Cheap In the Good Old Summertime (DVD) (Judy Garland, Van Johnson) (Buster Keaton, Robert Z. Leonard) Price

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Customer Reviews of In the Good Old Summertime

Beautifully Done But Conventional
This story of two co-workers who loathe each other--and then perversely fall in love when they correspond anonymously through a lonelyhearts club--has been filmed three times, first in the 1930s as THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER with stars James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan and most recently in the 1990s as YOU'VE GOT MAIL with stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. This 1940s musical version, which sets the story in an early 1900s Chicago music shop, stars Judy Garland and Van Johnson.

Although the score is not in the least memorable, Garland is in fine voice, and although they lack any real chemistry she and Van Johnson play well together. More appealing is a romantic subplot concerning shop owner S.Z. Sakall and his long time ladyfriend Spring Byington, who are extremely charming in their roles and quite a bit of fun to watch. Fans of Buster Keaton will also enjoy seeing him in a small cameo role, and film buffs will be delighted to see Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli make her film debut in the movie's closing moments.

Although there is a great deal to enjoy here, the plot and presentation of the film is highly conventional, and the project would have benefited from a more gifted directorial vision. Four stars as a quality product with remarkable stars; don't expect too much and you'll enjoy it quite a bit.

--GFT (Amazon.com Reviewer)--

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The (Music) Shop Around The Corner
I've yet to see "The Shop Around The Corner" so I can't compare "In The Good Old Summertime" to it, but I will say that "You've Got Mail" pales in comparison to "Summertime". All of the simple charm of "Summertime" is absent from "Mail". That aside, this is a good transfer of a film I've loved for 20 years. I still wish they had released it with a more fitting title, as it takes place mostly in the fall and winter, but it is a charming film filled with terrific acting and witty dialogue. It's generally thought of as a musical, as it stars Judy Garland and she does perform several wonderful songs, but the musical numbers are short and many are understated. I think the movie more correctly falls under the category of "comedy". As with a lot of 1940s era comedies, there are some kind of hokey things about this movie, such as the way the orchestra has to punctuate so many of the comic bits. But that's the way things were then and I certainly prefer it to a scene from a more recent film ("You've Got Mail" comes to mind") that shows a character dancing while a Motown song plays. (A pointless aside regarding music in "You've Got Mail": I liked the way Nilsson's "Remember" was used in the scene where Meg Ryan is decorating the Christmas tree. There. Something I liked about "You've Got Mail".)
My only complaint about this DVD seems to be a problem with a lot of DVD's these days. The music is much, much louder than the dialogue, and the dialogue isn't even cosistent in volume all the way through. So you have to keep adjusting the volume on your TV over and over. That's very annoying. I don't know if they can fix that on such an old film, but they should look into it. ("They" being the people who remaster the sound of these films for the digital release.)
I enjoyed the extras. It's nice to see the theatre previews for all three filmed versions of this story. It shows you how much more clever romantic comedies were in the 1940s compared to more recent years. I liked the Chicago travelogues as well. Great nostalgia! I will also state in agreement with other reviewers here that "Last Night When We Were Young" should have been included too.

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Captivating Christmas Story With Judy Garland In Fine Form
Despite this charming film's misleading title the majority of the story takes place in winter in the lead up to the Christmas season. It does however feature one of Judy Garland's best later performances made in an all to rare trauma free moment in the late 1940's for this legendary actress/singer when her health problems were affecting her ability to perform before the camera. Amazingly none of that is evident in "In the Good Old Summertime", which finds her delivering a wonderfully controlled and at times wistful performance as a young employee of a music store in turn of the century Chicago who is having a romantic letter correspondance with a penpal who addresses himself simply as "dear friend". Given its setting of a music shop "In the Good Old Summertime", also offers Judy Garland a number of opportunities to present some fine musical interludes in her unique style.

It was a stroke of genius by MGM to decide to remake as a musical it's earlier 1940 classic "The Shop Around the Corner" which starred James Stewart and another highly strung female performer in Margaret Sullavan. The results here are almost as effective as in the earlier film and Garland and Van Johnson make a delightful screen team. Based on the play "The Shop Around the Corner ", by Miklos Laszlo, the action this time has been moved from present day Budapest to turn of the century Chicago. Indeed this beautiful film bares a strong resemblance to Garland's earlier classic "Meet Me in St. Louis",and here the atmosphere is just as rich where the action centres around Oberkugen's Music Store run by the memorable Otto Oberkugan (S.Z.Sakall), and his colourful group of employees in the store. Chief among them is Andrew Larkin (Van Johnson) who is a promising store clerk. Andrew however has a very prickly relationship with new employee Veronica Fisher (Garland)and both seem to always find something to disagree about. However what both dont realise is that the romances they are respectively enjoying via the mail out of work hours and which have progressed from "intellectual topics" to real love, are actually with each other! As the pen pal letter exchange deepens into love it is agreed that the two will meet. Andrew however sees Veronica already waiting in the restaurant and in his disappointment decides not to go in. Thinking about it longer and realising Veronica is his pen pal Andrew decides to give her a hard time about it and in a funny situation enters the restaurant and engages her in conversation much to Veronica's consternation as she believes her "date", will be due to turn up at any minute. Back at the store however things slowly begin to thaw between the two and when Andrew gets into deep trouble with Mr. Oberkugan for lending his prize violin to friend Louise (Marcia Van Dyke), for an audition he finds himself fired. The staff rally around him and its up to Otto's long suffering secretary Nellie (Spring Byington)and Veronica to make him see the error of his ways. Otto relents for his behaviour and Andrew is made the new manager however Veronica decides she must be the one to leave and its only during a romantic interlude alone in the darkened shop on Christmas Eve that Andrew reveals his real love for her. Veronica also confesses her deep love for her former antagonist and the scene cuts away to the couple in a warm summer setting happily married and with a beautiful young two year old daughter (Liza Minneli).

"In The Good Old Summertime", boasts many memorable musical numbers including the title song, "I Don't Care", "Put Your Arms Around Me Honey", the comical "Play The Barbershop Chord", and my personal favourite "Merry Christmas". In all of these numbers apart from her beautiful singing style Judy Garland proves what an exceptional talent she was in comedy, pantomine and more energic pieces such as the barbershop number. Here is a talented actress in the full bloom of her capabilities who was unfortunately just about to exit the musical movie stage for quite some time. The supporting cast is exceptional with such fine comic talents as S.Z. Sakall and Spring Byington providing the top level support that they delivered in film after film in this period. Some rarities also pop up in "In The Good Old Summertime", as we see veteran Buster Keaton play Otto's brow beaten nephew to fine effect in his last MGM appearance and in the final scene reality and movie fantasy cross as Judy Garland's real life daughter Liza Minnelli plays her and Johnson's movie child in the last scene. Silent star Anna Q. Nilsson also has a small part as a woman buying one of the infuriating harps that reoccur in the story. MGM talent is abundantly on show in all departments here. The director Robert Z. Leonard who helmed the classic "Maytime", for MGM, was only brought in after Garland nixed plans by the studio to give the assignment to her husband Vincente Minnelli as the pair were having difficulties at the time. The choreography is top rate and was handled by Robert Alton who was responsible for the innovative dance numbers in Garland's previous film "Easter Parade". Cedric Gibbons' fine work in set design also deserves mention for giving the film its beautiful appearance and period flavour.

After this effort Judy Garland sadly went into a steep decline health wise and after completing only one more film "Summer Stock", and being released from an aborted attempt to film "Royal Wedding ", with Fred Astaire her MGM contract was terminated. None of this sadness is evident in "In The Good Old Summertime", thankfully and what we have here is a movie with gorgeous technicolour, many fine musical numbers delivered by Garland and a funny, and touching story set against a beautiful "MGM", Christmas. Enjoy Judy Garland at the top of her talents in MGM's "In The Good Old Summertime".