The Shop Around the Corner (1940) User Reviews

One of Stewarts best

[connmoore · 9/10 · 27 April 2005]

This is a movie that gets better each time I see it. There are so many nuanced performances in this. William Tracey, as Pepi, is a delight, bringing sharp comic relief. Joseph Schildkraut as Vadas, is the only "villian" in the movie, and his oily charms are well used here. Frank Morgan, is delightful as the owner of the title shop, Mr. Matuschek, and his familiar manner is well used here. I especially liked the performance of Felix Bressart, as Pirovitch. Very believable in every facet of his role.

The two leads are equally accomplished, with Margaret Sullivan doing an outstanding job of portraying a slightly desperate, neurotic, yet charming and attractive woman.

This movie belongs to Jimmy Stewart though. The movie is presented from his point of view, with the action rotating around him. Mr. Stewart is more then up to the task of carrying the movie, with an amazing performance that uses a wide range of emotions. Just watch Stewart, when he is fired from his job, because of a misunderstanding. He is able to convey the shock, anger, fear and embarrassment that so traumatic an event causes, so perfectly. In my estimation, James Stewart is, without question, the greatest film actor in the history of the medium. There is no one else that has ever been captured on film that is able to so completely convey what he is feeling to an audience. At the time he made this movie, he still had most of his career ahead of him, yet he is completely the master of his craft. This is one of Jimmy Stewarts best movies, and also one of the sweetest, most enjoyable romantic comedies you will find. I greatly recommend this movie, especially for those that appreciate the work of Stewart.

Oozes With Charm

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 14 November 2005]

The cast really helps make this a pleasant surprise and a cut above the normal man-vs.-woman-argue-all-the-time-but-wind up-in love-type of Hollywood screwball romance/comedy.

I usually don't go for those type of films and that tiresome storyline but this one was refreshing, fun to watch, and oozes with charm.

Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan play off each other well and make a very handsome couple. The supporting cast is outstanding - from the always-likable Felix Bressart to the villain Joseph Schildkraut.

Frank Morgan also plays one of the most interesting characters I've ever seen him do in his career. He takes the film and turns it around into a whole different mood for awhile when something dramatic happens to him. That "twist" is another reason this film rises above others of its kind.

Once again, when a film has a good mix of categories, it usually succeeds. This is a great example of that. In this movie, it's romance, comedy and drama and it's well done. I'll take this over the re-make "You've Got Mail," any day. No comparison.

Charming

[preppy-3 · 8/10 · 27 December 2000]

Sweet romantic drama/comedy about Stewart and Sullavan writing love letters to each other without either one knowing who the other is. Naturally, they work together and can't stand each other. You can guess the rest. It's beautifully acted by the entire cast (especially Sullavan, Stewart and Frank Morgan), has a witty, intelligent script and looks absolutely stunning. It takes place in Budapest and was shot in Hollywood, but I found myself believing I was seeing Budapest! Everything looks so perfect and dream-like. A one of a kind film. Don't miss it!

A Christmas Delight

[iandcooper · 10/10 · 4 October 2004]

I have lost count of just how many times I have seen this movie - I probably know the entire dialog backwards - yet I am drawn to it time and again.

Set in Hungary, a young Jimmy Stewart plays the eligible bachelor "Kralik" who becomes the secret admirer of Margaret Sullavan's innocent "Klara". Kralik secretly becomes Klara's pen-friend, and at work together Klara confides in Kralik about the content of his (Kralik's) letters. Clearly Kralik is besotted with Klara - but is unable to make his feelings known whilst he is in competition with the "pen-friend". Confused? Well you wont be - this story has a sweet, almost sugary ending - but we all know it is the ending we all want.

Other characters worth mentioning are Frank Morgan playing his usual role, this time as the shop's owner "Hugo Matuschek", Felix Bressart as "Pirovitch", Kralik's confidant. Joseph Schildkraut as the womanising arrogant "Vadas" - so well played that you cannot help but hate him right from the beginning.

Finally William Tracy who manages to endear himself to us all with his over-confident upstart of a shop junior "Pepi Katona".

Recently re-made as "You've Got Mail" starring Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan for me is not as good as the original - although I suspect younger audiences would disagree.

If this film is on in your area over Christmas, I suggest you pour yourself a nice glass of wine, put a log on the fire and have a box of Kleenex handy.

Romantic comedy perfection

[fwmurnau · 3 May 2004]

Lubitsch's charming masterpiece, so often imitated and re-adapted since it appeared in 1940, is one of the very few films that can be called perfect. There is not a shot, a line, a performance, or a moment in THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER that isn't exactly right. Everything fits together and runs like a Swiss watch.

With its flawless screenplay and cast, it's the most subtle, discreet, and understated of romantic comedies. What other film manages to be so warm-hearted yet so rigorously unsentimental? What other movie story is so exquisitely planned and executed?

Margaret Sullaven isn't sexy, it's true, but this isn't a film about sex. It's about love in the human heart and mind. A sexier actress would have thrown things out-of-balance. As always, Lubitsch knew exactly what he was doing. Just as he knew ace comedian Frank Morgan (the WIZARD OF OZ's Wizard) had hidden depth, which this film so beautifully reveals.

They don't make them like this anymore -- they didn't make them like this back then, either. SHOP was under-rated in 1940, when it appeared. It's simply too subtle, too intelligent and disciplined for the average viewer or critic.

Nothing overdone or exaggerated. Nothing out-of-place. If Mozart had been a filmmaker, he would have made this one. Warm, charming, adult, quiet, intelligent, knowing, touching ... perfection.

Perhaps the saddest comedy ever made

[tony-mastrogiorgio · 10/10 · 16 September 2005]

A wonderful film, filled with great understated performance and sharp, intelligent dialogue. What really distinguishes the film, however, is that undercurrent of sadness throughout. The story is underscored by affairs, loneliness, suicide, disappointment, the fear of losing ones job in a world where that had disastrous consequences. Most of all it was set in a world that no longer existed, having been ripped apart by the beginning of World War II. In fact, the film is barely a comedy at all if you compare the percentage of serious scenes to the comic scenes. Yet funny it is--listen to Margaret Sullivan's harsh dismissal of Jimmy Stewart and watch his pained expression as he replies that her comments were a remarkable blend "of poetry and meanness". It's funny, pointed, and sad all at once. A remarkable achievement and one of the ten greatest screen comedies ever made.

I don't give many perfect 10's.

[Irie212 · 10/10 · 10 December 2009]

It's hard to even know where to begin to praise "The Shop Around the Corner." I'll avoid repeating what other IMDb critics have said by offering this:

A good friend of mine is an older man-- in his 70s-- who scorned films, preferring opera (and not just opera, but Wagner), literature (Tolstoy at least), and philosophy (Wittgenstein, of course). He offered me one chance to show him a movie that proved cinema's worth as an art form.

I chose "The Shop Around the Corner." It's neither highbrow nor lowbrow, it's neither epic nor a silly bit of froth, it's not a genre or a formula picture, and it's about nothing bigger than decency and love (which are plenty big enough). It is, however, flawless, both funny and touching, and I thought it was a fair representation of how superb even modest films can be, and therefore a fair test of how open-minded my friend was.

"Powerfully flavored," was his summation, and he was impressed enough to begin seeing movies again (the last one he'd seen on a big screen was "Lawrence of Arabia"). And so, among all its other qualities, "The Shop Around the Corner" is one of the best ambassadors the art form could ask for.

A Nearly Perfect Little Romance

[evanston_dad · 10/10 · 21 May 2006]

A warm, sweet and remarkably charming film about two antagonistic workers in the same shop (James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan) who are carrying on a romance via mailbox without either of them knowing it. The key to this film's success is that Ernst Lubitsch keeps any syrupy sentimentality absent and calls on his actors to give low-key, unfussy performances. As a result, you fall in love with virtually all of them.

There's a strong undercurrent of melancholy running through this film which I appreciated. Loneliness is a major theme, most obviously represented in the character of the shop's owner and manager, played wonderfully by Frank Morgan. He discovers that he's being cuckolded by his wife, and realizes that the successful life he's created for himself isn't enough to keep him from feeling lonely when he doesn't have a partner to share it. This makes the timid romance between Stewart and Sullavan all the more poignant, because they're both reaching out to this unseen other, who each thinks of as a soulmate before they've even met. Of course we know everything will turn out right in the end, but the movie doesn't let you forget the dismal feeling either of them would feel if they found that the reality didn't live up to the fantasy.

Lubitsch fills his movie out with a crackerjack cast that has boatloads of chemistry. The little group of shop employees refers to itself throughout the movie as a little family, and that's exactly how it feels to us as well.

This is a wonderful, unsung romance.

Grade: A+

Impossible to Get

[JamesHitchcock · 6/10 · 2 October 2023]

How many Hollywood films have been set entirely in a contemporary Hungary with a cast of Hungarian characters, even if most of them are played by American actors? The answer, I suspect, is "precious few", but there is at least one- "The Shop Around the Corner". It was based upon a play by the Hungarian author Miklós László, here credited under the German form of his name "Nicholaus Laszlo". For some reason the film-makers opted to keep the original setting, but the fact that the film was made in 1940, after war had broken out in Europe, meant that it would have been impossible to shoot it in Hungary. Even in peacetime, financial considerations would probably have ruled out such a move, so it had to be shot on a studio set that was meant to represent Budapest but could equally well have stood in for Berlin or Birmingham, Boston or Baltimore. When the film was remade as "You've Got Mail" in 1998, the action was relocated to New York.

Laszlo was Jewish, and had recently (and wisely) left Hungary for the United States, fearful of the rise in anti-Semitism in Europe. The story, however, looks back to more peaceful times. The action takes place in a leather goods shop in Budapest and revolves around two employees, Alfred Kralik and Klara Novak. Both are members of a pen-pal club and have, without realising it, been writing to one another anonymously. The joke is that at work they dislike one another, and make little attempt to conceal their dislike, whereas both are rapturously enthusiastic about their unknown pen-friends whom they see as sensitive, romantic souls. This being a romantic comedy, it just has to end with Alfred and Klara eventually realising the truth and falling in love in the real world. (In "You've Got Mail" the unknowing lovers correspond by email rather than snail-mail, which even in 1998 was starting to look a bit old hat).

James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan were close friends, and although they were not romantically involved somebody in Hollywood obviously thought that they made a lovely couple, because they were teamed together on four occasions in as many years. (The others were "Next Time We Live", "The Shopworn Angel" and "The Mortal Storm"). Here Stewart is his normal affable self as Alfred, a friendly, hard-working and competent salesman. He is frequently referred to by his boss as "my oldest employee", which presumably means "longest-serving", as several of his colleagues are obviously older in terms of age.

Although the film was made more than eighty years ago it clearly still has its admirers. It has a rating of 8.0 on this site, and 68 out of 196 reviewers have given it a perfect 10. It has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry and is listed in "Time" magazine's All-Time 100 Movies. It has never, however, been a favourite of mine. Unlike the staff of "Time" magazine, I could easily think of at least 100 movies (make that 1,000) which I prefer to this one.

One weakness is the treatment of the owner of the shop, Hugo Matuschek, played by Frank Morgan. He starts off as a pompous, overbearing and generally rather unpleasant employer, but by the end has undergone a complete change of personality, becoming everyone's best friend. The catalyst is his discovery that his wife Emma, who never actually appears on screen, is having an affair with one of his employees, Alfred's colleague Ferencz Vadas, and his subsequent unsuccessful suicide attempts. I found this development both hard to accept and tasteless, a very discordant note in what is otherwise a light-hearted rom-com,.

The main problem, however, is with Sullavan's Klara. I don't think that the fault lies with Sullavan herself, who was doubtless playing the character in the way demanded by the script and probably also by director Ernst Lubitsch. But it cannot be denied that Klara comes out as a very unlikeable young woman, rude and sharp-tongued and enough to test even Alfred's affability to the limit. Her eventual explanation is that she was playing "hard to get", having recently read a book about a French actress who used this tactic to succeed in her sex life, but that doesn't really make her any more sympathetic. She comes across as more impossible to get. Stewart does enough to earn the film an above-average mark, with some good support from Joseph Schildkraut as the reptilian womaniser Vadas and William Tracy as Pepi, the young delivery boy who develops delusions of grandeur when he is promoted to clerk. The film would, however, have been better if Klara had been made more likeable. 6/10.

Pen pals in Budapest

[jotix100 · 10/10 · 19 December 2004]

Ernst Lubitsch's contribution to the American cinema is enormous. His legacy is an outstanding group of movies that will live forever, as is the case with "The Shop Around the Corner". This film has been remade into other less distinguished movies and a musical play, without the charm or elegance of Mr. Lubitsch's own, and definite version.

Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart worked in several films together. Their characters in this movie stand out as an example of how to be in a movie without almost appearing to be acting at all. Both stars are delightful as the pen pals that don't know of one another, but who fate had them working together in the same shop in Budapest.

The reason why these classic films worked so well is the amazing supporting casts the studios put together in picture after picture. In here, we have the wonderful Frank Morgan, playing the owner of the shop. Also, we see Joseph Schildkraut, Felix Bressart, William Tracy and Charles Smith, among others, doing impressive work in making us believe that yes, they are in Budapest.

That is why these films will live forever!

"As long as the envelope's closed, you're a millionaire"

[ackstasis · 7/10 · 15 August 2008]

'The Shop Around the Corner (1940)' is a pleasant romantic comedy, not the sort that I will hold dear to me until the end of my days, but nonetheless a film thoroughly deserving of its reputation. By 1940, director Ernst Lubitsch had long ago taken Hollywood by storm, and his famed "Lubitsch touch" had become a sparkling commercial trademark. This film was planned for a 1939 release, but scheduling conflicts meant that James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan were unavailable for filming. Rather than substituting either of his main stars, Lubitsch decided to postpone production, in the meantime directing Greta Garbo in 'Ninotchka (1939).' When it was finally completed, 'The Shop Around the Corner' appears to have been met with relative indifference, receiving zero Oscar nominations despite an excellent screenplay by Samson Raphaelson and fine performances from its two leads and Frank Morgan in a supporting role. Time, nevertheless, has betrayed the film's massive and enduring influence, with high-profile remakes including 'In the Good Old Summertime (1949)' and 'You've Got Mail (1998).'

At its surface, one might assume 'The Shop Around the Corner' to simply be the story of two lovers, Klara Novak (Sullavan) and Alfred Kralik (Stewart), who love each other without knowing it. However, Lubitsch's film runs much deeper than that. It's the story of Matuschek and Company, a stylish gift shop in Budapest, and the various human relationships that make the store such a close-knit family. When store-owner Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan) begins to suspect his oldest employee of having an affair with his wife, we witness the breakdown of two families, both at home and at work. There's absolutely no reason why the story should not have been set in the United States – perhaps in the blustery streets of New York – but Lubitsch was deliberately recreating the passions and memories of his former years in Europe, the quaintness of love and life before war brought terror and bloodshed to every doorstep. This subtle subtext brings a more meaningful, personal touch to the film – in fact, even as I write this review, I'm beginning to appreciate the story even more.

Sullavan and Stewart are both lovely in their respective roles, but I think that it's the supporting cast that really make the film. Each character brings a distinctive personality to the mix, and their interactions are always believable and enjoyable. I especially liked how Lubitsch knowingly directed much of our sympathy towards Hugo Matuschek, who, in any other film, would have been restricted to an underdeveloped, two-dimensional portrayal. Matuschek may have lost the love of his family, but he recaptures it in the affection of his employees, and you feel a heartwarming glow when, in the bitter cold of a Christmas Eve snowstorm, he finds companionship in a freckle-faced young errand-boy (Charles Smith). This genuine warmth towards a supporting character strikes me as being similar to several of Billy Wilder's later creations, for example, Boom Boom Jackson in 'The Fortune Cookie (1966)' or Carlo Carlucci in 'Avanti! (1972).' Of course, it doesn't really need saying, but Billy Wilder learned from the best.

Incredibly beautiful, funny and touching

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 27 October 2010]

I am not sure whether I can add to the other reviewers here about the gem that is The Shop Around the Corner. It is beautiful, funny and touching and one of those perfect films really. It looks stunning, has deft direction from the great Ernst Lubitsch, has a truly sweet and romantic ending and has a beautifully-balanced script. I do agree to some extent the story is thin, but it is full of charm, wit and such that you actually ignore that, while the film is a good length and moves briskly.

The acting from the two leads are delightful. James Stewart is perfect as Alfred, this film and his performance deserves to be up there with his other great films/performances It's a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, Rear Window, Philadelphia Story, Anatomy of a Murder and Mr Smith Goes to Washington. Margaret Sullivan is the epitome of grace and warmth as Klara, and Frank Morgan provides impeccable support as Hugo.

All in all, a lovely little film as funny and moving as it is beautiful and charming. 10/10 Bethany Cox

The Darndest casting decisions

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 21 December 2005]

Back in the day of the big studio system, the darndest casting decisions were made. Good old all American James Stewart appearing as a Hungarian in The Shop Around the Corner. Had I been casting the film, the part of Kralik would have been perfect for Charles Boyer. His accent mixed in with all the other European accents would have been nothing. Stewart had some of the same problem in the Mortal Storm also with Margaret Sullavan.

Margaret Sullavan was his most frequent leading lady on the screen, he did four films with her. But is only this one where neither of them dies. Sullavan and her husband Leland Heyward knew Stewart back in the day when he was a struggling player in New York. In fact Sullavan's husband was Stewart's good friend Henry Fonda back then.

I think only Clark Gable was able to carry off being an American in a cast of non-Americans in Mutiny on the Bounty. Stewart in The Mortal Storm was German, but all the other players were American as well so nothing stood out.

But if you can accept Stewart, than you'll be seeing a fine film from Ernest Lubitsch. The plot is pretty simple, a man and woman working in a department store in Budapest don't get along in person. But it seems that they are carrying on a correspondence with some anonymous admirers which turn out to be each other. Also employer Frank Morgan suspects Stewart wrongly of kanoodling with his wife.

Though the leads are fine and Frank Morgan departs from his usual befuddled self, the two players who come off best are Felix Bressart and Joseph Schildkraut. Bressart has my favorite moments in the film when he takes off after Morgan starts asking people for opinions. He makes himself very scarce.

And Joseph Schildkraut, who is always good, is just great as the officious little worm who is constantly kissing up to Frank Morgan. You really hate people like that, I've known too many like Schildkraut in real life who are at office politics 24 hours a day. Sad that it pays off a good deal of the time.

Not Enough Focus On The "Main Event"

[zkonedog · 5/10 · 5 December 2020]

After being recommended this film and seeing it pop up on enough "best of holiday flicks" lists, I decided to finally give it a watch. Unfortunately, despite a solid cast and a interesting kernel of an idea, I found "The Shop Around The Corner" to be perplexingly disinterested in its main conceit, to the detriment of the overall experience.

For a very basic overview, this film focuses on a group of individuals working at a sort of knick-knack shop owned by Mr. Matuschek (Frank Morgan). More specifically, employee Alfred Kralick (Jimmy Stewart) becoming continually exasperated--personally and professionally--with new hire Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan). Unbeknownst (at least for a time) to both parties, however, they are also each other's romantic/mysterious pen pals, corresponding through letters as they bicker in person.

There's no doubt that "Shop Around The Corner" is based upon an interesting idea: two people who seemingly hate each other in real life are over-the-moon for each other strictly based on written correspondence. The problem here, though, is that this central conceit is bafflingly given very little rope to play out. Viewers are never given a scene of, say, Kralick writing one of his letters, and when we finally do see Ms. Novak read one, it is played more for comedy than anything. I just never felt much romantic chemistry between the two for that reason.

Instead, we get numerous subplots involving the store, such as the owner's attempted suicide, his wife's infidelity (with a store employee), and the upward trajectory of a young "errand boy". All of those angles--and more--are generally fun and contain their own little revelations or witticisms. Yet, taken as a whole, they also largely overshadow the Kralick/Novak dynamic that needs to be so central for a movie like this to really work.

Perhaps this is a film better enjoyed in its cultural time period. Perhaps I just "didn't get it", so to speak. Either way, while I was certainly never bored or outrightly disappointed with any of the on-screen happenings, none of it really made much of an emotional impact on me, either.

It's a wonderful world.

[dbdumonteil · 16 March 2002]

The Stewart /Sullavan relationship and the warmth which flows on the screen are only one bend in a most extraordinary river.Although "extraordinary" is not the right word,because everything here is ordinary,no hero,no spectacular events and however,something happens.

The shop is a life microcosm,with its little quiet joys and its bitter disappointments,but,Lubitsch,here very close to Capra ,proves that virtuous gents like Stewart character can triumph in the end;and the final scene of the lovers is one of the wittier in the whole cinema.We seem to know all the clerks in the shop as if we've known them for years,and their everyday life is depicted with love and affection.The yuletide spirit is captured with a lot of emotion-check the scene between the boss and his new delivery boy Rudi and predates "it's a wonderful life" by five years.

The main topic is the fear of solitude.The shop is the place where everyone can feel he is part of a family,a family sometimes truer than the real one (see the boss's wife).And the director wants to make sure that ,when they leave their work on Xmas night,everyone is not on his own.A masterful conclusion.

The remake "you've got mail" featuring Ryan and Hanks is politically correct to a fault.All Lubitsch's movie charm and poetry seem to have been swallowed by the computers.

Clerk Watching

[writers_reign · 10/10 · 9 October 2005]

This, despite not being the original - it began life as a play in Central Europe - has weathered the several incarnations that followed (MGM's own remake with period songs In The Good Old Summertime, the Broadway show She Loves Me, even the excellent theatre revival in Paris a couple of years ago) and remains the definitive version and the one they all have to beat. Several previous commenters have identified the contributing factors that make it so successful and memorable not least being the prevailing fashion in 30s and 40s Hollywood for lavishing attention and detail on ensemble playing rather than just two leads as so often happens today - try, for example, removing Ugarte, Ferrari, Renault etc from Casablanca and yes you'd still have Rick and Ilsa and Viktor Lazslo but they'd just be frosting without the rich cake mixture below. Jimmy Stewart and Maggie Sullavan WERE both ideal and irreplaceable leads but how much brighter they shine when their performances are reflected in those of Frank Morgan, Felix Bressart, Joseph Schildkraut and Andy Hardy's Sara Haden and this is BEFORE we factor in that Lubitsch 'touch'. Okay, maybe they WERE a tad more naive, innocent even, in that Jurassic Age but how many genuine film lovers, sated with scatology, screwing and in-your-face sex, turn back to those days of Stories, Style, Slickness and Skill and wallow in great movies like this one. By far the best thing about this technological age is not CSI but DVD that can at one and the same time make these classics available to nostalgics and show the Matrix freaks how the big boys used to do it.

The original is by far much better than the re-make

[Soledad-2 · 10/10 · 17 May 1999]

After seeing You've Got Mail and feeling disappointed, I decided to see the original movie which inspired this one, The Shop Around the Corner. I was amazed at this movie. It's a true gem and from this moment one of my favorite movies of all times. The acting is so perfect, the story is so beautiful, that if you haven't seen it, I wish to urge you to see it today. I'm not against re-makes and sometimes I like the new version more than the original one, but this time have to admit that You've Got Mail is a poor adaption of this classic. Don't miss it, go to your video store and rent The Shop Around the Corner today!

Quiet, Unassuming, Perfect

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 3 May 2002]

Much about love & life can be learned from watching the folks at THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER.

Ernst Lubitsch had another quiet triumph added to his credit with this lovely film. With sparkling dialogue (courtesy of his longtime collaborator Samson Raphaelson) and wonderful performances from a cast of abundantly talented performers, he created a truly memorable movie. Always believing in playing up to the intelligence of his viewers, and favoring sophistication over slapstick, the director concocted a scintillating cinematic repast seasoned with that elusive, enigmatic quality known as the ‘Lubitsch touch.'

Although the story is set in Budapest (and there is a jumble of accents among the players) this is of no consequence. The beautiful simplicity of the plot is that any great American city or small town could easily be the locus for the action.

Jimmy Stewart & Margaret Sullavan are wonderful as the clerks in love with romance and then with each other - without knowing it. Their dialogue - so adeptly handled as to seem utterly natural - perfectly conveys their confusion & quiet desperation as they seek for soul mates. Theirs is one of the classic love stories of the cinema.

Cherubic Frank Morgan has a more serious role than usual, that of a man whose transient importance in his little world is shattered when he finds himself to be a cuckold. An accomplished scene stealer, he allows no emotion to escape unvented. Additionally, Morgan provides the film with its most joyous few moments - near the end - when he determines that his store's newest employee, an impoverished youth, enjoys a memorable Christmas Eve.

Joseph Schildkraut adds another vivid depiction to his roster of screen portrayals, this time that of a toadying, sycophantic Lothario who thoroughly deserves the punishment eventually meted out to him. Gentle Felix Bressart has his finest film role as a family man who really can not afford to become involved in shop intrigues, yet remains a steadfast friend to Stewart.

Sara Haden graces the small role of a sales clerk. William Tracy is hilarious as the ambitious errand boy who takes advantage of unforeseen developments to leverage himself onto the sales force.

In tiny roles, Charles Halton plays a no-nonsense detective and Edwin Maxwell appears as a pompous doctor. Movie mavens will recognize Mary Carr & Mabel Colcord - both uncredited - in their single scene as Miss Sullavan's grandmother & aunt.

Delightfully Naive Romance

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 4 July 2010]

In Budapest, Hungary, the Matuschek and Company store is owned by Mr. Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan) and the bachelor Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) is his best and most experienced salesman. When Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) seeks a job position of saleswoman in the store, Matuschek hires her but Kralik and she do not tolerate each other. Meanwhile the lonely and dedicated Kralik has an unknown pen pal that he intends to propose very soon; however, he is fired without explanation by Matuschek in the night that he is going to meet his secret love. He goes to the bar where they have scheduled their meeting with his colleague Pirovitch (Felix Bressart) and he surprisingly finds that Klara is his correspondent; however, ashamed with the unemployment, he does not disclose his identity to her. When Matuschek discovers that he had misjudged Kralik and committed a mistake, he hires him again for the position of manager. But Klara is still fascinated with her future fiancé and does not pay much attention to Kralik.

"The Shop around the Corner" is a delightfully naive romance, and this is the type of film that deserves to be watched many times. It is charming and innocent, and James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan show a wonderful chemistry even in their arguments. I love this period of classic romantic comedies when society was satisfied with a screenplay that does not need to use sex scenes and other diversion but great dialogs supported by outstanding direction and acting. In 1998, Nora Ephron updated this film with the remake "You've Got Mail" without any reference to the work of Ernest Lubitsch. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Loja da Esquina" ("The Shop around the Corner")

Today's Special Is Porkolt..

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 24 December 2012]

James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan work in a knick-knack and luggage shop in Budapest. They argue fitfully with one another. Neither knows that they have a secret shared relationship, exchanging billets-doux by mail. By the end, after considerable mix-ups and secondary events, the hidden relationship is revealed and everyone enjoys a happy Christmas.

It sounds sickening. I avoided it for years and stayed as far away as possible from its recent remake, "You've Got Mail" in which, instead of using the post, the would-be lovers exchange their love notes by email.

But it was wrong to ignore the original. Lubitsch is not a slob. He rarely goes for the cheap shot and he knows ironic wit when he hears it. There is only one hug in the entire movie. (I counted.) Further, there are first-rate performances by most of the cast. The film is based on a play, so there really aren't that many characters. Sullavan looks pleasant without looking beautiful, and Stewart is Stewart, in one of his best pre-war performances. I'll give an example. Stewart is visiting Sullavan after he (but not she) has found out that they are secretly drawn to one another. Knowing this, he has written a letter praising his epistolary self. As they sit together, the letter is delivered to Sullavan and she lights up like the bulb on a Christmas tree and reads aloud the panegyric that Stewart (in his role as co-worker) has written about himself (as lover). Watch the expressions slowly make their way across Stewart's features, blending shame, pride, modesty, and calculation. It only takes a minute.

In fact, the pace is pretty fast. Nobody shouts but everybody says what they have to say and darts off somewhere else. So, in expecting a sludge of sentimentality and tears, I must have been thinking of another movie. This one has quiet irony and is -- I don't know how to say this exactly, but it's European in its sensibilities. I'd have expected it from France but not Hollywood.

Just a perfect picture!!!

[kidboots · 10/10 · 9 September 2009]

There never was an actress like Margaret Sullivan, who could convey the radiance and poignancy of her soul in every part she played. She only had a few truly great roles, but this was one of them. She and James Stewart compliment each other perfectly in this exquisite picture.

This is a story of a shop around the corner - in Budapest and the people who work there. Family man Pirovitch (Felix Bressart), two- faced, sly Ferencz Vadas (Joseph Schildkraut who was so sympathetic in "Orphans of the Storm"(1921)), unassuming Alfred Kralik (Jimmy Stewart), Flora (Sara Haden), flighty Ilona (Inez Courtney) and cocky Pepi (William Tracy). Alfred has received another letter from his secret pen friend - her letters transport him to a pleasanter place than his humdrum shop life. That day Klara Novak (Margaret Sullivan) comes to the store - desperately looking for a jog. She is told there are none to be had, but after ingeniously selling a musical box as a candy box to an over-weight customer, she is in!!! But she is out with Alfred, they antagonize each other from the start from the particular colour of her blouse to the right way to pack boxes. Of course she is the girl of Alfred's dreams, his pen friend (but neither of them know it) and they have agreed, by mail, to meet at a particular cafe. He is to wear a buttonhole and she is to carry a book, "Anna Karenina" by Tolstoy.

The store's owner, Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan) is having his own problems - the money he is giving to his wife is sending the store into bankruptcy. He is also suspicious of Kralik - he thinks he is having an affair with his wife!!! Events escalate and Alfred is sacked - Matuschek has had his wife watched and his fears are confirmed - she is seeing another man - but it is not Alfred, it is slimy Mr. Vadas. When he realises he has sacked the wrong man, Mr. Matuschek tries to kill himself. He makes things right from his hospital bed, Alfred is reinstated as the new manager and Pepi (who saved his life) is promoted to clerk!!! Even Vadas gets his come-uppance.

Everything works out perfectly in this perfect film. James Stewart is as far from a lowly clerk in a notions store in Budapest as you can get, but this could be his most memorable role. Actually this film had an earlier remake than "You've Got Mail". In 1949 MGM remade it as "In the Good Old Summertime" with Judy Garland and Van Johnson. It was set in a Chicago music shop around the early 1900s and was a good excuse to give Judy some popular music of the time to sing.

Highly Recommended.

An ageless charming rom-com

[1930s_Time_Machine · 7/10 · 26 March 2023]

This is a lovely little film. It will make you smile, it will make you laugh a bit and it will leave you in a happier mood than you were before. It's got everything you could ask for in a rom-com plus James Stewart doing what he does best. As these types of film go, this is definitely one of the best.

For an MGM film, showcasing their latest star acquisition, Ernst Lubitsch, this quite small scale but that gives this picture a real sense of intimacy. You feel at home there, you're part of the family in Mr Matuschek's shop. It's set in 1930s Budapest, in that quaint Hansel and Gretel world before the Nazis and before the Soviets and this atmosphere adds the the overall charm. Lubitsch engages you in this story as he often did by leaving some gaps in the narrative. It's down to you therefore to fill the gaps in yourself. That great technique embeds you into story - you'll want to see if you're right!

I'm not a usually fan of Ernst Lubitsch - mushy sentimentality is not really my thing but this is an exception - it's just so 'nice' it's impossible not to like it. James Stewart is perfect for this - again just so 'nice.' He was very much the Tom Hanks of the 30s and 40s epitomising the ordinary guy we'd all like to be.

A love story as great as it is real...

[gaityr · 9/10 · 28 September 2002]

THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER is one of the sweetest and most feel-good romantic comedies ever made. There's just no getting around that, and it's hard to actually put one's feeling for this film into words. It's not one of those films that tries too hard, nor does it come up with the oddest possible scenarios to get the two protagonists together in the end. In fact, all its charm is innate, contained within the characters and the setting and the plot... which is highly believable to boot. It's easy to think that such a love story, as beautiful as any other ever told, *could* happen to you... a feeling you don't often get from other romantic comedies, however sweet and heart-warming they may be.

Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) and Clara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) don't have the most auspicious of first meetings when she arrives in the shop (Matuschek & Co.) he's been working in for the past nine years, asking for a job. They clash from the very beginning, mostly over a cigarette box that plays music when it's opened--he thinks it's a ludicrous idea; she makes one big sell of it and gets hired. Their bickering takes them through the next six months, even as they both (unconsciously, of course!) fall in love with each other when they share their souls and minds in letters passed through PO Box 237. This would be a pretty thin plotline to base an entire film on, except that THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER is expertly fleshed-out with a brilliant supporting cast made up of entirely engaging characters, from the fatherly but lonely Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan) himself, who learns that his shop really is his home; Pirovitch (Felix Bressart), Kralik's sidekick and friend who always skitters out of the room when faced with the possibility of being asked for his honest opinion; smarmy pimp-du-jour Vadas (Joseph Schildkraut) who ultimately gets his comeuppance from a gloriously righteous Kralik; and ambitious errand boy Pepi Katona (William Tracy) who wants nothing more than to be promoted to the position of clerk for Matuschek & Co. The unpretentious love story between 'Dear Friends' is played out in this little shop in Budapest, Hungary, in which Kralik's unceremonious dismissal and subsequent promotion to shop manager help the two lovebirds-to-be along. It's nice that everyone gets a story in this film; the supporting characters are well-developed, and Matuschek's own journey in life is almost as touching as the one Alfred and Clara share. His invitation to new errand boy Rudy (Charles Smith) for Christmas Eve dinner, made in the whirling, beautiful snow of a Hungarian winter, makes the audience glad that he is not alone; we come to care even for the characters whose love story it isn't this film's business to tell.

Aside from the love story, I must say that James Stewart is truly one of the best things about this film. He doesn't play the full-fledged Jimmy Stewart persona in this film (c/f 'Mr Smith Goes To Washington' for that); in fact Alfred Kralik is prickly and abrupt and not particularly kind. He's rather a brusque man, in fact, with little hint (until, perhaps, the very end) of the aw-shucks down-home boyish charm Stewart would soon come to patent. When he finds out before Clara that they have been corresponding in secret, in fact, Kralik doesn't 'fess up--he waits it out to see how far he can take the charade, especially since he quickly realises (given his stormy relationship with Clara as boss and underling) that loving the person he knows through the exchanged letters might not equate with loving the person herself. His description to Clara of the fictional Matthias Popkin (what a name!) who was to become her fiance is hilarious in the extreme, but also his way of proving that the letters don't reveal all there is to a man, just as her letters don't reveal all there is to her. Stewart plays this role perfectly--he keeps his face perfectly controlled whenever Clara insults Mr. Kralik, as she is often wont to do, even (and especially) to his face. And yet one believes, underneath the brusqueness and professionalism, that he *could* reveal his identity with as much earnestness and sincerity and sheer *hope* as he eventually does.

Special mention must be given to the other members of the cast as well. Margaret Sullavan fares rather less well in the first half of the film, but she really comes into her own in the closing-shop scene on Christmas Eve, when she almost gets her heart broken again by Alfred's most vivid description of her mailbox sweetheart. Frank Morgan turns in a great performance as the jealous Hugo Matuschek driven to nervous breakdown, the man who has to rediscover his meaning in life when he realises that his wife of 22 years does not want to 'grow old with him'. And Felix Bressart plays the role of the meek but loyal Pirovitch wonderfully (a Lubitsch regular, since he appears as a hilarious Russian ambassador in NINOTCHKA)--of particular note is the scene in which he helps his good friend Alfred get the Christmas present the latter *really* wants... a wallet instead of that ludicrous cigarette box Clara is so hung up on.

Ernst Lubitsch really does himself proud with this film--for example, the famously lavish and meticulous care given to detail in the creation of the Matuschek shop is well worth the effort, right down to the Hungarian names on the door, the wares and the cash register and so on. But even though Lubitsch chose to have the story set in Hungary, the setting is actually universal: it could happen anywhere; it could happen to you. Therein lies the charm of this simple story, these believable characters who really *are* people. The snow on Christmas Eve is real as well, or at least as real as Lubitsch could make it (he had snow machines brought in at great expense). It is this desire to make everything appear as real as possible that helps make the story even more believable, that gives this entire film a dreamy realism that cannot be replicated. (No, not even in a remake like YOU'VE GOT MAIL.)

*This* is really the Jimmy Stewart Christmas film that people are missing out on when they talk about IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Not to detract from the merits of that other film, but there'd be no harm, and in fact a lot of good, done in watching THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER this Christmas instead. It's sweet, funny, charming, and Stewart is impeccable in his role. We should all be so lucky as to have the romance depicted in this film; the best thing about this film is that we come away from it feeling that we very possibly could.

Endearing but predictable

[RvdW1 · 7/10 · 5 December 2020]

Although the plot of the movie is rather predictable the acting of Stewart and Sullavan still holds up. The movie drags a little at some points but in general it keeps a rather decent pace. Some events are a pleasent suprise in the story but they feel a little misplaced. Stewart brings, as always, a certain amount of joy, believability and sensitivity to his character. Sullavan is well casts and performs quite well however in some scenes she lacks a powerfull attitude behind her words. Although a small role, the character development of Pepi, well played by William Tracy, gives a refreshing dimension to the movie.

Some would call this a Christmas movie but I would say that it just so happends to take place around the holidays. Overall a fun and heartwarming but rather typical movie that doesn't surprise very much.

I Don't Get It

[jaigurudavid · 5/10 · 27 December 2020]

I had high hopes for this movie, but I don't get it. Probably the worst movie I've seen starring Jimmy Stewart. He was okay, but his performance seemed stilted and restrained. Margaret Sullavan's performance was fine but her character was shallow and reprehensible. Setting the story in Budapest was just confusing and added nothing to the story. The adultery subplot likewise was irrelevant to the story. Just a jumbled, unfocused film.