Charm is also evident in Robert Z. Leonard’s musical remake of The Shop Around the Corner, perversely titled In the Good Old Summertime (1949) even though the majority of the story takes place in December.  The locale has been altered to Chicago at the turn of the century, in beautiful Technicolor.  As before, two clerks in a store (Van Johnson and Judy Garland) fall in love while writing to each other, yet cannot talk to each other without venom.

This time the store is a music store, which naturally gives rise to opportunities for Judy Garland to sing.  This isn’t a typical MGM musical, for the relatively few musical numbers are all performances; characters do not sing to express their feelings.  Garland sings a mere five songs, one of them accompanied by a barbershop quartet.  Her highlight is “I Don’t Care,” a title which at one point was considered for the film.  Van Johnson begins to sing one song but is stopped because his warbling is so bad.

Much of this film’s plotting and dialogue, particularly early in the story, is directly taken from the earlier film, even the exact post office box number.  It substantially changes the shop owner’s (S. Z. Sakall) personal predicament, although the story still culminates in the same place.

Besides the joy of watching Judy Garland in fine form, the film also offers Buster Keaton in a small role as one of the store clerks.  He doesn’t have a great deal to do, but he is a pleasure to watch anyway.  A great comedian in the silent age, Keaton wasn’t afforded the same opportunities later in his career.  Here, he imbues a rather insignificant role with dignity and deadpan humor.  And at the very finish look for young Liza Minnelli in her film debut.

The story was reworked yet again as a Broadway play in 1963 and as the romantic comedy You’ve Got Mail in 1998.

My rating for this musical:  ☆ ☆ ☆.  (9:3).