IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME [1949 / 2021] [Warner Archive Collection] [Blu-ray] [USA Release] Judy Garland and Van Johnson Fall in Love In The Good Old Summertime!
‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME’ is a tale of squabbling music-shop clerks who don’t know they’re romantic pen pals – shares a celebrated movie lineage that includes James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan in ‘The Shop Around the Corner’ and Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in ‘You’ve Got Mail’ in between those two films. Judy Garland and Van Johnson had mail plus “Good Old” tunes evoking an era of straw boaters and silvery moons.
Sparked by Judy Garland’s comedic zest and musical appeal, this confection is “one of the sweetest, most unpretentious entertainments of 1949” says Clive Hirschhorn of The Hollywood Musical. It’s also a nostalgic farewell and a sunny hello. Buster Keaton appears in his final film for the studio he first joined in 1928. Judy Garland's three-year-old daughter, Liza Minnelli, makes her film debut, walking with her mother and Van Johnson in the film's closing shot.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1950 Writers Guild of America: Nominated: WGA Award (Screen) for Best Written American Musical for Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and Ivan Tors
FILM FACT No.2: Judy Garland introduced the Christmas song “Merry Christmas” in this film; it was later covered by Johnny Mathis, Bette Midler, and cabaret artist Connie Champagne. Director Robert Leonard originally hired Buster Keaton as a gag-writer to help him devise a way for a violin to get broken that would be both comic and plausible, so Buster Keaton came up with an elaborate stunt that would achieve the desired result; however, Robert Leonard realized Buster Keaton was the only one who could execute it properly, so he cast him in the film. Buster Keaton also devised the sequence in which Van Johnson inadvertently wrecks Judy Garland's hat and coached Van Johnson intensively in how to perform the scene. This was the first M-G-M film that Keaton appeared in after having been fired from the studio in 1933. ‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIM’E was filmed between November 1948 and January 1949. The song "Last Night When We Were Young" was written in the 1930’s by Harold Arlen and E. Y. “Yip” Harburg for the Metropolitan Opera star Lawrence Tibbett. Judy Garland loved it and wanted to include it in the film. It was recorded and filmed but when the picture was released, it was cut from the final print. The audio recording of “Last Night When We Were Young” was featured on several of Garland's MGM record albums and she also later recorded it for Capitol Records in the 1950s. The entire footage of the number was found in the M-G-M vaults and included in the PBS documentary American Masters: Judy Garland: By Myself in 2004. The film was made during the height of the strained relationship between Judy Garland and M-G-M. As a testament to Judy Garland's strong popularity, it was a huge critical and commercial success. According to M-G-M records it earned $2,892,000 in the US and Canada and $642,000 overseas, resulting in a profit of $601,000. According to Variety it earned $3.4 million in the USA. The film was the second to last one that Judy Garland made at M-G-M and with the final being the film ‘Summer Stock.’ M-G-M terminated Judy Garland contract by mutual agreement in September 1950.
Cast: Judy Garland, Van Johnson, S.Z. 'Cuddles' Sakall, Spring Byington, Clinton Sundberg, Buster Keaton, Marcia Van Dyke, Lillian Bronson, John Alban (uncredited), Bette Arlen (uncredited), William Bailey (uncredited), Mary Bayless (uncredited), Edward Biby (uncredited), George Boyce (uncredited), Chester Clute (uncredited), Jack Deery (uncredited), Carli Elinor (uncredited), Antonio Filauri (uncredited), William Forrest (uncredited), Joe Gilbert (uncredited), Everett Glass (uncredited), James Gonzalez (uncredited), Eula Guy (uncredited), Eddie Jackson (uncredited), Joi Lansing (uncredited), Peggy Leon (uncredited), Carl M. Leviness (uncredited), Frank Mayo (uncredited), Liza Minnelli (uncredited), Howard M. Mitchell (uncredited), Rhea Mitchell (uncredited), Alberto Morin (uncredited), Joe Niemeyer (uncredited), Anna Q. Nilsson (uncredited), Anne O'Neal (uncredited), Constance Purdy (uncredited), Arthur Rosenstein (uncredited), Clark Ross (uncredited), Jack Roth (uncredited), Ralph Sanford (uncredited), Jeffrey Sayre (uncredited), Charles Smith (uncredited), Bobby Valentine (uncredited), Joan Wells (uncredited) and Josephine Whittell (uncredited)
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Producer: Joe Pasternak
Screenplay: Albert Hackett (written for the screen), Frances Goodrich (written for the screen), Ivan Tors (written for the screen), Samson Raphaelson (screenplay), Miklós László (play) and Buster Keaton (uncredited)
Composers: George Stoll (uncredited) and Robert Van Eps (uncredited)
Costume Design: Irene (costumes: women) and Valles (costumes: men)
Cinematography: Harry A. Stradling Sr., A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Technicolor Color Director: Natalie Kalmus
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 2.0 DTS Master Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 102 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Warner Archive Collection
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME’ [1949] is Judy Garland’s penultimate film while under contract at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would be the charming, slight comedy and features some wonderful songs and is directed by Robert Z. Leonard. ‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME’ is a Technicolor reworking of 1940’s ‘The Shop Around the Corner, and the 1949 film covers over much of the same familiar territory abetted by turn-of-the-century tunes and a host of appealing supporting players. But it’s Judy Garland’s film all the way with her in the comic and melodic spotlight in friendly warfare with sparring partner Van Johnson.
When singer-musician Veronica Fisher [Judy Garland] lands a job at Oberkugen’s Music Company in Chicago, Veronica Fisher finds herself in constant conflict with the store’s head salesman Andy Larkin [Van Johnson]. Veronica Fisher doesn’t let it bother her because her primary focus is with a pen pal correspondence with Box 237, a relationship that is deepening with each letter into something resembling true love. Little does Veronica Fisher know, however, that the respondent to her ardent letters is the said Mr. Andy Larkin. Once he learns who his secret correspondent is, he doesn’t inform Veronica Fisher right away giving him time to size her up both inside and out and plan how Mr. Andy Larkin will break the news to Veronica Fisher.
Screenwriters Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Ivan Tors have based their script on Samson Raphaelson’s screenplay for ‘The Shop Around the Corner.’ They’ve eliminated the darker adultery and suicide subplots from that story and substituted older shop saleslady Nellie Burke [Spring Byington] to serve as the love interest for shop owner Otto Oberkugen [S.Z. ‘Cuddles’ Sakall] and a bungling nephew of the boss [Buster Keaton] in place of the store lothario.
Both were fortuitous substitutions because not only could Buster Keaton stage his own slapstick antics and including a magnificent pratfall at an engagement party that leads us into the film’s final quarter, but he could also assist in staging some of the wonderful slapstick included in Veronica Fisher and Andy Larkin’s “meet cute” on the post office steps as he manages to destroy her lovely, frilly outfit in a funny series of disastrous accidents.
The older couple’s battle of wills mirrors what’s going on with Veronica Fisher and Andy Larkin, too, and one of the film’s best and tenderness moments is a beautifully directed sequence where Nellie Burke must admit to Otto Oberkugen she’s invented a beau to make him jealous, again mirrored near film’s end when Andy Larkin finally confesses his feelings to Veronica Fisher by first inventing a homely persona as the writer of her love letters. The script has an appealing unpretentiousness and well roundedness that makes for a lilting good time.
Judy Garland is in magnificent voice throughout the film, whether she’s crooning such period tunes as “Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland” (with harp accompaniment) or “Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey,” in both with some alluring visuals to complement her vocals or holding court with a barbershop quartet in “Play That Barbershop Chord” or defiantly espousing “I Don’t Care,” another one of the classic songs that would ever be associated with her despite its being the theme song of a vaudeville star much before her time, Eva Tanguay.
Judy Garland also gets to sing the film’s one new song; the plaintive “Merry Christmas” (music and lyrics by Janice Torre and Fred Spielman) though it failed to reach the archetypal levels that her last holiday tune was the famous “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” reached. Being friends in real life allowed Judy Garland and Van Johnson to have a real rapport in scenes showing their animosity toward one another through much of the film. While Van Johnson only gets to sing just a few lines, even though he made his start in stage musicals, Van Johnson handles the comedy and more serious moments of the film handily. There’s the hint of a love triangle in the works with his boarding house neighbour violinist Louise Parkson who is played sensitively by Marcia Van Dyke who also does some expert violin work, but that’s nipped quickly in the bud. Screen veterans S.Z. ‘Cuddles’ Sakall, Spring Byington, and shop worker Rudy Hansen [Clinton Sundberg] all play with their usual and expected professionalism.
‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME’ film was considered a massive box office success by M-G-M. Fans loved it. This was the era of the Hollywood musicals and of others of its kind and I know you fans out there will thoroughly enjoy this classic 1949 Hollywood musical and the added bonus of the starring role of the wonderful Judy Garland, who always bring great joy to any film this actress appears in.
IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME MUSIC TRACK LIST
IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME (Music by George Evans) (Lyrics by Ren Shields) [Sung by Spring Byington, Van Johnson (uncredited), S.Z. Sakall (uncredited) and Buster Keaton] (uncredited) [Played during the opening credits and often throughout the picture]
MEET ME TONIGHT IN DREAMLAND ((uncredited) (Music by Leo Friedman) (Lyrics by Beth Slater Whitson) [Sung by Judy Garland and played at various times throughout the picture]
PUT YOUR ARMS AROUND ME, HONEY (I Never Knew Any Girl Like You) (uncredited) (Music by Albert von Tilzer) (Lyrics by Junie McCree) [Sung by Judy Garland]
WAIT ‘TILL THE SUN SHINES, NELLIE (uncredited) (Music by Harry von Tilzer) (Lyrics by Andrew B. Sterling) [Sung by George Boyce, Eddie Jackson, Joe Niemeyer and Charles Smith]
PLAY THAT BARBERSHOP CHORD (uncredited) (Written by Ballard MacDonald, William Tracey and Lewis F. Muir) [Sung by Judy Garland, George Boyce, Eddie Jackson, Joe Niemeyer and Charles Smith]
I DON’T CARE (uncredited) (Music by Harry O. Sutton) (Lyrics by Jean Lenox) [Sung by Judy Garland]
MERRY CHRISTMAS (uncredited) (Music by Fred Spielman) (Lyrics by Janice Torre) [Sung by Judy Garland]
Souvenir de Moscou (Written by Henryk Wieniawski) (1835 –1880)
CHICAGO (That Toddlin' Town) (Music by Fred Fisher) [Played during the opening credits and first scene]
LISTEN TO THE MOCKINGBIRD (Music by Richard Milburn) [Played when Andrew first runs into Veronica]
Gavotte (Music by François-Joseph Gossec) [Played on the violin by Otto in his office and often throughout the picture]
BEAUTIFUL DREAMER (Music by Stephen Foster) [Played on the harp by Veronica]
Symphony No. 5, 1st Movement (Music by Ludwig van Beethoven) [Music by Ludwig van Beethoven]
Wiener Blut, Op.354 (Vienna Blood) (Music by Johann Strauss) [Played in the restaurant when Veronica is waiting for her date]
JINGLE BELLS (Music by James Pierpont)
LITTLE BROWN JUG (Written by Joseph Winner) [Played for one of the dances at Nellie's party]
Divertimento No. 17 in D major K334/320b (uncredited) (Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Rosamunde (uncredited) (Composed by Franz Schubert)
Scherzo No. 2 in B Flat minor (uncredited) (Composed by Frédéric Chopin)
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Blu-ray Image Quality – Warner Archive Collection presents us the film ‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME’ with a spectacular 1080p image and the results go well beyond mere pleasing. Indeed, the film has never looked this good with this Blu-ray release and of course it is shown in the standard 1.37:1 aspect ratio. Colours really standout across the screen with gorgeous Technicolor saturation levels that are always on pristine and positively sumptuous. The image is razor-sharp, with superb contrast, and exquisite amounts of fine detail, popping as it should. The sets, culled from every possible free-standing backdrop in the M-G-M studio’s arsenal of vintage Victoriana, and slightly redressed by Randall Duell and Edwin B. Willis, are revealed with startling clarity. Harry A. Stradling Sr.’s cinematography sparkles as expected and is exceedingly complimentary to Judy Garland’s attempts at glamour. There are no instances of Technicolor mis-registration. The image is rock solid from beginning to the end of the film. Textures and overall fine detail are first-rate, especially where the period-specific costumes and background details are concerned, which include colourfully decorated shop interiors, especially when Christmas arrives. Sunny exteriors, such as the bookending picnic-style sequences and a handful of other outside-the-shop exchanges. The ornate Christmas party near the film's climax looks extremely impressive too, with its festive decorations and wonderful designed outfits across the board. Film grain is very well-defined and no glaring distractions could be seen from start to finish, including no excessive noise reduction, banding, or compression artefacts and thanks in part to its generous dual-layered encoding and high bit rate. Overall, it's a perfectly clean and crisp presentation that easily stands tall alongside the studio's other sterling catalogue releases, and one that die-hard purists should know what to expect and the image is rock solid from beginning to end. So very well done Warner Archive Collection.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Warner Archive Collection brings us the film ‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME’ with a wonderful 2.0 DTS Master Audio experience and done with loving care. Judy Garland’s songs are the winner here, with dialogue sounding appropriately flat by comparison. A singular regret is that Judy Garland recorded a number, “Last Night When We Were Young” that was cut before the film’s debut to keep within M-G-M’s desired run time for their film musical. So once again Warner Archive Collection well done for a sterling audio experience.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Introduction by Judy Garland Biographer John Fricke [2004] [1080p] [1.37:1] [4:20] Here we get a short introduction from John Fricke who offers a quick overview of the film ‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME’ that has had a very happy long entertainment history as a classic M-G-M musically and its first outing was a stage musical adaptation from the 1936 Hungarian stage play “Parfumerie,” but then director Enst Lubitsch adapted it for the screen with the black-and-white box office hit 1940's ‘The Shop Around the Corner,’ and starred James Stewart and Margarete Sullivan as rival co-workers in an elegant Budapest perfume shop and neither character realised they were anonymous dear friend correspondents and also starred the famous actor Frank Morgan who was the owner of the perfume shop that most of the film took place in the perfume shop. 8 years later producer Joe Pasternak decided to add songs to the plot and set the film in a music store at the turn of the century mid-western America and the original working title was ‘The Girl From Chicago’ and was to star June Allyson and Frank Sinatra to star in the leading roles, but unfortunately both of these actors had to decline their roles because of previous commitments, eventually with the film now entitled ‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME’ they needed two new leading actors and luckily Judy Garland and Van Johnson were available to appear in the film. Originally they wanted S.Z. 'Cuddles' Sakall as the manager and actress Mary Astor to play his love interest, but eventually decided that Mary Astor was far too young and attractive to play the part, so instead they wanted Spring Byington to play his love interest. They also wanted for one of the supporting roles to included Buster Keaton to add slapstick comedy mileage towards the film and it was Buster Keaton who came up with the idea of smashing S.Z. 'Cuddles' Sakall violin to pieces to add to the plot because they knew he was a genius slapstick comedian. Bu of course they had to change the name of the film to ‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME’ and just before filming started the song “In The Good Old Summertime” was a massive hit in America and felt it was a good choice to call it ‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME’ and because of its massive box office success because of the critics rave reviews, especially towards Judy Garland and audiences while watching this actress perform would applaud Judy Garland performances throughout the film because they felt they watching the actress performing a stage performance. John Fricke also talks about the screen debut of Judy Garland’s daughter Liza Minnelli in her final scene at the end of the film. As we come to the end of this introduction by John Fricke asks us the audience to join Judy Garland and Van Johnson falling in love ‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME.’
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Special Feature: James A. FitzPatrick’s M-G-M Traveltalks Shorts: Here we get to view two vintage scenic documentaries and both pay tribute to Chicago, where ‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME’ takes place, and captures several notable landmarks that make this a pretty neat time capsule. Although it hasn't been restored visually, like the other extras, it at least has been given a decent audio and here is what you get to view:
Chicago, the Beautiful [1948] [480i] [1.37:1] [10:15] Legendary Hollywood filmmaker James A. Fitzpatrick produced, directed, and narrated a number of Traveltalks for M-G-M during the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s. And one of his shorts was Chicago, the Beautiful, providing a marvellous glimpse of our fair city in 1948. Some of M-G-M’s heavyweights worked on the film, including cinematographers Virgil Miller and Robert Sable, along with composer/arranger Joseph Nussbaum and conductor Irvin Talbot. Even though Orchestra Hall and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra are not mentioned, the Civic Opera House pre-Lyric Opera of Chicago gets a nice plug.
Night Life in Chicago [1948] [480i] [1.37:1] [8:53] This short Traveltalk visits Chicago again but at night and looks at some hotels known for their evening entertainment and for the rich and famous people who come to their dining rooms. Featured are the Walnut Room of the Bismarck Hotel, the Ambassador Hotel’s Pump Room, and the boardwalk at the Edgewater Beach Hotel.
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Theatrical Trailer [1949] [1080p] [1.37:1] [3:03] This the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME.’
Finally, ‘IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME’ gives great solid consideration for Judy Garland fans as well as lovers of the Hollywood musical at its zenith. This isn’t one of M-G-M’s very best folks, but it definitely ranks among M-G-M’s solid second-tier efforts, which pretty much eclipse all of the other studios’ similarly themed efforts besides. These old M-G-M musicals have been enjoying resurgence with modern day generation. I think the simplicity and the sweetness of a long forgotten era is something most people long for. The good folks at Warner Archive Collection have released this amazing musical just in time for people of the modern era to appreciate the golden age of Hollywood musicals. The Blu-ray offers absolute image perfection. Highly recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
