“BITTER SWEET”

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3112, 29 April 1942, Page 5

“BITTER SWEET”

MUSICAL SPECTACLE FILMED IN TECHNICOLOUR INCOMPARABLE SONG TEAM The music of (Noel Coward, with-, out doubt some of the most charming ever to reach the screen, finds its perfect interpreters in Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, the incomparable song team united again in the picturisation of the Coward operetta, “Bitter Sweet,” which will show at the Regent Theatre to-night, Thursday and Friday.

The stars were never in better voice and never sang in a more colourful setting, for the Gay Nineties period in which the story is set is brilliantly reproduced in Technicol- . our. Miss MacDonald is seen as Sarah Millick, Victorian belle" who on the eve of her wedding, elopes, with her singing teacher, Carl Linden, played by Eddy. Both roles are enacted wifh complete ease and conviction by the stars, who are called on for no exaggerated dramatics, but appear entirely natural as musicians. Miss MacDonald displays her dancing ability to gay advantage and Eddy shows his .musical versatility by playing piano and violin as well as leading the orchestra on occasion. An effective menace is George San- ‘ ders as Baron Von Tranisch of the Imperial Cavalry, who breaks up the lovers’ idyll in Vienna. lan Hunter, as Lord Shayne, gambling opponent of Von Tranisch and benefactor of Sarah hand Carl, projects charm and sympathy. The laughs are shared by Felix Bressart and Curt Boi s as Max and Ernst, penniless musician fiiends of Carl, Sig Rumann as Herr Schlick, cafe proprietor, and Hermann Bing as the market-keeper. W. S. Van Dyke 11., who directed the MacDonald-Eddy team in Naughty Marietta,” “Rose Marie,” and “Sweethearts,” has accomplished an equally impressive job in “Bitter Sweet,” combining continuous action with such delightful Coward melodies as “I’ll See You Again,” “Our Little Cafe,” “What Is Love?” and “Zigeuner,” among others. “Bitter Sweet” is another distinctive Mac-Donald-Eddy success.