Movies:
In the Good Old Summertime
DVD Release
- Release Date: 2004
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- Introduction by Garland biographer John Fricke
- Vintage Fitzpatrick traveltalks shorts "Chicago the Beautiful" and "Night Life in Chicago"
- Theatrical trailers of this movie, The Shop Around the Corner, and You've Got Mail
- Rating:
- Genre: Comedy
- Movie Type: Musical Romance, Musical Comedy
- Themes: Battle of the Sexes, Workplace Romance, Opposites Attract
- Director: Robert Z. Leonard
- Main Cast: Judy Garland, Van Johnson, Buster Keaton, S.Z. Sakall, Spring Byington, Clinton Sundberg
- Release Year: 1949
- Country: US
- Run Time: 104 minutes
Plot
In the Good Old Summertime is a musical remake of the 1940 Ernst Lubitsch comedy The Shop Around the Corner, which in turn was based on a play by Miklos Laszlo. The locale has been changed from Hungary to Chicago, but the turn-of-century time frame and the plot remain the same. Van Johnson and Judy Garland play a couple of clerks in a sheet-music store who detest each other on sight. Both reserve their words of affection for their respective pen pals, whom they've never met. The audience, of course, is aware that Johnson is Garland's pen pal, and she his, but it's fun to anticipate the fireworks when the characters on screen make this discovery. Buster Keaton, then employed by MGM as a "comedy consultant," is provided with one of his best parts in years as the bumbling nephew of shop owner S.Z. Sakall. The songs sung in Summertime consist of period numbers like "I Don't Care", "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie", and the title tune. This is the film in which 18-month-old Liza Minnelli (Garland's daughter) toddles into the closing number, though it is not her film debut, as has often been claimed: an even younger Minnelli popped up briefly in Garland's previous MGM musical Easter Parade. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideReview
In the Good Old Summertime is a peppy and unassuming musical whose modest but undeniable charms will be enjoyed most by audiences unfamiliar with the movie (The Shop Around the Corner) upon which it is based. Although it has drastically changed Shop's setting, Summertime does keep a surprising amount of the movie's wonderful dialogue, even as if plays havoc with some of the plot essentials, resulting in a movie that is curiously devoid of all but the smallest dramatic tension. This, of course, places a significant burden on the talents of its cast, and Summertime is quite fortunate here. If Van Johnson cannot equal the work of Jimmy Stewart in Shop, he is still an excellent choice for the musical version. Even better is Judy Garland, who is in superb voice and delivers a knock-out "Put Your Arms Around Me Honey," a lively "I Don't Care" and a touching "Merry Christmas." She's also in peak comedic form, delivering an exceptional performance even when the script falls prey to hokeyness, as it does on occasion. The supporting cast is quite good, even if Buster Keaton is largely wasted, Robert Z. Leonard's direction is fine and the period costumes are quite colorful. If Summertime is not the perfect musicalization of Shop -- that honor belongs to the stage show, She Loves Me -- it is still an enjoyable little romp. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie GuideCast
- Judy Garland - Veronica Fisher
- Van Johnson - Andrew Larkin
- Buster Keaton - Hickey
- S.Z. Sakall - Otto Oberkugen
- Spring Byington - Nellie Burke
- Clinton Sundberg - Rudy Hansen
Marcia van Dyke - Louise Parkson; Lillian Bronson - Aunt Addie; Liza Minnelli - Veronica and Andrew's Baby
