In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
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71% of critics liked it
(7 reviews) -
79% of users liked it
(3,900 ratings)
In the Good Old Summertime is a musical remake of the 1940 Ernst Lubitsch comedy The Shop Around the Corner, which in turn was based on a play by Miklos Laszlo. The locale has been changed from Hungary to Chicago, but the turn-of-century time frame and the plot remain the same. Van Johnson and Judy… More In the Good Old Summertime is a musical remake of the 1940 Ernst Lubitsch comedy The Shop Around the Corner, which in turn was based on a play by Miklos Laszlo. The locale has been changed from Hungary to Chicago, but the turn-of-century time frame and the plot remain the same. Van Johnson and Judy Garland play a couple of clerks in a sheet-music store who detest each other on sight. Both reserve their words of affection for their respective pen pals, whom they've never met. The audience, of course, is aware that Johnson is Garland's pen pal, and she his, but it's fun to anticipate the fireworks when the characters on screen make this discovery. Buster Keaton, then employed by MGM as a "comedy consultant," is provided with one of his best parts in years as the bumbling nephew of shop owner S.Z. Sakall. The songs sung in Summertime consist of period numbers like "I Don't Care", "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie", and the title tune. This is the film in which 18-month-old Liza Minnelli (Garland's daughter) toddles into the closing number, though it is not her film debut, as has often been claimed: an even younger Minnelli popped up briefly in Garland's previous MGM musical Easter Parade. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Robert Z. Leonard, Buster Keaton
- Written By
- Samson Raphaelson, Frances Goodrich, Ivan Tors, Albert Hackett, Miklós László
- Genres
- Drama, Romance, Musical & Performing Arts, Classics, Comedy
- In Theaters
- Jul 29, 1949 Wide
- Studio
- MGM Home Entertainment
Critic Reviews
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Thomas M. Pryor, New York Times
In the Good Old Summertime is a wonderfully rich entertainment.
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Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Robert Z. Leonard's tepid musical remake of Ernst Lubitsch's masterful The Shop Around the Corner...somehow it just ain't the same.
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Not as good as the original.
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Michael E. Grost, Classic Film and Television
Charming musical with wonderful Judy Garland
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Judy Garland
as Veronica Fisher
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Van Johnson
as Andrew Larkin
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Buster Keaton
as Hickey
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S.Z. Sakall
as Otto Oberkugen
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Spring Byington
as Nellie Burke
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Clinton Sundberg
as Rudy Hansen
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Marcia Van Dyke
as Louise Parkson
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Lillian Bronson
as Aunt Addie
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Liza Minnelli
as Veronica and Andrew's Baby
