THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940)
Director: Ernst Lubitsch Starring: James Stewart, Margaret Sullivan
Rating: *****
To say that 'The Shop Around The Corner' is a romantic comedy which is charming and endearing would be an understatement. Movies as pure and sincere as these are indeed a rarity these days. Lubitsch does a fantastic adaptation of the play by Hungarian playwright Nokolaus Lazzlo, about a man and woman working together in a gift shop who can't stand each other, but are falling in love with each other as anonymous pen pals. The 1998 Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks starer --You've Got Mail was largely inspired by this and was charming in its own right BUT it is no match to this original classic.
It is a movie which carves out a niche for each character and makes all of them loved and memorable. The dialogs are some of the wittiest and the most charming I have ever heard.
Sparkling performances by the lead pair James Stewart and Margaret Sulluvan. Aah.. the charm Jimmy is able to turn on, is simply divine! That such an actor once walked in flesh and blood on this earth is an eternal blessing for all of us who appreciate CLASSIC cinema.
