The Shop Around the Corner (1940)...a Lubitsch Christmas

The Shop Around the Corner, Ernst Lubitsch’s timeless 1940 romantic comedy, has grown old with grace over its 70 years; occasionally a great film will age like a rare bottle of Tokaji…

Balta St., Budapest

Director Lubitsch, known for his mythical “touch” and at the height of his artistry in 1940, seems to have taken special care with The Shop Around the Corner. It was one of his favorites of own films and he wrote, “Never did I make a picture in which the atmosphere and the characters were truer…” The atmosphere is unmistakable...from the first strains of “Ochi Tchornya” heard over Leo the Lion’s roar, to the dreamlike locale near Budapest’s historic Andrassy Street, to each of the film’s distinctive characters, the spirit of old Europe is alive on screen.

Set during Christmastime in the snow-sprinkled capital, the story follows a series of mix-ups and missteps among employees of a picturesque gift shop in the heart of the city. Two clerks carry on a battle-of-the-sexes while romantically pursuing anonymous pen pals; the genial store owner suspects betrayal at home and at work; a duplicitous clerk is into ugly mischief and a wisecracking errand boy aspires to move up in the world…


Matuschek's gift shop

Samson Raphaelson (Suspicion, Green Dolphin Street) penned a screenplay based on Nikolaus (Miklós) László’s play; William H. Daniels (The Naked City, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) was cinematographer and Werner Heymann (Ninotchka, To Be or Not to Be) wrote the score.

The ensemble cast includes several of MGM’s top supporting players. Among them is Frank Morgan in one of his most interesting roles as Mr. Matuschek, the colorful charmer who owns the gift shop. A dark turn in the subplot concerning Matuschek gives Morgan an opportunity to portray affecting pathos.

Venerable Felix Bressart plays the meek/endearing clerk, Pirovich (shown in the scene below). Versatile Joseph Schildkraut defines ‘loathsome’ as Vadas. Also in the featured cast are Sara Haden, William Tracy and Inez Courtney.



The stars, James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, shared a legendary chemistry on film and it is never more apparent than in The Shop Around the Corner. Stewart is at his most appealing as Mr. Kralik, head clerk and right hand man to Mr. Matuschek. In this role, Stewart's broad signature mannerisms are tempered by the sensitivity with which he plays Kralik's romantic yearnings. But it is Sullavan's performance that astonishes. Her Klara Novak, an idealistic but difficult shop girl blinded by lofty dreams, exudes breathless eagerness, brittle fragility, willfulness and so much more. Sullavan’s amazing voice, her eyes, her facial expressions and physical movements - all are musical.

Margaret Sullavan

Margaret Sullavan was discovered on Broadway by director John M. Stahl (Leave Her to Heaven) who brought her to Hollywood to star in Only Yesterday (1933) with John Boles. By this time Sullavan had already married and divorced Henry Fonda and would soon marry director William Wyler. By 1936 the actress was married to agent/producer Leland Hayward and about to make her best films: Three Comrades (1938), which garnered Sullavan a Best Actress Oscar nomination, The Shopworn Angel (1938), The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and The Mortal Storm (1940). In the last three she co-starred with James Stewart. The pair had first worked together on Next Time We Love (1936), a result of Sullavan suggesting her old friend Stewart for the part. In The Shop Around the Corner, the third of the their four collaborations, the co-stars seem to practically dance their scenes together, such is the rhythm between them.

With the closing sequences of The Shop Around the Corner, Lubitsch demonstrates his consummate finesse…

Frank Morgan and Charles Smith

Mr. Matuschek returns to his store on Christmas Eve to total the day’s receipts, thank his staff and hand out bonuses. It is closing time and as the wistful shopkeeper departs, he says goodnight to, and we have a last glimpse of, most of the others as they leave to celebrate the holidays.

When new young employee Rudy (Charles Smith) emerges, Matuschek takes him under his wing and out to a glorious Christmas dinner of roast goose, potatoes in butter…and “a double order of apple strudel in vanilla sauce.” The two, no longer alone on Christmas Eve, strike up a joyful camaraderie.

Inside the darkened shop, Stewart and Sullavan move in perfect harmony as Kralik and Klara finally connect with each other. This last scene, one of the most deeply romantic and witty ever confected, contains the distilled essence of Lubitsch’s “touch.”