The Shopworn Angel

While the Stewart-Sullivan pairing doesn't quite live up to the chemistry they have in The Shop Around the Corner, this earlier film shows they had it even then. It's their acting talent that keeps this film from being a major letdown. Walter Pidgeon is also good in his role, for what it is. It's the plot that stinks. The two leads have SO much chemistry that it makes Sullavan's character Daisy Heath's relationship with Pidgeon's Sam Bailey not so realistic. She was supposed to have realized she was still more in love with Sam than ever but it just doesn't quite come across. What does leap off the screen is the chemistry between Bill Pettigrew (played by Stewart) and Daisy Heath..so yes, it's a letdown that Heath is not supposed to be in love with Bill when the plot builds up to 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.

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 one aired on TCM the other day and was well worth seeing. Had heard about it but had never seen it. I thought it was a good example of Jimmy Stewart's work in earlier films before he became a big star.

But as much as I enjoy and admire Jimmy Stewart, I thought Margaret Sullavan took acting honors in this one. Showing depth and range, she went from cold and cynical to sensitive and caring - from a turn-off to someone to root for. I also thought the chemistry between the two was a plus.

Stories like this one have been done many times in the past - country bumpkin meets jaded big-city veteran - but this picture had a unique charm about it that makes movie-going so enjoyable and rewarding. I rated it a well-deserved seven.

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.