Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

dougdoepke The musical is adapted from a romantic farce, Shop Around the Corner (1940). Two co- workers in a gift shop snipe at one another, not realizing that they have a romance going via the mail as pen pals.Disappointing entry from that Stradivarius of musical movie-making, MGM. The colors are lush, the costuming plush, but the movie never gels. In my view, there're too many dramatics that tend to crowd out the stranded musical numbers. A number of the latter are familiar favorites, e.g. Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland, et al. Nonetheless, except for Garland's bubbly I Don't Care!, the numbers are oddly subdued in their mounting. Then too, Garland appears rather dour and possibly miscast, lacking her usual infectious spark. My guess is her often troubled personal life may have intruded. Anyway, Johnson is blandly handsome and pleasant, but without lending oomph to the proceedings. Thankfully, the often too cute Cuddles Szakall is more restrained than usual as the grouchy shop owner. Put them together, along with a thoroughly pedestrian screenplay, and the results add up to second-rate MGM. Too bad.

iamyuno2 Great cast but there wasn't the chemistry or magic of the movie it's based on, The Shop Around The Corner. And somehow, though each of the stars had shone brightly in other movies, they somehow seem uncomfortable in this one and are not seen at their best. It's hard remaking a great film and while they stole some of the lines directly from the first movie, they chose to diverge from the original in ways that watered down the story's effect. Somehow you don't care as much about any of these characters as much as you cared about all of the characters in the original - short of Vadas (whose character is not represented in this film as some others from the original are). Suffers, too, from its being made into a musical - too much the typical Judy Garland film where music doesn't always have a reason to be in a scene...it's just done to play to Judy's talents - not always a good move for a movie's integrity. Here, the plot gets lost in the stereotypical scenes where Judy is supposed to show off her talents. Judy Garland fans will enjoy this film, however, because here she seems truly happy and is at the peak of her singing talents. Perhaps if I weren't such a big fan of the original, I'd have liked this more. But, sorry, I found it a bit boring in comparison.

edwagreen Wonderful musical rendition of 1940's "The Shop Around the Corner," with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.Van Johnson and Judy Garland are delightful here as two employees of Oberkugen's Musical Store, owned by the usually funny S.Z. Sakall. While Sakall is wonderful here, he had far better roles in other 1940 films, better in the sense that he was more comical in his fracturing of the English language.While constantly feuding, Andy and the Garland character don't realize that they love each other-they have been writing each other as pen pals unknowingly for some time.Spring Byington plays Sakall's bookkeeper-secretary, and for over 20 years they've yet to marry.This joyous film allows Garland to show her usual musical talent, and all the cast brings joy in such a caring way.

didi-5 "In the Good Old Summertime" is a remake of the 1940 film "The Shop Around the Corner": this time, with music and with Van Johnson in the James Stewart role and Judy Garland in the Margaret Sullavan role. In the shop where both work, the owner (Frank Morgan in the original) is Cuddles Sakall, as irritating as ever, and there is a tiny role for the great Buster Keaton.Any musical featuring Garland is always worth watching, and although this is minor compared to some of her other works, and does not have any great powerhouse musical numbers, she is in excellent voice and looks great. Van Johnson is a personable leading man (although a fellow singer would have been better) and the story crackles along in a way that does not disgrace itself or the Lubitsch original.