The Shop Around the Corner [Blu-ray]

Overview

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.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/22/2020
UPC:	0883929736416
Original Release:	1940
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Language:	English
Time:	1:39:00
Sales rank:	1,336

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Margaret Sullavan	Klara Novak
James Stewart	Alfred Kralik
Frank Morgan	Hugo Matuschek
Joseph Schildkraut	Ferencz Vadas
Sara Haden	Flora
Felix Bressart	Pirovitch
William Tracy	Pepi Katona
Inez Courtney	Ilona
Charles Smith	Rudy,Rudy
Charles Halton	Detective
Sarah Edwards	Woman Customer
Gertrude Simpson	Woman Customer
Grace Hayle	Plump Woman
Charles Arnt	Policeman
William Edmunds	Waiter
Mary Carr	Grandmother
Mabel Colcord	Aunt Anna
Renie Riano	Customer
Claire DuBrey	Customer
Ruth Warren	Customer
Joan Blair	Customer
Mira McKinney	Customer
Edwin Maxwell	Doctor
Werner R. Heymann	Composer

Technical Credits

Samson Raphaelson

Ernst Lubitsch	Director,Producer
Samson Raphaelson	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

For sheer charm it's hard to beat this gentle 1940 comedy, an evocative period piece that bears the unmistakable "Touch" of Ernst Lubitsch, a consummate filmmaker who could accomplish more with a match than most directors could with a forest fire. This graceful tale unfolds mostly in a Budapest notions shop, where lonely clerk James Stewart conducts a romance by correspondence with equally lonely shopgirl Margaret Sullivan. A twist of fate finds her working at Stewart's store, where the would-be lovers continually bump heads, unaware that they are paramours by post. Lubitsch orchestrates the performances of Stewart and Sullivan, an unlikely-looking couple with surprisingly good chemistry, as well as those of a supporting cast that includes Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut, Sara Haden, Felix Bressart, and William Tracy. As moving as it is humorous, The Shop Around the Corner might seem like an old-fashioned curio to some, but to others it represents the very best that Hollywood once had to offer: tasteful, stylish, and, in its own small way, even profound.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

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.

All Movie Guide - Richard Gilliam