The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

The Age of Commercialism

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Lubtisch beautifully tells his stories. This simple movie transcends genre or style and is instead a morality tale. Only the great masters can achieve this level of simplicity and legacy.

This is a perfect and delightful movie. Jimmy Stewart actually plays to the role and gives one of his better performances. There is something whimsical yet simple about the story line of two people working in the same shop, and unbeknownst to the other, exchanging love letters. While engaged in the shop, they are antagonist, comparing each negatively to the fictional letters they receive.The story takes on a darker more ominous tone of despair and loneliness, highlighted by the Christmas season. (A darkness not so apparent in the musical remake of 1949 with Judy Garland and Van Johnson, "In the Good Old Summertime.")The writing is tight, the lines believable, the scenario plausible. And the love story charming. This is a delightful and charming movie.

Festive atmosphere flavored family drama, spontaneous love, heartfelt comedy and healthy humor. Director Lubitsch's film spice with warm and everyday human subjects. „THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER" is a pleasant place with a lot of respect and charm. The film is a bit slow. I think that this approach is intentional, because this looks more realistic. The story is more or less everyday. The love affair or the love of the main character are strange spices in the story. Both changes in the daily routine of the protagonists and their views on life. Lonely hearts connected a piece of paper. True. It is fascinating to watch how the director deftly mixes comedy, drama and romance. In this film does not lose the thread, the atmosphere remains the same and only the changing characters. Characterization of the characters is very interesting. Frank Morgan as Hugo Matuschek owns the shop and he is benevolent dictator. James Stewart as Alfred Kralik is a workaholic and a perfectionist and very lonely character who is difficult to adapt. Margaret Sullavan as Klara Novak is safe but lonely. The woman in which the conflict her own and outer world. Felix Bressart as Pirovitch, the man who in life has two stations. Work and family. Two of the greatest love and the two biggest fear. A friend in need. The voice of reason and peace.The film that appeals to the Christmas atmosphere.

THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1940), produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch, is a delightful tale of two store employees who don't get along very well, unaware they're carrying on a pen-pal correspondence through the mail that starts with "Dear Friend." Starring Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart for the third time together, following NEXT TIME WE LOVE (Universal, 1936), and THE SHOPWORN ANGEL (MGM, 1938), there's no doubt that this comedy-drama, based on the Hungarian play by Nikolas Laszlo, happens to be their finest collaboration thus far. Although a circumstantial love story from the viewpoint of its central characters, the film rightfully belongs to the owner of the shop around the corner, as wonderfully played by Frank "The Wizard of Oz" Morgan.What's the story about? Opening title reveals: "This is a story of Matuschek and Company - of Mr. Matuschek and the people who work for him. It is just around the corner from Andrassy Street - on Balta Street, in Budapest, Hungary." The shop, Matuschek and Company, consists of various workers starting with its founder, Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan), a middle-aged man devoted to both his store and wife, Emma, of 22 years; and staff: Alfred Kralik (James Stewart), a nine year employee/salesman and Matuschek's most trusted and closest friend; Mr. Petrovitch (Felix Bressart), a happily married family man whose the very first to arrive ten minutes before the store opens; Pepi Katena (William Tracy), an errand boy with a squeaky voice; salesgirls, Flora (Sara Haden) and Ilona (Inez Courtney); and Ferencz Vadan (Joseph Schildkraut), a "yes" man who mysteriously arrives each day by taxi loaded with large money bills in his pocket and expensive wardrobe. One morning, Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) arrives seeking employment. She successfully sells herself by selling an "O Tchonia" playing music box to a plump lady customer who mistakes it for a candy box. During the course of her six month stay at Matuschek and Company, Klara and Alfred find themselves constantly arguing, unaware that they carrying on a romance through the mail left in a post office box. Further complications arise as Alfred notices Mr. Matuschek to suddenly act indifferently towards him, even to a point of dismissing him before Christmas for no apparent reason.Being an Ernst Lubitsch production where his traditional locales to his motion pictures having European backdrops, mostly Paris, interestingly THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER is a sort of story that could very well have taken place anywhere at anytime. Following the pattern of remakes, the musical version retitled IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME (MGM, 1949) starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson, takes place at turn-of-the-century Chicago; while the most updated edition, YOU'VE GOT MAIL (Warner Brothers, 1998) with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, not only is set in New York City, but uses the internet as its means of communication between pen-pal writers. With the exception of European born actors, Joseph Schildkraut and Felix Bressart, along with label signs written in Hungarian, many of the other players are essentially Americans talking naturally without any attempts using accents. Had director Lubitsch attempted on using European-born performers in leading roles as the two-time Academy Award winning Viennese born Luise Rainer as Klara, with Czech Francis Lederer as Alfred, for example, the outcome would have turned out entirely different and possibly not as successful as with the selected players as Sullavan and Stewart. Frank Morgan, best known for playing befuddled characters, is shown to best advantage here breaking away from his typical "Morgan style" for a more straightforward performance. Aside from serious performances from THE MORTAL STORM (1940), that reunited him with Sullavan and Stewart, and the much better known THE HUMAN COMEDY (1943) starring Mickey Rooney, it makes one wish Frank Morgan did more dramatic roles like these as opposed to the tailor-made double-talking bumbling characters he's done so often, even in his signature role as THE WIZARD OF OZ (MGM, 1939).Being a versatile actor, Morgan, believably having that European presence through his thick mustache and old-style haircut, gives a performance worthy for an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor. His key elements include moments of humor for not trying to influence his employees when asking for their honest opinions; his surprise reaction when discovering the error of his ways towards his trusted employee, Alfred; and a heartfelt moment when inviting his newest and youngest employee, Rudy (Charles Smith), age 17, living alone in Budapest, to have dinner with him on Christmas Eve. When Morgan isn't around, the concentration resumes on the feuding store employees, Klara and Alfred. One unforgettable moment includes a scene outside the café where Alfred looks through the window, after being told by his friend, Petrovitch, that his pen-pal, with only means of identification being a Leo Tolstoy book, "Anna Karenina," happens to be Klara. While he doesn't give away his identity, he does surprise her when stopping by her table, only to soon be insulted and hurt when angrily called an "insignificant clerk." Other scenes involving Klara and Alfred are both amusing and touching in the best Lubitsch style and tradition. A pleasing musical score by Werner Hermann during its opening and closing credits is also worthy of an honorable mention here. No wonder THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER has lived up to its expectations in recent years as an exceptional motion picture.Formerly on video cassette since the late 1980s, and later available in the DVD format, for anyone looking for a bargain when it comes to shopping for a good movie with a Christmas theme, THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER should make any customer satisfied without asking for refunds or exchanges the next time it's broadcast on Turner Classic Movies cable channel. (***1/2)