Customer Reviews

Shopworn Angel [VHS]

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SHOPWORN ANGEL is a movie about a worldly Broadway actress (Margaret Sullivan) who meets a doughboy (Jimmy Stewart) just before he leaves for France. Stewart is a naive cowboy from Texas who brags to his army buddies that he knows Sullivan. When they actually do meet Stewart immediately falls in love with her. The only complication is that Sullivan really loves her business manager Walter Pigeon. This awkward situation forces both Sullivan and Pigeon to look deeper and learn new truths about life and love.

Margaret Sullivan is superb as her character changes visibly from a spoiled and egotistical mess into a warm and giving adult. Stewart, Pigeon and Hattie McDaniel give their usual strong performances mostly playing themselves. Sullivan's singing is dubbed by Mary Martin.

H.C. Potter also directed MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE, HELLZAPOPPIN and THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE.

In THE SHOPWORN ANGEL, the image of folksy Jimmy Stewart was solidified. His Bill Pettigrew is the all-American innocent, slightly fumbling of manner and drawling of speech; in fact the most effective moments of the movie centers around apple pie! There was a certain chemistry between Sullavan and Stewart that's rather elusive; perhaps it was the result of their own friendship and understanding of each other. Sullavan had a wistful and appealing aura and the ability to show the feminine side of a woman; vulnerability was Maggie's forte. The setting is New York in 1917 just after America's entry into the World War, when a rather glib actress - Daisy Heath - (Sullavan), almost knocks over a young soldier, Bill Pettigrew (Stewart). Daisy finds this young farmer from Texas refreshingly different from any man she's ever known...............The sentiment nature of Dana Burnett's novel, PRIVATE PETTIGREW'S GIRL needed a lot of shoring up for 1938 audiences (it was filmed priorly in 1928 with Gary Cooper and Nancy Carroll). It's the authority of the two lead performances which make this film bearable; Sullavan invested her scenes with an eloquence of expression and Stewart made his characterization solid, even though the script gave him little to work with.

Interesting variation on the small-town-boy-comes-to-the-city theme, with Jimmy Stewert as the noble-hearted hick falling in love with a girl from New York who's been round the block a few times, but to whose dalliances he remains impervious. My favourite scene is where Jimmy is told how the cattle are rounded up in Times Square. Let down only by a slightly sentimental ending.

"The Shopworn Angel" is the second onscreen pairing of James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. They are a delight to see and certainly their offscreen chmsitry is evident onscreen as well. In this film, Margaret's role as a jaded actress and James's as a naive, starry eyed soldier perfectly complement each other. Though opposites, their relationship is believable. James's innocent charm would be imposible to resist, even for such a wary woman as Margaret in the film. Especially effective in this movie are the small details such as James's boyish posting of Margaret's photograph in his army locker, the ice cream they share at a drugstore, and the figurine of the Staute of Liberty they win together at a carnival. Each detail is handled with such care in the film that when the staute of liberty figurine is later broken at one point in the movie, the vieiwer feels as if James and Margaret's relationship has been broken. Though the film may seem overly sentimental and predictable (Margaret and James get married, James dies a hero in the war, Marget's cold heart turns warm and she's from then on friendly to all her fans--especially the soldiers), it's the sincerity and strong performances from the lead actors that make it overcome its weaknesses. Rather than fall into trite melodrama, it is a touching, quiet film that is one of the best exampes of James Stewart's early career and leaves no question as to why he's considered the classic All-American actor.