The Shop Around the Corner. Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan star in this 1940 film as warring clerks in a Budapest dry-goods store who unwittingly fall in love via mail. Ernst Lubitsch directed with the wit and subtlety known as the “Lubitsch touch.” 99 minutes. CC.
This film premiered on January 12, 1940 but must be placed with the great films associated with 1939, the “annus mirabilis” of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The film received no Academy awards and appears to have been a box-office flop. Today, it has become an enduring holiday classic. There have been remakes: "In the Good Old Summertime" in 1949 with Judy Garland and Van Johnson, and "You've Got Mail" in 1998 with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, but it is hard to match the original.
Lubitsch turns All-American boy Jimmy Stewart, and co-star Margaret Sullavan into believable clerks in a Budapest dry-goods store who unwittingly fall in love via mail. Both actors gave unforgettable performances but neither gained even an Academy award nomination. The supporting cast all got a chance to shine. Frank Morgan, the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz, played the store owner with his usual bluster. Felix Bressart played a comic co-worker, and William Tracy played a savvy delivery boy.The film ends fittingly as the two lovers are united on Christmas Eve as snowflakes fall on The Shop Around the Corner.
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| Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart |
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