, producer Joe Pasternak and screenwriters Walter Reisch and Leo Townsend for $200,000 alleging that they had plagiarized Herczeg's 1903 play Seven Sisters, which Paramount Pictures had adapted into the 1915 film The Seven Sisters, starring Madge Evans. The case was settled out-of-court for a "substantial" amount.^[2][3]

Kathryn Grayson's real-life sister Frances Raeburn plays Cornelius.

Plot

Mr. Van Maaster is a hotelier in Little Delft, Michigan. By family tradition, the oldest of his seven daughters must marry first, but Regina wants to move to New York to become an actress. The youngest, Billie, has the sweetest singing voice. All seven sisters are married in the same ceremony.^[4]

Cast

The sisters:

• Kathryn Grayson as Billie Van Maaster
• Marsha Hunt as Regina 'Reggie' Van Maaster
• Cecilia Parker as Victor Van Maaster
• Peggy Moran as Albert 'Al' Van Maaster
• Dorothy Morris as Peter Van Maaster
• Frances Rafferty as George Van Maaster
• Frances Raeburn as Cornelius Van Maaster

Their beaus:

• Van Heflin as Henry Taggart
• Carl Esmond as Carl Randall
• Michael Butler as Bernard Groton, Peter's Beau
• Cliff Danielson as Martin Leyden, Victor's Beau
• William Roberts as Anthony Vreeland, Cornelius's Beau
• James Warren as Theodore Vaney, Albert's Beau
• Dick Simmons as Paul Brandt, George's Beau

Other characters:

• S. Z. Sakall as Mr. Van Maaster, the Father
• Diana Lewis as Mrs. Nugent
• Lewis Howard as Mr. Nugent
• Isobel Elsom as Miss Abagail Robbins
• Donald Meek as Reverend Howgan
• Louise Beavers as Petunia

Music

Although sometimes tagged as a musical, all the songs in the film are diegetic, with no unheard accompaniment to the songs, and all with Billie as soloist. They include an English version ("There Is a Dreamboat on High") of a berceuse (Wiegenlied/lullaby), long attributed (and in the film) to Mozart, but it was in fact composed by Friedrich Fleischmann (Schlafe, mein Prinzchen, schlaf ein, 1799).^[5]

A scene in which a pianist lodger plays a melody to lull the hotelier to sleep features "Rock-a-bye Baby", derived from the English ballad "Lillibullero", itself derived from the quickstep section of a march by Henry Purcell. At a climactic moment in the tulip festival the aria "Je suis Titania" (from the French opera Mignon) is heard. Other songs featuring Kathryn Grayson as soloist include "You and the Waltz and I", and "Little Tingle Tangle Toes", both written by the team of Walter Jurmann (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics), and "Tulip Time", by Burton Lane (music) and Ralph Freed (lyrics).

Reception

According to MGM records the film earned $638,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $1,048,000 elsewhere (a rarity for MGM, as most films earned more money domestically until after World War II),^[6] returning a profit of $364,000.^[1]