Watch The Shop Around the Corner For Free

Redundant and unnecessary.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The Shop Around the Corner is the movie You've Got Mail was based on - however, it has a much darker tone. The Christmas element only came in during the last half-hour or so, but still, it was a fun holiday movie. I still don't know why they decided to set it in Budapest, though.

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)

early Stewart film has him somewhat in support of Sullivan...he does well but appears to be a tad too young for the role, as fledgling Salesman in a small but successful shop in Budapest, who learns that an adversarial co-worker is actually the girl he has been writing to! the shop and environment ring of small town America...I did miss some of the early scenes...so I spent a lot of viewing time thinking I was watching a Frank Capra film! it's said that the '90s YOU'VE GOT (E-)MAIL is the "remake" of this 1940 film and strangely, Tom Hanks is every bit as dull as Jimmy Stewart is here.just like so many of today's films, this entry runs on too long and blows past many opportunities to inject some liveliness, some zaniness into the stilted proceedings.I walked away from the TV for about two minutes thinking the film was quickly winding down after the scene when the Shop's aging owner, visiting at Christmas eve, in his recuperation from a severe breakdown after learning his wife was messing around in the stockroom, takes the opportunity to invite the newest hiree, a 17 year old delivery boy, to a Christmas dinner.Thought the movie should end there, as the two walk up the snowy street, and see Jimmy and Margaret in an embrace, under a street light. But....no. More tentative romance with the two former pen pals.

The good things: faultless ensemble playing; superb photography, costumes and set dressing; excellent script; perfect pacing, both within scenes and overall. Not-so-good things? Can't think of any.Although the film, in deference to the play on which it is based, is set in Budapest, its themes are eternally human. As is so often the case, emphasis on a particular locality has the paradoxical effect of heightening general truths. It's this that has enabled this wonderful piece to be turned into two musicals and be updated to the digital age with equal success.It does concern me that the sheer joy of this movie might become less appreciated as the years go by. It takes effort to look into films headlined by stars such as Sullavan and directors such as Lubitsch, whose names are not, let's face it, as prominent as they were in their own day. An even worse fate could befall, and perhaps already has befallen, THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, described on my DVD cover as 'the original of YOU'VE GOT MAIL.' In this case, whatever might be said positively about the update, the original is better, by a long, long way. Lubitsch's film is a classic.