Marathon of Shops: The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Jimmy Stewart is an actor that I tend to like in whatever he does.  Whatever I’ve seen him in, which honestly is only a handful of films, I’ve enjoyed seeing him on screen.  There’s something about him that makes watching a movie with him in it that much better.  As part of the Marathon of Shops, James Stewart starred in a movie called The Shop Around the Corner.

The Shop Around the Corner was a romantic comedy drama movie directed by Ernst Lubitsch.  It starred James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan as two romantically entwined pen pals that happen to unknowingly work together and despise each other in reality.  It was remade in the 90s as You’ve Got Mail, but I’ll get to that later, since it’s the next, and final, movie in the Marathon of Shops.  This movie was released in 1940.

That's a pretty nice hat, I must say.

The strangest thing, and the only weak spot I find in The Shop Around the Corner, is that the shop is located in Budapest, yet everyone working there looks like a white American.  This does not take away from the story and the acting at all.  It simply seems odd that Budapest would be made up of white Americans.  Unless this was some American town called Budapest, but I’m pretty sure it was the city in Hungary.  Let me double check this so that I don’t seem like a complete idiot.  Yeah, the character names seem Hungarian.  It seems out of place for all of the people to be white Americans.

Other than that, this movie was great.  The storyline was a major plus.  If it weren’t for how well the story played out, this movie could have easily fallen apart.  The movie begins as the main character reveals that he has a romance brewing with someone through letters.  Then the audience learns who the pen pal is and gets to watch as the two characters interact without knowing.  Slowly, each character comes to the realization of who they are corresponding with.  It was a classic way of playing the story out and it worked wonders.

A little bit of bedtime reading.

The story was greatly complimented by the two lead performances.  James Stewart (I don’t feel like calling him Jimmy right now) and Margaret Sullivan lift The Shop Around the Corner above the story.  The hate and underlying love that they have for each other shines through from each of them.  Neither of them holds back in the performance, but neither of them goes overboard with it.  Both keep their performances grounded and add the emotion necessary for their characters.  Their chemistry was solid throughout the film, and I can see why they were in, I think, five films together.  They work well as a couple and brought a lot to the table this round.

Have I ever mentioned how much I like sets?  A set adds something to a movie for me that a real location does not.  The shop in The Shop Around the Corner was a great example of a set adding something to a movie.  The shop itself was like a supporting character in the movie.  If they had taken over a real store, it wouldn’t feel as...I can’t figure out the right word.  The set made everything fit properly into place within the world of the movie, and that feeling just would not be there if it were not a set.  There’s something about a designed set that adds a quality that I’ve never been able to completely place.  I love sets.

That set.  Just look at it.  It looks so good.

The Shop Around the Corner was a movie that completely and wholly worked in a way that many romantic comedies don’t.  The characters were relatable and likeable, the story was engrossing, and the acting was exceptional.  It’s worth checking out if you’re interested in enjoying an hour and a half of your life.  Check this one out.

Up next is the final movie of the Marathon of Shops.  It is called You’ve Got Mail.  It’s a remake of The Shop Around the Corner.  That’s right.  There were two remakes in this marathon.  Deal with it.  And that’s all I have to say about that.

See you later.