Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

While not as good as the wonderful (non-musical) 'The Shop Around the Corner' (one of the great Ernst Lubitsch's greatest gems) and some may question the point of it, as far as "remakes" go 'In the Good Old Summertime' doesn't fare shabbily at all and holds up well on its own too.'In the Good Old Summertime' is dragged down a little by the violin subplot, an additional subplot to a film that is otherwise reasonably faithful in basic details to 'The Shop Around the Corner', which didn't really add very much and distracted at times from the main romance. While Marcia Van Dyke is a very skilled violinist, those skills do not translate in her acting which is very bland.The title is also an odd one, a very appetising and catchy title but irrelevant to the story seeing as it's more winter than summer, which will mislead (and has done) people.However, 'In the Good Old Summertime' is beautifully filmed and lavishly produced, and Robert Z Leonard directs with an energetic lightness but also a maturity. The songs have been criticised for not being particularly memorable. While not timeless standards all of them are lovely and have a real liveliness and genuine emotion, especially "Merry Christmas" and "I Don't Care", both performed by Judy Garland. All of them are gracefully and energetically staged.Scripting is witty and sophisticated and while the story is not as emotionally layered as 'The Shop Around the Corner' it is nonetheless always interesting and immensely charming.Apart from Van Dyke, the cast are all strong. Judy Garland is just wonderful and in sublime voice (then again, who couldn't expect any less?) and Van Johnson gives one of his most comfortable and engaging performances of any of his musical endeavours. He and Garland have a spirited and heartfelt chemistry.Spring Byington and SZ Sakall are humorous and very likable scene-stealers without overdoing it, and while Buster Keaton is well past prime and has little to do he makes the most of what he is and his pratfall is both funny and elegant.In conclusion, a very charming musical with an enormous amount to like. 8/10 Bethany Cox

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.

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.

Musical remake of "The Shop Around the Corner" from 1940 concerns a bachelor (Van Johnson) in 1930s Chicago who shares an intriguing pen-pal relationship with a single gal (Judy Garland), unaware his mystery lady is actually the brash co-worker whom he hates. MGM product with decidedly less gloss and panache than usual. The leads do all right, supporting cast (including S.Z. 'Cuddles' Sakall and Buster Keaton, who reportedly directed some scenes) is very good, but the songs are middling and the story seems to take forever to wind up. Liza Minnelli makes her screen debut here...as the dark-eyed, ruby-lipped toddler in the final scene. Material was later transformed into a Broadway musical entitled "She Loves Me", and was the basis yet again for 1998's "You've Got Mail". ** from ****