Last week, Christmas day approached, and the New York Times art section on the website took a look back on a classic motion picture, The Shop Around the Corner, starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. I had recently seen Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, also starring Stewart, so I figured I might just as well watch this movie too.
I loved it. I loved everything about it. The characters, the dialog, the setting, the actors. Within the week, I watched it again. And again. I might see it once more, and I never thought I would watch a movie over and over again like this, but it seems to really strike a chord with me.
Both Stewart’s character, Alfred Kralik, and Sullavan’s character, Klara Novak, are wonderful. The movie is based on a Hungarian play, and is set in Hungary’s capital of Budapest (also explains the non-English names). The supporting characters are also nice to see, for instance Pirovitch, played by an actor with a hilarious accent, but they are not as enchanting as Stewart or Sullavan, and sparks fly when they’re both on-screen.
It’s not a particularly romantic screenplay, it is a romantic comedy, but it is often light on comedy and light on romance, being cheap nor cheesy. If anything, the film is a cerebral romantic comedy. The premise is simple and sounds fun from the start. The main characters end up working together in a little shop, and they can’t stand each other. But little do they know they are each other’s pen pals. And in their letters, in a regular correspondence that has gone on at length, they discussed art, literature. They communicated thoughts and ideals, and also feelings and passions, among them love. Inevitably, she fell for him, and he for her, but they had yet to see each other.
It picks up from there, and it’s easy to see why it moves me so. Kralik (Stewart’s character) and I share similarities. Well, there comes a time when you get bored of going to bars and cafes, Kralik says, and you feel like learning something new, about art or literature, and do something to improve yourself. Yeah. That hits home. In the movie, the corresponding lovebirds discuss, among other things, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. Can you imagine something like this in a modern Hollywood movie? This film puts minds before looks. Such an attitude would likely trigger the autoimmune system of 21st century Hollywood.
I could say more, but I wouldn’t want to bore you. There’s other interesting stuff going on in this film, like money being the local Hungarian currency, not dollars, and signs are in Hungarian. A few signs are in English if it’s necessary for the viewer to read them, for instance, “CLEARANCE SALE”, and other such things to advance or build upon the movie’s plot.
It is a Christmas holiday flick, but that shouldn’t stop you from seeing it any day of the year. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie.
