THEY WERE AMERICA'S `SINGING SWEETHEARTS'

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 7, 1993                   TAG: 9302040069
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Tom Shales
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
THEY WERE AMERICA'S `SINGING SWEETHEARTS'
In the 1930s, when Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were dancing out their lovemaking on the silver screen, Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy were singing theirs. Nowadays, of course, nobody bothers with metaphors any more.
To modern eyes, the bombastic romantic antics of McDonald and Eddy may look silly, even ludicrous. But even cynics should be able to see what made the toothsome twosome so appealing, thanks to "Nelson and Jeanette: America's Singing Sweethearts," a sweet and sparkling public TV special WBRA (Channel 15) will air Friday at 10 p.m.
In clip after gauzy clip from their eight MGM musicals, McDonald and Eddy emote in song - songs like "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life" and "Indian Love Call" and "Lover Come Back to Me." They look deeply into each other's eyes as they pour forth the musical equivalent of purple prose.
They didn't just sing to each other, they didn't just sing at each other. They sang into each other. There was resonance and reverberation. Depression audiences who'd lost faith in almost everything were told in no uncertain terms that they should still believe in love. And faced with those giant, swoony- croony figures on the movie screen, they did.
The one-hour tribute, written and produced by Elayne Goldstein for Chicago's WTTW, is hosted by the still-pretty Jane Powell, star of many an MGM musical herself. In a little-remembered film called "Three Daring Daughters," Powell in fact sang a duet with McDonald: lyrics written for Edvard Grieg's "The Last Spring." A brief clip is included.
It was almost always spring in the McDonald-Eddy films, which had titles like "Maytime" and "The New Moon." Lavishly produced and soggy with sentiment, their movies bridged the gap between the dying European operetta and the emerging American musical comedy. McDonald and Eddy ushered an era out with style, and became their own era in the process.
W.S. Van Dyke, who directed five of the team's films, was always "exasperated by Eddy's stiffness before the cameras," Powell says in her narration. Eddy was amazingly wooden, and yet that stolid implacability played well off the self-mocking impudence of McDonald, who had genuinely respectable skills as a serious and comic actress.
McDonald and Eddy were frequently spoofed over the years, but they also did a good job of spoofing themselves: It was in their funniest film, "Sweethearts," excerpted in the special and available on home video.
PBS's musical documentary traces the team's careers through their films, but with glaring omissions. The show was coproduced with Turner Entertainment Co., which owns the rights to all MGM films; but McDonald and Eddy separately made films with other studios. Those who made "Singing Sweethearts" either couldn't get clips from those pictures or didn't bother to try.
McDonald scored a sensation singing "Beyond the Blue Horizon" in "Monte Carlo" five years before her first film with Eddy, "Naughty Marietta," in 1935, but it isn't mentioned in the program.
As for Eddy, he sang again in Universal's spectacular remake of "The Phantom of the Opera," with Claude Rains as Phanty, in 1943 - also unmentioned. Even with its gaps, however, "Singing Sweethearts" is well worth watching.
Jeanette McDonald died in 1965 at the age of 58; Nelson Eddy died two years later at 66. They left behind an affair-on-film unlikely ever to be equaled, or even attempted, in our time or anybody else's. Wasn't it romantic? Yes, it was.

Tom Shales writes about television for The Washington Post.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB