Gypsy Sweetheart (1935)

Director:

Ralph Staub

Writer:

Joe Traub (story)

Release Date:

14 December 2010 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Comedy | Musical

Plot:

Tina, a singing Gypsy with a band or roving gypsies, is invited by Tom to come over to his mother's estate where a lawn party is in progress...

Plot Keywords:

Gypsy | Dancing | Employer | Estate | Mother

Cast

Eddie Shubert	...	Bellingham
Phillip Reed	...	Tom
Wini Shaw	...	Tina (as Winifred Shaw)
Howard C. Hickman	...	Mr. Van Updyke (as Howard Hickman)
Margaret Dumont	...	Mrs. Van Updyke
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Homans	...	Gypsy (uncredited)
Fred Kelsey	...	First Detective (uncredited)
Edmund Mortimer	...	Lawn Party Guest (uncredited)
James C. Morton	...	Second Detective (uncredited)
Paul Panzer	...	Gypsy (uncredited)
Evelyn Selbie	...	Gypsy Fortune Teller (uncredited)

Directed by
Ralph Staub

Writing credits
Joe Traub		(story)

Produced by
Samuel Sax	....	producer (uncredited)

Cinematography by
William V. Skall

Film Editing by
Doug Gould		(as Douglas Gould)

Art Direction by
Hugh Reticker

Music Department
Leo F. Forbstein	....	conductor: Vitaphone Orchestra

Other crew
Jack Boyle	....	dances by (as John Boyle)
Natalie Kalmus	....	technicolor color director

Production Companies

• Vitaphone Corporation, The
• Warner Bros

Distributors

• Warner Bros (1935) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video (2010) (USA) (DVD) (included in the "Vitaphone Cavalcade of Musical Comedy Shorts Collection")

Also Known As:

"Broadway Brevities: Gypsy Sweetheart" - USA (series title)

Runtime:

20 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Vitaphone Corporation, The

Trivia:

Vitaphone production reels #1708-1709

Movie Connections:

Featured in Added Attractions: The Hollywood Shorts Story (2002) (TV)

The Technicolor Steals the Show

Gypsy Sweetheart (1935)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

2-strip Technicolor short from MGM has a group of rich people having a party when some gypsies are invited to sing and dance. All is going good until they're accused of stealing some money, gold and watches. This is when the beautiful and talented Tina (Wini Shaw) talks about how mistreated and misunderstood her people have been. If you watch Turner Classic Movies enough then you've surely came across countless musical two-reelers that MGM turned out left and right back in the day. This one here is certainly worth watching even if it's no where near the best that the studio had to offer. What makes this film work so well is the beautiful Technicolor and it's obvious that this was the most important thing to the filmmakers. It really does seem as if each frame of film had so much attention paid to it just to make sure that the colors really jump off the screen. Everything from the clothes being worn to the paintings on the wall appear to have been perfectly matched to everything else in the frame. Just take a look at one dance sequence where the gypsy people are lined up and it's not the dance that's impressive but instead the colors and how they blend together. The dances are mildly entertaining but the songs are all rather forgettable. I'd say the story is pretty silly and predictable as well but Shaw was certainly very easy on the eyes. Overall, this is certainly nothing groundbreaking but if you've got twenty-minutes to kill then it's worth watching.