In the Good Old Summertime (1949)

the audience applauded

Nice effects though.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

While not as good as the wonderful (non-musical) 'The Shop Around the Corner' (one of the great Ernst Lubitsch's greatest gems) and some may question the point of it, as far as "remakes" go 'In the Good Old Summertime' doesn't fare shabbily at all and holds up well on its own too.'In the Good Old Summertime' is dragged down a little by the violin subplot, an additional subplot to a film that is otherwise reasonably faithful in basic details to 'The Shop Around the Corner', which didn't really add very much and distracted at times from the main romance. While Marcia Van Dyke is a very skilled violinist, those skills do not translate in her acting which is very bland.The title is also an odd one, a very appetising and catchy title but irrelevant to the story seeing as it's more winter than summer, which will mislead (and has done) people.However, 'In the Good Old Summertime' is beautifully filmed and lavishly produced, and Robert Z Leonard directs with an energetic lightness but also a maturity. The songs have been criticised for not being particularly memorable. While not timeless standards all of them are lovely and have a real liveliness and genuine emotion, especially "Merry Christmas" and "I Don't Care", both performed by Judy Garland. All of them are gracefully and energetically staged.Scripting is witty and sophisticated and while the story is not as emotionally layered as 'The Shop Around the Corner' it is nonetheless always interesting and immensely charming.Apart from Van Dyke, the cast are all strong. Judy Garland is just wonderful and in sublime voice (then again, who couldn't expect any less?) and Van Johnson gives one of his most comfortable and engaging performances of any of his musical endeavours. He and Garland have a spirited and heartfelt chemistry.Spring Byington and SZ Sakall are humorous and very likable scene-stealers without overdoing it, and while Buster Keaton is well past prime and has little to do he makes the most of what he is and his pratfall is both funny and elegant.In conclusion, a very charming musical with an enormous amount to like. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Plot: Pen pals fall in love on paper and (unwittingly) battle each other at work, with music! Drive-in Rating: Pull over and watch! Absolutely enjoyable and mostly faithful to the original of 1940, now located in Chicago and with the added perk of Judy Garland in song (and dance). For the modern viewer, this may be an easier transition to the original plot than the black and white original, "The Shop Around the Corner." Also recommend considering which star is a bigger draw for you (Judy or Jimmy Stewart). If you've enjoyed "Meet Me in St. Louis," odds are you'll enjoy this, though Meet Me… is far more acclaimed. This version gives you the added benefit of silent movie great Buster Keaton (yes, he talks) and dashing all-American leading man Van Johnson.

Given how Judy Garland scored so well in another period piece, Meet Me In St. Louis, it was a natural that she be cast in In The Good Old Summertime even if she was a replacement for June Allyson. It's called serendipity. The film is a musical adaption of MGM's The Shop Around The Corner in which James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan played the anonymous correspondents who love what each other write, but can't stand each other in person. It doesn't help that the two of them are co-workers in a department store.Van Johnson takes the Stewart part in In The Good Old Summertime and early 20th century Budapest is transferred to early 20th century Chicago. Johnson and Garland work in a music store with Spring Byington, Clinton Sundberg, and Buster Keaton and that's owned by S.Z. Sakall. Sakall is far more lovable as he always is than Frank Morgan in the same part in The Shop Around The Corner. A bit thick, but lovable. He does think he has talent on the violin, the same way Jack Benny did on his radio program. He plays it as well as Benny did and even playing it on a Stradivarius doesn't help.Except for one new song, Merry Christmas, the rest of the score is interpolated period favorites like Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland, I Never Knew, I Don't Care and of course the title song. Judy is really in her element doing these numbers. In fact two of the early century's great musical performers, Blanche Ring who introduced In The Good Old Summertime, and Eva Tanguay whose specialty song was I Don't Care, were still alive to see Judy do both of their numbers for the current audience. I've often wondered what they must have thought.Buster Keaton is strangely subdued in this film. He only gets one real comic moment doing a pratfall on a dance floor and breaking a violin in the process. I'm betting some of his material wound up on the cutting room floor.At the very end of the film, little Liza Minnelli all of three at the time made her screen debut. If you like period pieces as I do and the music of the era as I do or if you liked The Shop Around The Corner or the most current adaption of the piece, You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, than you will appreciate and enjoy In The Good Old Summertime.If you do like it, that's a very good sign.

One can only assume that Robert Osborne is contractually obligated to express delight at even the least appealing films in the TCM library as this would explain him extolling the 'virtues' of this "charming" film during his introduction when I saw this on cable TV. Seeing as any old film on IMDb receives 'classic' status from a number of fawning amateur reviewers, I thought there was a dire need for a more honest review of this film.This is not your father's 'Shop Around the Corner'. For all my quibbles with 'You've Got Mail', it still outshines this as a remake in just about every way imaginable. For those who have seen the original, the flaws will only be all the more obvious.From one of the lamest Meet Cute sequences I can recall seeing (a sad slapstick attempt at 'humor'), this film gets off on the wrong foot and it never really gets back in step. This 'musical' only qualifies as one in the sparsest sense of the term. There are a sprinkling of instantly forgettable musical numbers and then there's Judy singing "I Don't Care" while flailing her arms around as if in a seizure. The Christmas song she sings in the store is probably one of her better numbers here. Miss Garland was wonderful in a number of musical films, but here she seems horribly miscast. The role was originally to have been filled by June Allyson and Judy is definitely unable to fill the shoes of Margaret Sullavan's old part. Van Johnson also turns in a rather bland performance as a second rate Jimmy Stewart type. The leads never achieve the chemistry of Stewart/Sullavan or even that of Hanks/Ryan.This is a film that knows (some of) the notes, but not the music. It doesn't really seem to understand why the original worked and even feels the need to add another possible love interest for Van Johnson's character to complicate things unnecessarily. The remake's substitution for the original's infidelity subplot is a hackneyed plot device involving a priceless violin. It is almost embarrassing to watch and feels as if it had perhaps been lifted from an episode of Three's Company by someone with a DeLorean and a flux capacitor. It's really just an excuse for a Keaton pratfall. Even the big resolution scene between the romantic leads is mishandled. After seeing both films, you'll understand why they called it 'the Lubitsch Touch' and NOT the 'Robert Z. Leonard Touch'.Avoid this and rewatch either the original film or one of Judy Garland's earlier films unless you're an iconoclast who enjoys seeing a once great star falling down to earth.