Gypsy Sweetheart

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.