In the Good Old Summertime

For the hit song, see: In the Good Old Summer Time

In the Good Old Summertime
Directed by	Robert Z. Leonard Buster Keaton (uncredited)
Produced by	Joe Pasternak
Written by	Miklos Laszlo Samson Raphaelson Albert Hackett Frances Goodrich Ivan Tors Buster Keaton (uncredited)
Starring	Judy Garland Van Johnson S.Z. Sakall Spring Byington Clinton Sundberg Buster Keaton Liza Minnelli
Music by	Fred Spielman George Evans Betti O'Dell George E. Stoll Jimmy Wakely
Distributed by	MGM
Release date(s)	July 29, 1949
Running time	102 min.
Language	English
Budget	$3,400,000

In the Good Old Summertime is a 1949 musical film directed by Robert Z. Leonard. It starred Judy Garland, Van Johnson and S.Z. Sakall.

The film is a musical adaptation of the 1940 film, The Shop Around the Corner, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, and written by Miklós László (who is given recognition in the credits for another adaptation, You've Got Mail) based on his play. For In the Good Old Summertime, the locale has been changed from Hungary to Chicago, but the turn-of-century time frame and the plot remain the same.

Trivia

It was filmed between October 1948 and January 1949. Garland's three-year-old daughter Liza Minnelli makes her film debut in the musical, walking alongside her mother and Van Johnson during the closing scene.

The film was made during the height of strain on the relationship between Garland and the MGM production company. In the Good Old Summertime was the second to last film that Judy Garland made at MGM (with the final being Summer Stock). MGM terminated Garland's contract in September 1950.

Garland, as Veronica Fisher, enters Oberkugen's music shop, looking for work. Little does she know that a pen pal, Van Johnson as Andrew Larkin, with whom she has been corresponding, is a salesman in the shop. Oberkugen refuses to employ her until she persuades a wealthy matron, through her singing and musical expertise, to buy an Amboy harp at almost $25 over Oberkugen's list price. Larkin resents her, and their relationship is quarrelsome, yet he continues to write doting letters to his pen pal at post office box 237. In spite of their dickering, they are profoundly attracted to each other at work, but keep their interest covert under a barrage of arguments.

Garland is at the height of her vocal powers. She is effervescent and charming; and Van Johnson, as seductively virile as he is boyish and winsome. The movie is charming with the scintillating S.Z. Sakall pouting along as the engaging and tender-hearted ogre of a boss, Mr. Oberkugen.

Garland introduced the Christmas song "Merry Christmas" in this film; it was later covered by Johnny Mathis and Bette Midler.

Buster Keaton devised a way for a violin to get broken that would be both comic and plausible. Keaton came up with an appropriate fall, and the filmmakers then realized he was the only one who would be able to execute it properly, so they cast him in the film. Keaton also devised the sequence in which Van Johnson inadvertently wrecks Judy Garland's hat, and coached Johnson intensively in how to perform the scene. This was the first MGM film Keaton appeared in since being fired from the studio in 1933.

Cast

• Judy Garland as Veronica Fisher
• Van Johnson as Andrew Delby Larkin
• S.Z. Sakall as Otto Oberkugen
• Spring Byington as Nellie Burke
• Clinton Sundberg as Rudy Hansen
• Buster Keaton as Hickey
• Marcia Van Dyke as Louise Parkson
• Lillian Bronson as Aunt Addie

External links

• In the Good Old Summertime at the Internet Movie Database
• In the Good Old Summertime at the TCM Movie Database
• The Judy Garland Online Discography "In The Good Old Summertime" pages.
• NYT Overview
• The Judy Room "In The Good Old Summertime" filmography entry.

v • d • e The films of Robert Z. Leonard 1910s The Silent Command • Heritage • Judge Not; or The Woman of Mona Diggings • Secret Love • The Crippled Hand • The Love Girl • Little Eve Edgarton • The Plow Girl • The Eagle's Wing (with Rufus Steele) • On Record • A Mormon Maid • The Primrose Ring • At First Sight • Princess Virtue • Face Value • The Bride's Awakening • Her Body in Bond • Modern Love • Danger, Go Slow • The Scarlet Shadow • The Delicious Little Devil • What Am I Bid? • Big Little Person • The Way of a Woman • The Miracle of Love 1920s Stronger Than Death (with Herbert Blaché and Charles Bryant) • April Folly • The Restless Sex (with Leon D'Usseau) • The Gilded Lily • Heedless Moths • Peacock Alley • Fascination • Broadway Rose • Jazzmania • The French Doll • Fashion Row • Mademoiselle Midnight • Circe, the Enchantress • Love's Wilderness • Cheaper to Marry • Time, the Comedian • Bright Lights • Dance Madness • Mademoiselle Modiste • The Waning Sex • A Little Journey • The Demi-Bride • Adam and Evil • Tea for Three • The Five O'Clock Girl • Baby Mine • The Cardboard Lover • A Lady of Chance • Marianne • Marianne 1930s The Divorcee • In Gay Madrid • Let Us Be Gay • The Bachelor Father • It's a Wise Child • Five and Ten • Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) • Lovers Courageous • Strange Interlude • Peg o' My Heart • Dancing Lady • Outcast Lady • After Office Hours • Naughty Marietta (with W. S. Van Dyke) • Escapade • The Great Ziegfeld • Piccadilly Jim • Maytime • The Firefly • The Girl of the Golden West • Broadway Serenade 1940s New Moon • Pride and Prejudice • Third Finger, Left Hand • Ziegfeld Girl • When Ladies Meet • We Were Dancing • Stand by for Action • The Man from Down Under • Marriage Is a Private Affair • Week-End at the Waldorf • The Secret Heart • Cynthia • B.F.'s Daughter • The Bribe 1950s In the Good Old Summertime • Nancy Goes to Rio • Duchess of Idaho • Grounds for Marriage • Too Young to Kiss • Everything I Have Is Yours • The Great Diamond Robbery • The Clown • Her Twelve Men • The King's Thief • The World's Most Beautiful Woman • Kelly and Me Serials The Master Key (1914) Productions Peacock Alley (1930)

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