In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
Retro Review #39: If they had called this movie “In the Great Old Summertime”, then they would be misleading you with two words of the title, not just one!
In the Good Old Summertime (1949) — If they had called this movie In the Great Old Summertime, then they would be misleading you with two words of the title, not just one!
+ Feature film, 1h 43m
B+^
Family Suitability
+ ✅2️⃣ OK for teens and adults. (Grades 7+) | Approved
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎0️⃣ Neutral (No clear values of any type or ⚠️ includes both negative messages and positive messages, which balance out.)
+ Based on literature (stage play) “Parfumerie” (1937)❗🔙🔜⭐ by Miklós László
+ Based on feature film The Shop Around the Corner (1940) screenplay by Samson Raphaelson
In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
Grade: B+^ (5.0) / HOF: 0
EQ 👍B+ | 📖A 👥B+ 📽️B+ 🎼B+
DW 🚫5.4 | 🌚5 🌝7
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R ☮️n/a ◀️n/a ▶️n/a 🛐n/a
Lots of stage plays are later updated and produced as stage musicals, and lots of movies based on stage plays are later remade as musical films. This movie is an example of the latter. While this methodology has often been extremely successful and has produced some amazing successes, it doesn’t always leave us with that kind of results. So what about In the Good Old Summertime?
The worst thing about this film is the title. Probably around 98% of the movie takes place in the winter. In fact, In the Good Old Summertime is a musical remake of The Shop Around the Corner, widely considered to be a cinematic Christmas classic.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940) — Actually it’s in Budapest, but it’s as cozy as it sounds.
Take that shop around the corner, send it back in time from the 1930s to the 1900s, relocate it from Budapest to Chicago, change it from a curio shop to a music shop, add Technicolor, give it a handful of musical numbers, and get past the first one of those, apparently set in July or so, and you’ll be “In the Good Old Summertime Wintertime”.
Once you are there, the story of In the Good Old Summertime is mostly the same as in The Shop Around the Corner, with some of the early dialogue, and even one joke nearly verbatim. This time it’s Judy Garland and Van Johnson who play co-workers who don’t get along. Once again, we know that they are both falling for an unmet correspondent via increasingly romantic letters. And once again, we can see where this is headed before they can.
There are some significant differences though. The shop owner is now an unmarried older gentleman, albeit with a long-time lady friend. The darker dramatic thread of The Shop Around the Corner is removed from In the Good Old Summertime, which replaces it with more comedy from the start, and of course adds musical numbers.
With good reason, Ms. Garland performs most of the numbers, showcasing her incredible talent. To add variety, she’s accompanied by harp, piano and barbershop quartet. None of the music is bad, but you begin to suspect that the change in shop merchandise was just to have an excuse for Garland to sing. The barbershop number and a Garland solo following it are the only choreographed dance routines. They are good, but if you’re a lover of old Hollywood musicals, you’ll leave with a feeling that you sampled the appetizer, but were never served the main course.
Continuing with the musical theme, In the Good Old Summertime introduces a new plot twist not found in The Shop Around the Corner. Violinist and actress Marcia Van Dyke plays Louise, a third wheel who has a crush on Johnson’s character, Andrew. Van Dyke’s talent with the violin, utilized in the film, compares favorably to Garland’s vocal talent.
Speaking of Johnson and Garland, they don’t seem to have as much chemistry as Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart in The Shop Around the Corner. Whereas the former grows funnier as the movie goes along, sadly, In the Good Old Summertime, there are fewer and fewer laughs. Whereas the romance reaches a crescendo in The Shop Around the Corner, with In the Good Old Summertime, I found myself rooting for Andrew to choose Louise over Garland’s character Veronica!
There are a couple of interesting trivial footnotes that I should mention. Silent film star Buster Keaton makes his first feature film appearance for MGM here since 1933. He choreographs a couple of stunt sequences for the film, performing in one and coaching the actors in another. Also, Judy Garland’s three-year old daughter, the later-famous Liza Minnelli, makes her first film appearance in the closing shot of the movie.
Those footnotes aren’t overwhelming reasons to watch this film, so if you only have the time for one film before you check your email (and our upcoming review of You’ve Got Mail), stop at The Shop Around the Corner. If you have more time on your hands, you won’t be terribly disappointed by In the Good Old Summertime. It isn’t a great film, and you might find it chillier than the title suggests, but it's a good old movie that won’t leave you cold.
Onwards!
+ last viewed (2) 2026-01-02, sd7, 1.37, 1M
+ first viewed 2024-12-27, sd7, 1.37, 1M
+ ⏳⛱️🎈⛄🎄🎅🗄️🎶🥰😍😏😥🥸🎧
Family Suitability Detail
+ ✅2️⃣ OK for teens and adults. (Grades 7+) | Approved
+ 😡+4 😵💫+3 🤬+4 🫢+2 🫣+3
Judeo-Christian Values Detail
+ ❎0️⃣ Neutral (No clear values of any type or ⚠️ includes both negative messages and positive messages, which balance out.)
+ ✝️ +1 ➕😇❤️💒💒 ➖😍(🔮)
+ ✡️ -2 ➕💎 ➖😍(🔮)🖤🖤🖤
+ 🗽 +1 ➕🗽🏦🏦 ➖😍(🔮)
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