So last Saturday I saw In the Good Old Summertime (1949) screened at the The Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo. It was in a little theater (and I mean little) that was built as a movie house in 1921. (They showed silents in this building!).
I must say that attending this screening was an act of pure fangirling. I wasn’t there for Judy Garland, Van Johnson, the musical or anything else like that. I was there for Buster Keaton! It’s funny ‘cause the theater, who now specializes in retro film scheduling, didn’t even mention him in their advertising of this flick. Future films include The Cameraman, Steamboat Bill Jr., Girl Shy and Modern Times. But for this one, you had to know Buster was in it!
The music hall has a really cool program. Since they have a Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ and pianos the theater features these in their show. Yes, there’s a show with the price of admission! They opened with the projectionist playing a rag on an 102 year old piano, and then various songs (from the movie to come) on the Wurlitzer. Then there were a few sing alongs for the audience. Lastly, before the intermission, they screened the family car outing section from the Harold Lloyd silent Hot Water (1924). I had never seen this Lloyd, so it was a treat to have it accompanied by the Wurlitzer.
After intermission, Buster was on the screen! Yes, if you noticed anyone making a racket in the theater, that was me. The movie, with Judy Garland and Van Johnson is a musical remake of A Shop Around the Corner. Set in a turn of the last century Chicago, the men have celluloid collars and the women have shirtwaists. If you don’t know the story, a shop keeper, Van Johnson has a love interest pen pal who he’s never met, who just so happens to be his co-worker in the shop, July Garland. Buster plays the rival love interest (somewhat) of Judy, but as we all know he was put in this flick for his pratfall abilities. More on that later!
The movie started and I was slightly disappointed in the fact that the technicolor of this flick was a bit faded. But there was Van biking in the park on a Sunday afternoon meeting up with his friend Hickey (Buster) who is first on the screen riding a bicycle. What joy. Who can be disappointed when Buster’s on the big screen? They then meet up with the coworkers from the shop and Buster has caught the eye of pretty young ladies, tips his hat in usual Buster fashion (!) and horn dog that he is in this flick, goes off and follows the ladies. All while throwing the camera his spectacular eyes. I just cannot tell you how many times his eyes and head move the story along in this flick. Whenever someone is talking, he intently looks at the others or if he is in the middle of a group, his head movements accent the dialogue. I’m astounded by his ability to move plot along with his head gestures, eye movements and facial expressions. Great stone face my ass.
But I’m only at the beginning of the flick and Buster returns to the picnic group in the park and joins in with the singing! Yeah, you can hear his voice.
Now onward to the post office scene where Buster helped direct Van and Judy as Van proceeds to totally destroy Judy’s prim outfit in a few seconds. It was hilarious. You could tell the slapstick/physical comedy was pure Keaton: messed up umbrella, hat wrecking and leaving the leading lady in her underwear. Just gold. Buster is sporadically in the rest of the movie, the character is the nephew of the shop owner and Buster does a few priceless moments of sucking up, but other than that, it’s the end baby that we’re waiting for.
The setup is this (spoiler alert) the owner (S. Z. Sakall) owns a Stradivarius violin and fancies himself a good player when in reality, he sucks real bad. He connives Van to take the Stradivarius to his engagement party to pretend spur of the moment ask him to play for the party. Meanwhile, Van lends the violin to a much better player and is carrying the non-Stradivarius to the party. S. Z. gets pissed at Van and so asks Buster to bring the Stradivarius to the stage. Here is where Buster shines. As he is bringing the violin to the stage, he slips and falls in just such a way that he falls squarely on the violin and smashes it to pieces! And of course it was planned but Buster makes it look absolutely effortless. We are told he was put in the movie cause they could never find anyone else to do this pratfall so effortlessly, with such je ne sais quoi! And is this ever so true.
I almost forgot, that right before this Buster asks Judy to go to the party with him (his eyebrows go up when she says yes!) and he even dances with Judy at the party! Can I take a moment here to talk about the movies’ beautiful technicolor? She dances in a spectacular red dress and I’ve never seen such red lips on all the females in this flick, young or old, and have them look so luscious. I mean man, I’ve been using lipstick my whole life and have never looked THAT good. But the audience was in an uproar when Buster falls, and when the story is straightened out, and when it’s determined that Buster did not smash the real Stradivarius, all is forgiven. The other big laugh is when the coworkers are all waiting outside in the snow for the store opener to arrive and one of them says to Buster “gee Hickey, I didn’t know you were an acrobat?” and the whole audience busts a gut as Buster looks all shy and does his little fellow act.
God, how can anyone resist this man?
Please theater owners, if you play Buster flicks I will come. This little theater was packed, and if properly advertised, it could have been a sell-out.
[dancing gif courtesy of aggressivenature]
