Main Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut, Sara Haden
Release Year: 1940
Country: US
Run Time: 99 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
The Shop Around the Corner is adapted from the Hungarian play by Nikolaus (Miklos) Laszlo. Budapest gift-shop clerk Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) and newly hired shopgirl Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) hate each other almost at first sight. Kralik would prefer the company of the woman with whom he is corresponding by mail but has never met. Novak likewise carries a torch for her male pen pal, whom she also has never laid eyes on. It doesn't take a PhD degree to figure out that Kralik and Novak have been writing letters to each other. The film's many subplots are carried by Frank Morgan as the kindhearted shopkeeper and by Joseph Schildkraut as a backstabbing employee whose comeuppance is sure to result in spontaneous applause from the audience. Directed with comic delicacy by Ernst Lubitsch, this was later remade in 1949 as In the Good Old Summertime, and in 1998 as You've Got Mail. It was also musicalized as the 1963 Broadway production She Loves Me. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The Shop Around the Corner is one of the screen's best romantic comedies, and an excellent example of the subtle humor and wry character interplay that marked the films of director Ernst Lubitsch. The plot -- likeable people (James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan) who are antagonists in real life but also anonymous pen pals are infatuated with each other -- is ripe with comic potential, but Lubitsch takes the material further, including several bittersweet subplots that give the film richness and texture. The supporting performances are first-rate, particularly Frank Morgan and Joseph Schildkraut, and the film has the classy look that was a hallmark of MGM films of this era. The central story has been reused in various films, including Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan in Shop Around the Corner.
Set in and around a Budapest store, co-workers Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) and Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) hold an intense dislike for each other, while maintaining a secret letter-writing relationship, neither realizing who their pen-pal is. They fall in love via their correspondence, while being antipathic and peevish towards one another in real life. A major subplot concerns the apparent infidelity of the store owner's wife, and its spillover effect upon the various working relationships in the shop.[1]
In an odd Hollywood turn, Rudy, the last major speaking part of the film (the newest delivery boy, offered a huge Christmas meal by Mr. Matuschek), is played by Charles Smith. In the remake, In the Good Old Summertime with Van Johnson and Judy Garland, an uncredited Charles Smith is one of the quartet singing with Judy at the engagement party.
Release and reception
Reviews
James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan in Shop Around the Corner.
The Shop Around the Corner... is among the greatest of films... This is a love story about a couple too much in love with love to fall tidily into each other's arms. Though it all works out finally, a mystery is left, plus the fear of how easily good people can miss their chances. Beautifully written (by Lubitsch's favorite writer, Samson Raphaelson), Shop Around the Corner is a treasury of hopes and anxieties based in the desperate faces of Stewart and Sullavan. It is a comedy so good it frightens us for them. The cafe conversation may be the best meeting in American film. The shot of Sullavan's gloved hand, and then her ruined face, searching an empty mail box for a letter is one of the most fragile moments in film. For an instant, the ravishing Sullavan looks old and ill, touched by loss.
^ abc "The Shop Around the Corner", All-TIME 100 best Films, 2005.
^ original Hungarian title, Illatszerar, English language publication: Laslo. Miklos (1957) Parfumerie: a comedy in three acts M. Liebman Productions, New York, OCLC 31155371
Fräulein Seifenschaum ·Aufs Eis Geführt ·Blindekuh ·Zucker Und Zimmt ·Der Erste Patient ·Der Letzte Anzug ·Der Kraftmeier ·Wo Ist Mein Schatz? ·Schuhpalast Pinkus ·Der Gemischte Frauenchor ·Das Schönste Geschenk ·Der G.m.b.H. Tenor ·Leutnant auf Befehl ·Seine Neue Nase ·Ossis Tagebuch ·Der Blusenkönig ·Wenn Vier Dasselbe Tun ·Das Fidele Gefängnis ·Prinz Sami ·Der Rodelkavalier ·Der Fall Rosentopf ·Ich Möchte Kein Mann Sein ·Das Mädel Vom Ballet ·Meyer Aus Berlin ·Das Schwabenmädel ·Kohlhiesels Töchter ·Romeo Und Julia Im Schnee ·If I Had A Million(segment "The Clerk")
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