The Shopworn Angel

I know I am going to sound really picky here, but the hairstyles and clothes are 1938--not WWI like the movie is supposed to be (other than uniforms). You'd think that MGM would pay attention to this detail, as it was THE top studio at the time. Yet, oddly, nearly everyone (especially the women) wear clothes that just would never have been worn in 1917--and hair to boot. And, when the folks were riding the roller coaster, they almost all had hats on--and none of them flew off! As a retired history teacher, I notice these things and felt the movie didn't try very hard to get these simple details right. So is the rest of the film worth seeing? Well, considering that it's got Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, what do you think?!

The film is a sweet romance. Stewart is a backward country boy who, unlike all his other friends in the army, does not have a girlfriend and is very awkward around women. So, to stop them from making fun of him, on an impulse, he pretends that an actress (Sullavan) is his girlfriend. Oddly, she feels sorry for him and agrees to the ruse. However, over time, this jaded lady comes to life when she's with Stewart and eventually they fall in love for real. Where it goes next, I won't say--but I was very surprised where the film went. Some may hate the surprise but I appreciated how the writer avoided the clichéd or simple ending.

Well worth seeing despite some poor attention to details. Exceptionally acted (it doesn't get much better) and a dynamite script. See this one.

When the United States enters World War I, patriotic Texan Jimmy Stewart (as William "Bill" Pettigrew) is among those to sign up for service. In New York for basic training, Mr. Stewart is bowled over by showgirl Margaret Sullavan (as Daisy Heath), but she is promised to distinguished Walter Pidgeon (as Sam Bailey). With Mr. Pidgeon's okay, Ms. Sullavan shows young Stewart around the city, including the roller-coaster at Coney Island. They're supposed to be "just friends" but Stewart is falling in love…

This was a direct re-make of the 1928 silent/sound success starring Nancy Carroll and Gary Cooper, and there were dozens of films with this romantic wartime love triangle. Most of the time, the male characters had different outcomes. The story is strained in places and diluted from the original, but the picture is nicely produced and performed well. The Stewart/Sullavan chemistry is easy to appreciate. A new Broadway musical sensation known as Mary Martin provides Sullavan with a beautiful singing voice.

****** The Shopworn Angel (7/15/38) H.C. Potter ~ Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Walter Pidgeon, Hattie McDaniel

Shy young soldier James Stewart is picked on by his fellow soldiers for not being a ladies man. Jaded showgirl Margaret Sullavan agrees to help him out by pretending to be his girlfriend. He quickly falls in love with her for real but things are complicated by his having to ship out for the war and her already having a boyfriend (Walter Pidgeon).

The second of four movies pairing Stewart and Sullavan. Their chemistry is remarkable as always. This one doesn't turn out how you might think and I can easily see many viewers being disappointed. It builds up towards one thing but shifts gears 3/4 of the way through and becomes something else. I still enjoyed it, though.

James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan made four films together, the most she had with any leading man. In fact Stewart's career was given a considerable boost when Sullavan requested him in the lead of their first film, Next Time We Love. Sullavan had been married to Henry Fonda, Stewart fellow Princeton alumnus from the Triangle Club and Fonda and Stewart were a pair of starving New York actors back in the day.

The film is a sweet romantic story about a young soldier who quite accidentally comes between a Broadway actress and her playboy boyfriend. The story had been previously filmed at Paramount earlier during the last dying days of the silent screen with Gary Cooper, Nancy Carroll, and Paul Lukas in the roles that Stewart, Sullavan, and Walter Pidgeon play here.

Stewart is just perfect as the earnest young private from Texas who Sullavan while using Pidgeon's car as transportation, knocks down in a New York City street. One thing leads to another and Sullavan finds she's got two men on her hands. What to do.

As in all films in Hollywood of 1938 it all gets resolved in a poetic, but tragic way. The leads are cast quite perfectly. I'm surprised this film has not been made again. Hattie McDaniel is in this one also as Sullavan's maid of course. I doubt today though that there would be a Hattie McDaniel type role in it.

This is a surprisingly touching movie. It presents the "marry the soldier who is shipping out to near certain death" story, which would play out in real life when the US entered WWII, but in this case, prior to that entry, with a soldier shipping out to France in 1917.

Stewart plays it simple, which works here. He is a sympathetic catalyst who somehow brings the true lovers together in a roundabout manner. Walter Pidgeon is really good here - maybe the best I've seen him - in that he avoids his more typical coolness for genuine vulnerability. The ending in telegraphed, but still sad in that way you love movies to be sad.