Film Review
In the Good Old Summertime is
easily one of the most enchanting of the film musicals that Judy
Garland made for MGM, and the last in which she was at her best before
ill-health and acute personal problems finally took their toll and made
her virtually unemployable. Having recovered from a nervous
breakdown midway through the production of
The Pirate (1948), Garland seemed
to be over the worst of her difficulties, but the strain of her last
three films for MGM (
Easter Parade,
In the Good Old Summertime and
Summer Stock) meant that her
Hollywood career was virtually over. None of this is at all
evident in
In the Good Old Summertime,
an exuberant period musical, of the kind that MGM excelled at and in
which Garland turns in what is arguably her most captivating
performance, assisted by such fine musical numbers as the lively
Put Your Arms Around Me Honey and
ever-popular
Merry Christmas.
Buster Keaton, the legendary comic of the silent era who parted company
with MGM back in 1933, was roped in to direct the sequence in which an
expensive violin is accidentally smashed to pieces, and ended up
playing the character who did the smashing. Although he is in the
background for most of the time, Keaton does come into his own in a few
memorable scenes, and even gets to dance with Garland (being very
nearly the same height, they are a perfect match). This was
Keaton's last job for MGM, although his career was far from over; he
would continue to be employed right up until his death in 1966.
Making her film debut is Garland's two-year-old daughter Liza Minnelli,
who appears right at the end of the film.
Van Johnson proves to be admirable choice for Garland's love interest
in the film. Better known for his action hero roles in serious
war films, Johnson shows he has a natural flair for comedy and, being
an accomplished dancer, he brings almost as much elegance and energy to
the film as his vivacious co-star. The chemistry between Johnson
and Garland is spot on, although for most of the time they appear more
like brother and sister, affectionately teasing one another, rather
than potential lovers. S.Z. Sakall also makes his presence felt
as the pigheaded yet strangely lovable Mr Oberkugen, beautifully
partnered by the sweet-natured Spring Byington. It is largely
down to this well-balanced and likeable ensemble that the end result is
such a warm and lively film, one that is sweet without being
saccharine.
Vincente Minnelli was originally slated to direct the film, but he was
replaced by Robert Z. Leonard at the insistence of Garland, as her
marriage to Minnelli was under severe strain at the time (the couple
divorced a few years later). Leonard had previously directed
Garland in another MGM extravaganza,
Ziegfeld Girl (1941), and
brings just as much zest and visual flair to
In the Good Old Summertime, this
time turning out a dazzling Technicolor fairytale which could have made
a superb Christmas film (oddly, it was actually released in
July). If the plot is familiar this is because it is taken from
Miklós László's play
Parfumerie, which had previously
been adapted by MGM as the romantic-comedy
The Shop Around the Corner,
directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and starring James Stewart and Margaret
Sullavan. Although Judy Garland did bounce back from her personal
crises, triumphing in George Cukor's
A Star Is Born (1954),
In the Good Old Summertime feels
like the end of an era, the last of her great turns at MGM, where she
sparkles like she has never sparkled before.
© James Travers 2013
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Andrew Larkin is a diligent employee at Oberkugen's music shop in circa
1900 Chicago. He hopes that soon he will be able to earn enough
so that he can marry the female pen-friend he writes to almost every
day. Little does he know that his anonymous pen-friend is
Veronica Fisher, who enters his shop one day looking for work.
Veronica makes such a favourable impression on the shop's owner, the
fastidious Mr Oberkugen, that she gets a job, and immediately gets off
on the wrong foot with Andrew, who resents the fact that she is a
better salesperson. Unaware that Andrew is her mysterious
pen-friend, Veronica repays the hostility he shows her, but gradually
they begin to warm to one another...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.