In the Good Old Summertime (1949)

Another musical Buster was in, although it’s less of a standard musical and more a case of the film contriving in-story reasons for the characters to sing (hey, when Judy Garland’s in your movie, you do what you have to do.)  It’s also, notably, a fairly early take on the particular romantic comedy storyline that was later popularized in You’ve Got Mail.  It’s not the original version of the story – apparently, that was a French play from the 1930s – but it’s still reaching back quite a ways.

Andy and Veronica work in the same music shop, where they spend most of their work day at each other’s throats.  Everything either does annoys the other, and both tend to unfavorably compare the other to the anonymous someone with whom they correspond through the post office.  Little do they know, of course, those lovely, thoughtful, poetic letters they send are actually to one another.

It’s a cute film – the contentious relationship between Van Johnson’s Andy and Judy Garland’s Veronica is the focal point of the film, and both play their parts well.  Johnson brings a slightly-rapscallion charm to Andy, while, as Veronica, Garland is fussy and opinionated but misunderstood.  Be advised, though – there’s more than a hint of sexism tinging the romance.  Still, it’s a pretty light, bouncy story, and the music-shop locale offers a decent excuse for Garland to sing frequently, as she demos sheet music for prospective customers while Andy accompanies her.

Buster plays one of several other people working at the music shop, all of which are pleasant and entertaining in their own right.  In Buster’s case, he plays Hickey, the clumsy but eager-to-please nephew of the shop’s temperamental owner.  It still strikes me sometimes how Buster can give such great reaction shots while maintaining his classic stone face, but it’s true.  Here, there’s a great scene where he dutifully sits down to indulge his uncle in the irascible man’s favorite pastime:  (badly) playing the violin when he’s annoyed.  Buster’s reactions to each sour note are fantastic.

Fortunately, this is also a film that recognizes that, if you’ve got Buster Keaton, you let him do physical comedy – hence Hickey’s clumsiness.  At first, it just feels like a trait that’s a bit shoehorned into the character simply because Buster is playing him (and to be honest, the slapsticky elements do feel a little out of place with the tone of the rest of the movie,) but it’s actually laying the groundwork for a clutzy disaster at a critical moment in the film, which I like.  As it turns out, Buster was initially just consulted on the film as a gag writer, but when he devised that aforementioned clutzy disaster for them, they realized that no one but Buster could play it with the precision that was needed.  It also helps that Hickey isn’t the only source of slapstick in the film.  There are other intricate bits of physical comedy performed by some of the other actors, and Buster’s hand in crafting their gags is apparent.

Warnings

A little suggestiveness and some old-timey sexism.