In the Good Old Summertime

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 peppy and unassuming musical whose modest but undeniable charms will be enjoyed most by audiences unfamiliar with the movie (The Shop Around the Corner) upon which it is based. Although it has drastically changed Shop's setting, Summertime does keep a surprising amount of the movie's wonderful dialogue, even as if plays havoc with some of the plot essentials, resulting in a movie that is curiously devoid of all but the smallest dramatic tension. This, of course, ...more