The Shopworn Angel (1938)

Synopsis: This Hollywood gem faithfully follows the original story by Dana Burnet, which appeared 20 years earlier in The Saturday Evening Post. This remake of the 1928 version stars Jimmy Stewart in the role originated by Gary Cooper in the first film that was made for Paramount. Stewart plays Private... This Hollywood gem faithfully follows the original story by Dana Burnet, which appeared 20 years earlier in The Saturday Evening Post. This remake of the 1928 version stars Jimmy Stewart in the role originated by Gary Cooper in the first film that was made for Paramount. Stewart plays Private Bill Pettigrew, a Texas rookie, who is en route to fight in France when he runs into a comely Broadway actress named Daisy Heath, who is already spoken for. The actress ends up driving the young man to his base camp in her limousine and falls for him along the way. Margaret Sullivan turns in a powerful performance as the torn Daisy. She maintains sympathy throughout as she struggles to break her engagement to her fiancé Sam Bailey (Walter Pidgeon), and imagine a life in the arms of her unsophisticated but earnest soldier. James Stewart shows flashes of the undaunted goodness he perfects in later roles. H.C. Potter directs a kind, jovial credible drama and Walter Pidgeon is perfect as the socially adroit but ultimately powerless man who could lose his girl to circumstances beyond his control. [More]