Sorry, this movie sucks

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Good concept, poorly executed.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

James Stewart is well known for his Christmas film, 'It's A Wonderful Life'; however, he has another lesser known Christmas film that is equally delightful and heartwarming that has a message to be known. 'The Shop Around the Corner' is a wonderfully made film about two co-workers that don't get along and unbeknownst to them, they are actually pen pals. They are both lonely and desperate - looking for someone to love. Stewart and Sullavan are the pen pals - the main characters, but around them, the other characters are dealing with loneliness and affairs as well. Through the wonderful acting of everyone in the cast and the witty dialogue, the themes (loneliness, love, secrecy, and affairs) come to be known. No one wants to be alone, and no one should be. That is what this film is all about. There is a lot of heart and sentiment in this film - definitely a heartwarming film with a Hollywood ending.

You honestly would fall in love with it. Both James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan were just brilliant actors and the love they had for each on the film, was just so genuine and wonderful that you wish you had a boyfriend like James Stewart haha! I just love how he looked at her when her character was not knowing where the love letters came from, it reminded me of the film "You've got mail!" but this one was in classic version!I even didn't know that the man who played the shop owner played the Wizard on the movie "Wizard of Oz", he's a brilliant actor anyway regardless if he came from the movie or not! Its just so good, I feel like this movie made me fall in love with it even more. I give this a 10/10, it is just one of the bests that James Stewart has been involved in!

On the whole, the movie comes across as good, but over-rated, despite the "Lubitsch touch". Perhaps I was expecting too much. The supposed comedic part doesn't really come off, as its scattered instances quickly bump into a prevailing serious side. Too bad, for example, the screenplay drops in Matuschek's heartbreak over his wife's infidelity so awkwardly. Unfortunately, that comes at expense of the prevailing mood. Nonetheless, the lead roles are poignantly performed by leads Stewart and Sullavan even though they must play out their darker moments. Then too, the plot poses a thoughtful conflict between personalities on paper versus personalities in the flesh. Klara (Sullavan) and Klavik (Stewart) are in love as pen pals, but without knowing their true identities, quarrel constantly in as co-workers in the gift shop. That's an interesting idea since it counterposes constructed identities to real ones, and we wonder which set will prevail. Kudos to production for refusing to glamorize the gift shop staff, especially Klara. Nor, for that matter, is Klara all that likable in her shop work. In fact, the story's almost as much about the shop business as it is about romantic dreams of everyday people. Anyway, there's much to recommend in the 100-minutes, but the overall result is not particularly memorable, Lubitsch or no.

The Shop Around the Corner (1940): Dir: Ernst Lubitsch / Cast: James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut, William Tracy: Delightful romantic comedy that sometimes surrenders to jerking us around, but often times it is relentlessly charming. The action centres around a small shop where James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan star as employees who are unknowingly pen pals. Frank Morgan plays the shop owner who wants everything in tip top shape for Christmas. Director Ernst Lubitsch does a fine job at presenting relationships within an ordinary corner shop, but the film has tremendous depth as well. Stewart is terrific as someone who has mastered the shop and maintained its order but a misunderstanding results in his firing. Sullavan plays the female counter part who regrets the actions against Stewart despite their disagreements. Morgan steals his moments as he learns to take a closer look at life in the shop and demonstrate benefits to those of hard work. Joseph Schildkraut plays the film's villain whose tactics lead to the one act of violence where he is sacked in the jaw. William Tracy plays a young delivery boy who frequents the shop and eventually prevents a tragedy. While the ending is corny, the film's presentation of the characters through the walls of this little shop make for an interesting observation of those of us who must tolerate one another through eight hour periods. Score: 8 / 10