It’s probably safe to say that more movies have been made about World War II than any other military conflict, many produced during the war itself. However, before the 1940s, the First World War provided a dramatic background for many war movies made in the 1920s and ‘30s.
Helping a Soldier
Daisy Heath (Sullavan) is a cynical singing star in New York City. She’s more concerned about getting over a hangover than about the United States joining the war effort. She only keeps people in her life who can satisfy her needs; namely, her wealthy sweetheart Sam Bailey (Pidgeon) and her devoted maid, Martha (Hattie McDaniel).She encounters a very different type of person when she bumps into Pvt. Bill Pettigrew (Stewart), quite literally, since her car almost knocks the Texas soldier down. When his buddies see him getting out of her car, Bill has to bluff that Daisy is his sweetheart.
Bill dreams and pretends about her so much that he begins to believe it, too. Certain that he’s fooling his friends, Bill agrees to introduce them to her at the stage door on their next leave. With no alternative, he implores the confused actress to play along with him when they meet her after a show.
She agrees and goes into a soda shop with him to save his pride. Although she clearly thinks he’s a rube at first, Bill’s honest sincerity and ability to enjoy life’s simple pleasures begin to make Daisy rethink her life. As they spend more and more time together before he ships out, she realizes that the young man is beginning to have serious feelings for her.
Although this was not the first screen adaptation of this story, it’s the oldest movie based on Dana Burnet’s short story “Private Pettigrew’s Girl” to exist in its entirety. The 1919 silent film is considered lost, and the best preservation of the 1928 semi-talkie with Gary Cooper and Nancy Carroll is missing its last two reels.
Updates in the Remake
In the 10 years between the 1928 release of “The Shopworn Angel” and the remake with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, a lot had changed in the film industry.
In 1934, the Production Code Administration (PCA) was formed, and it would shape film content for the next 34 years. Headed by the strong leadership of Joseph I. Breen, the PCA’s job was to enforce the Motion Picture Production Code, commonly called the Hays Code. The name is inaccurate, since Will Hays was the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA) but had nothing to do with the writing or enforcement of the Code. Although Chicago publisher Martin J. Quigley and Missouri priest Father Daniel A. Lord were its authors, the Code should more accurately be nicknamed the “Breen Code.” After all, the PCA’s Hollywood Boulevard location was dubbed the “Breen Office” around the studios because everyone in the industry knew that Joe Breen was the brains behind the difficult enforcement of the Code.
Anyone familiar with the Code will already know that its main purpose was to make all movies released in the United States appropriate for audience members of every age. To meet these standards, changes were made in “The Shopworn Angel” to clean up the immoral relationships in earlier versions.
One of the biggest changes was making Daisy a singing star instead of a hard-bitten chorus girl. However, besides upgrading her role in the show, this change didn’t make Daisy overly respectable. In fact, Daisy Heath is a very hard woman for a Code heroine. She frequently has hangovers. She smokes a lot, which was quite taboo in this film’s setting of 1917. She yells in a harsh, graceless voice. She’s bitter, cynical, hardened, and selfish.
She’s also manipulative, since she happily persuades Sam to use his influence to keep her from getting into trouble for missing rehearsals, but she really cares only about herself. The tawdry aspect of her career, which was lessened by not being a chorus girl, is also not entirely absent since we briefly see a few Ziegfeld Follies-style photos of her, and the skimpy costumes hint that her performing is still questionable.
The important aspect of the Code which is often missed is the fact that not every leading lady had to be Snow White. Showing characters with questionable morals and ethics was allowed under the Code, as long as the film’s overall worldview presented correct standards of living in contrast. Daisy had to begin the film as a harsh, selfish, and perhaps even loose woman so that her transformation after spending time with Bill would be powerful. Just as this film’s heroine is unusual, its love story is also unusual.
Willing to Change
“Shopworn” isn’t a word you hear very often. According to a 1939 edition of Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, the term is defined as “somewhat worn or marred by having been kept in a shop.”Daisy Heath is the film’s shopworn angel, as Bill sees her, since he is naively blinded by her beauty and the attention she gives him. But she knows that she is hard, faded, and damaged by her “fast” lifestyle in New York City. She is shopworn because she believes there is no good in the world.
Bill brings out the best in Daisy, a good side she didn’t even know she had, by believing in her virtue. He sees the good in her, so eventually she wants to live up to his ideal. This inspires her to be a better person and ultimately to sacrifice her own desires or happiness for another person.
This movie is a charming, heartwarming, and meaningful film that honors an often-overlooked chapter of American history: World War I. It reminds us to never stop hoping for better times, wide-eyed and joyful, even when we’re surrounded by bitter cynics.
Like Bill Pettigrew, one person’s unerring optimism can be enough to renew a shopworn heart.
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