Main Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Walter Pidgeon, Hattie McDaniel, Nat Pendleton
Release Year: 1938
Country: US
Run Time: 85 minutes
Plot
The second motion picture version of a Saturday Evening Post story by Dana Burnet, this romantic melodrama was also the second pairing of actors James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. Stewart plays Private Bill Pettigrew, a naïve young Texan in New York for basic training prior to being shipped overseas to fight in WWI. When he is nearly run over by an automobile, he meets its owner, Daisy Heath (Sullavan). A sophisticated entertainer, Daisy is taken with Bill's sweet, uncomplicated nature, and she agrees to a ruse when Bill asks her to pose has his girl in order to impress his Army bunkmates. Daisy's real boyfriend, Sam Bailey (Walter Pidgeon), is at first amused by Daisy's new friendship, but he soon becomes jealous of Bill's growing affection for Daisy. When Bill receives his orders, he begs Daisy to marry him, and although she doesn't really love him, Daisy can't reject a soldier who may be about to meet his maker, so a quickie ceremony is arranged. When word later comes that Bill has been killed on the front lines, a heartbroken Daisy realizes that she and Sam are taking each other for granted. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
The Shopworn Angel is a treacly and often unbelievable romance, redeemed by its luminous trio of stars. Waldo Salt's screenplay is manipulative to a fault, filled with plot points that are simply too artificial: can anyone honestly believe that Margaret Sullavan's character would really agree to marry James Stewart's soldier? The story's machinations force the actors to behave in ways that stretch credulity, with Sullavan and Walter Pidgeon asked to be Noble with a capital N and Stewart required to be Naïve (similarly capitalized). Fortunately, these three manage to pull it off -- and then some. Sullavan makes even the most extreme change of heart seem believable, and she finds surprising levels in even the most mundane sequences. Stewart is one of the few actors who could make such a hayseed into a living and breathing human being, and if Pidgeon is somewhat less successful than his co-stars, he still humanizes a stick figure very well. While Angel's limitations keep it from soaring, the actors manage to make it glide along quite nicely. (Fans of Mary Martin may also want to give Angel a whirl; the Broadway legend provides Sullavan's singing voice.) ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Cedric Gibbons - Art Director, Edwin B. Willis - Art Director, Joseph C. Wright - Art Director, Val Raset - Choreography, Adrian - Costume Designer, H.C. Potter - Director, Donn W. Hayes - Editor, Edward Ward - Composer (Music Score), Joseph Ruttenberg - Cinematographer, Joseph L. Mankiewicz - Producer, Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer, Slavko Vorkapich - Special Effects, Dana Burnet - Screen Story, Waldo Salt - Screenwriter
Daisy Heath, a sophisticated Broadwaymusical theatre star, meets a naive young soldier from Texas, Bill Pettigrew, during his basic training stint in New York City before shipping off to Europe during World War I. Anxious to impress his GI buddies, the country bumpkin convinces her to masquerade as his girlfriend. The successful charade prompts Bill to propose marriage and Daisy, while devoted to her manager and longtime beau Sam Bailey, opts to accept so the private can sail for France optimistically looking forward to the future. When the soldier is killed in battle on the front lines, Daisy and Sam, who understood the reason for her decision, are reunited in their love for each other.
Production history
The film underwent major personnel changes during its development stages. The directing assignment first went to Richard Thorpe, then Julien Duvivier, before Potter was given the task. Originally cast as Daisy Heath was Jean Harlow, who died before filming began. She initially was replaced by Joan Crawford, who then yielded the role to Rosalind Russell, before newly-signed MGM contract player Sullavan finally came on board. Melvyn Douglas originally was signed to play Sam Bailey, but the role ultimately went to Walter Pidgeon[1].
First-time screenwriter Salt had to adhere to the strict regulations of the Hays Code, which required him to dilute many of the sexually explicit elements of the preceding versions of the story. This included transforming Daisy from a cynical, hard-edged chorus girl into a respectable leading lady and Sam from Daisy's gangster lover into her benign manager and chaste boyfriend.
Although not deemed an official remake of The Shopworn Angel, the 1959 film That Kind of Woman shared a very similar plot.
