In the Good Old Summertime **** (1949, Judy Garland, Van Johnson, S Z Sakall) – Classic Movie Review 2508

Director Robert Z Leonard’s 1949 hit is a genial and jovial musical remake version of the play (by Miklos Lazslo) and the 1940 Ernst Lubitsch movie The Shop Around the Corner. This time it’s Judy Garland’s turn as Veronica Fisher to fall in love with her pen pal Andrew Larkin (Van Johnson), unaware that he is her hostile Chicago music-shop superior as saleslady at Oberkugen’s music store.

The idea makes for a smashing movie, in which the charming, on-form (if plump) 27-year-old Garland and the lovely vintage songs are virtually the whole show. However, Johnson and shop-owner S Z ‘Cuddles’ Sakall (as Otto Oberkugen) do grab their charming comedy opportunities though, Buster Keaton appears as Hickey, and there is a highly attractive, meticulously conceived and achieved MGM studios 1910 period production, with gorgeous Technicolor cinematography by Harry Stradling Sr.

The three-year-old Liza Minnelli (b0rn March 12 1946) makes her début at the end: talk about being born in a trunk! Also in the cast are Spring Byington as Nellie Burke, Clinton Sundberg as Rudy Hansen, Marcia Van Dyke as Louise Parkson and Lillian Bronson as Aunt Addie.

The evergreen songs include ‘I Don’t Care’, ‘Play that Barber Shop Chord’, ‘Put Your Arms Around Me Honey’, ‘Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland’, ‘Merry Christmas’, ‘Chicago’, ‘Wait till the Sun Shines Nellie’ and, of course, the title number.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2508

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