Seven Sweethearts has Van Heflin as a news reporter sent on a puff assignment to cover the famous Tulip Festival in Delft, Michigan. Then as now Michigan has a large Dutch population, at the time it was represented in the US Senate by Arthur Vandenberg. But this particular town has turned into a veritable Dutch Theme Park.All presided over by the local innkeeper S.Z. Sakall whose hotel staff includes his seven lovely daughters and Louise Beavers. All have some kind of talent, but Sakall wants to keep them near. The oldest daughter is Marsha Hunt and Sakall if he has to lose them wants them married off in descending order. He pushes Heflin and Hunt together who just wants to get out of Delft and go on the stage.But Heflin has eyes for Kathryn Grayson. The plot premise is the same as in the Fred Astaire/Rita Hayworth classic You Were Never Lovelier being done the same year at Columbia. It's a much better film than Seven Sweethearts, having those two as leads and a Jerome Kern score give it an insurmountable boost over this film.Not that Seven Sweethearts isn't bad. It's the kind of romantic tale that Frank Borzage loved and while this isn't one of his classics it's passable enough entertainment. Kathryn Grayson sings some nice melodies nothing special though. And Van Heflin is a favorite.Seven Sweethearts is old fashioned, but still good entertainment.

I helped restore a boat that Van Heflin,and Kathryn Grayson were on.The movie was made in Saugatuck,Michigan.This boat was named the "Karab" at the time.Was owned by Karl Irwin. In 60 yrs this boat has only had 4 owners ! It is listed as the third oldest boat still on the Great Lakes. The picture shows the movie crew on the boat,and the other sisters that were in the movie when it was docked at the "Badlands" hotel which burned down. This boat was a 1923 Defoe built in Bay City,Michigan. I looked for over a year to find the movie.Didn't know it was a musical. I had to get help from MGM to find out what type of movie it was. I have a poor quality of the movie,and the boat was not seen in the movie. I like good musicals with a good story line,and this was done just right.

Yikes! Sixty-some years after first seeing this movie as a child, I remembered only how cool I thought the bed in the wall was. Now that TMC is recycling it, no other positive memory comes to mind. I regret in a way having to rate it so low, but this really is a very flaky production even for the desperate years in which it was made.The first and most important fact to keep in mind if you have the good fortune to view it is that it is a turkey masquerading as a fantasy. It cries out for deconstruction. Giving boys' names to the seven eponymous knockout beauties is a Freudian howler. Especially when the gals are matched with an odd assortment of young male actors who had somehow avoided the draft long enough to appear on this 1942 set. And the real Holland, Michigan today is to a large extent a Spanish-speaking community that reflects how quickly times change in the real world -- not that it ever was in the first place anything close to what this film fantasy conjures up. Indeed, the image of tulips and windmills seems calculated to stand in stark relief to the reality that was the Netherlands under the Nazi heel in 1942, ironically demonstrating that the generally pro-German neutrality in that country and in the real Holland, Michigan during the years between WWI and WWII was a fool's paradise.But enough of that. Baby-faced Van Heflin in his over-sized fedora playing the role of a hard-nosed photo-journalist seems in any event miscast. His best role would come a decade later in the movie Shane. And warbler Kathryn Grayson would later stand out in the classic 1951 movie version of Showboat.Even as sheer entertainment in its own time, this film is unadulterated escapism, worthy of no more than a glance by film historians.

I just saw this movie a few days ago on TCM (Turner Classic Movies), and I was not disappointed. I wasn't expecting much so I was pleasantly surprised to come away from this film with a smile on my face. The acting was even good for the type of film it was, I have not been the biggest Van Heflin fan but he is actually very likeable in this film, so much so that I think I may be a fan of his now. ;-)The stand-out performances came from Heflin, Hunt, and Sakall but Grayson was very cute, although I am not a fan of her singing it wasn't THAT bad this time. Although still a little too high and chirpy sounding for me.I must praise Marsha Hunt though, she seems to be good in every film she's in, even when the role doesn't call for her to do much of anything. In this role she really gets to show a comedic side that I've never seen from her before, and it gave me even more respect for her. It's such a pity she didn't become a bigger star cause she had the beauty and the talent for it. I recommend this film if you're in the mood for some light entertainment, Toots. ;-)