MGM, 1949
Starring Judy Garland, Van Johnson, Buster Keaton, and S.Z Sakall
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard and Buster Keaton (uncredited)
Music and Lyrics by various
Despite the title, this mainly takes place during the holiday season. It's the second film version of the Miklos Laszlo play Parfumerie after the 1939 non-musical comedy The Shop Around the Corner. How does this one compare to that and the 1998 retelling You've Got Mail? To find out, we begin in Chicago around the turn of the 20th century, just as music shop salesman Andrew Larkin (Johnson) begins his busy day...
The Story: Andy loves his job working at Otto Oberkugen's (Sakall) music shop, with Otto's nephew Hickey (Keaton), stock man Rudy Hansen (Clinton Sundberg), and secretary Nellie (Spring Byington). He doesn't love Veronica Fisher (Garland), whom he literally ran into on his bike in town. She manages to get a job at the shop after she uses her musical skills to sell a harp to a wealthy woman. Veronica and Andy spend their time at work constantly bickering and trying to one-up each other. What they don't know is that they've been writing each other for months as anonymous pen pals and are really in love with each other. Veronica may think she hates him, but she's really concerned when Andy gets in trouble after accidentally loaning a priceless violin to a hopeful music student (Marcia Van Dyke).
The Song and Dance: No doubt about it, this was a real charmer. Garland and Johnson are adorable as the two workers who think they hate each other, but don't realize how much they're truly in love. Keaton has some nice gags (several he devised himself) as Otto's deadpan nephew. The costumes and sets are lovely and (mostly) historically accurate, beautifully reflecting the Chicago of over 120 years ago.
Favorite Number: Garland performs the lovely waltz "Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland," on the harp when she's trying to sell it to a rich customer and land a job. She joins a barbershop quartet for "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines Nellie" and "Play That Barbershop Chord" at the big Christmas party, then launches into an energetic "I Don't Care." The holiday ballad "Merry Christmas" turns up at the end, performed by Garland at the shop.
Trivia: Liza Minelli makes her film debut as Johnson and Garland's little girl in the final shot of the film.
Keaton was a gag writer at MGM when the producers came to him to figure out how one could destroy a violin. They figured out that he was the only one who could really do the gag he came up with and ended up giving him a role in the movie. He wrote and directed the sequence where Veronica and Andrew meet and he destroys her dress and hat, too.
In the Good Old Summertime wasn't the last time Parfumerie was adapted as a musical. She Loves Me debuted on Broadway in 1963. It ran a little under a year with Barbara Cook in Garland's role and Daniel Massey in Johnson's; unlike Summertime, it's based after the original play, retaining the original characters and 30's setting. She Loves Me has always been a critical darling, enough to have been revived on Broadway and the West End in the mid-90's and 2016.
What I Don't Like: Why didn't they do what She Loves Me eventually did and actually adapt Parfumerie as a musical? They use the basic idea of the story and some details (like Veronica thinking she's been stood up when Andrew appears at the café where she's supposed to meet her pen pal), but eliminate or revise many characters and move the setting. It probably didn't need to be set at the turn of the century, either. Buster Keaton has so much fun with his bits, I wish we could have seen a little more of him.
Would have been nice if someone besides Garland and the chorus could have sung some numbers, too. Johnson and Keaton are capable singers, and Sakall could manage. This is really more of a romantic comedy with a couple of vintage tunes shoehorned in than a typical musical.
The Big Finale: Sweet and charming romantic comedy makes adorable background music during December for fans of Garland, Keaton, Johnson, or the MGM musicals of the 1940's and 50's.
Home Media: Easily found on streaming and two DVDs; the solo DVD is currently released by the Warner Archives.
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