Review – The Shopworn Angel

Usually about the worst thing I have to say about a movie from Hollywood’s “golden age” is that I didn’t care about it one way or another. But this one actually managed to be terrible. Margaret Sullivan stars as a Broadway actress torn between Jimmy Stewart and some guy I didn’t recognize. Stewart plays a young, naïve GI with google-eyed crush on the actress, a relationship that seems doomed to failure not only by the differences in their lifestyles but also by his imminent departure for the trenches of World War One. For the most part this is a fluffy little picture from the early days of talkies. But toward the end the film-makers paint themselves into a corner and then decide to burn the house down in order to escape. Honestly, this picture has the worst ending of just about anything I’ve ever seen. More than that I can’t say without giving away the conclusion, so unless you watch it for yourself you’ll just have to take my word about what a disappointment it was. See if desperate