The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

The Shop Around the Corner (1940) was a first watch for me. Not my first Ernst Lubitsch, I’d seen Ninotchka his movie from the year before. What a delight and what sweet movie that makes you want to shop small and maybe find love? The employees of Matuschek and Company meet outside the shop every morning waiting for the boss to unlock the shop. Jimmy Stewart plays his right-hand man, Mr. Kralik. The shop is modest and a family with all their dramas and foibles. The newest addition, Miss Novak, is a sales girl that quickly gets up Mr. Kralik’s nose. What they don’t know that we do is that they are falling in love with each other through letters. Each think the other the most perfect person in the world, on paper. The shop goes through ups and downs and the boss is short tempered and you don’t know why. Will Kralik and Novak get it together? You have to watch and find out.

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