The Shop Around the Corner (1940): A Lubitsch Christmas

It is only occasionally that a film ages with extraordinary grace. One such film, Ernst Lubitsch's 1940 classic, The Shop Around the Corner, has mellowed as elegantly as a rare and prized bottle of Hungarian Tokaji Aszú...

Balta Street, Budapest

Lubitsch, acclaimed for sophisticated films with a light-as-air "touch," was at an artistic peak in 1940. He took special care with The Shop Around the Corner, one of his favorites among his own films. Of it he would write, “Never did I make a picture in which the atmosphere and the characters were truer…” And this atmosphere is unmistakable. With the first strains of “Ochi Tchornya” heard over Leo the Lion’s roar, the first glimpse of a dreamlike setting near Budapest’s historic Andrassy Street and through an assortment of unique and quirky characters, the spirit of old Europe comes alive on screen. 

Set during Christmastime in the snow-dusted capital, the storyline follows a series of mix-ups and missteps between 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 shop owner suspects betrayal at home and at work; a duplicitous clerk is up to unseemly mischief and a wisecracking errand boy has an eye on his main chance…

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 behind the camera and Werner Heymann (Ninotchka, To Be or Not to Be) wrote the score.

A sparkling cast boasts an array of MGM’s top supporting players. Among them is Frank Morgan in one of his most charming performances as Mr. Matuschek, the excitable owner of the gift shop. Also featured are Felix Bressart as Pirovich, a meek/endearing sales clerk, versatile Joseph Schildkraut as Vadas, a much less kindly salesman. Veteran character players Sara Haden, William Tracy and Inez Courtney also stand out in the ensemble.

The legendary chemistry between stars James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan is plainly on display here. Stewart is at his most appealing as Mr. Kralik, head sales clerk and right hand man to Matuschek. In this role, Stewart's broad signature mannerisms are tempered by the sensitivity with which he portrays Kralik's romantic yearnings and his sensitivity And Sullavan mesmerizes in an equally fine performance. Her headstrong shop girl, Klara Novak, is a high-strung idealist whose breathless eagerness is offset by her brittle fragility.

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), for which she earned 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 Stewart. The pair had first worked together on Next Time We Love (1936), a result of Sullavan suggesting her friend Stewart for the part. In The Shop Around the Corner, the third of the their four collaborations, the co-stars seem to all but dance together, such is the rhythm between them.

With the closing scenes 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 our last glimpse of - most of the other characters as they depart for the holidays.

When the shop's new errand boy, 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 facing a lonely Christmas Eve, strike up a jubilant rapport.

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