Samson Raphaelson's central conceit (two secret pen-pal lovers don't realize they already know one another) was the kind of effortless movie magic that Wilder admired and turned into a career-long theme - a situation that creates emotional involvement and romantic suspense from within the characters. Raphaelson (and Wilder) were already experts at the 'meeting cute' gag: a clever way to get two lovers together for the first time. The classic example is from Bluebeard's Eighth Wife: A man and a woman are both in the men's pajama department. He sleeps only in bottoms, and she only in tops, so they buy one pair of pajamas together and split it. Almost all of Wilder's films contain an element of disguise or mistaken identity (or identities) as their main plot engine. Even his non-romances reference the meet-cute dynamics: In Sunset Boulevard William Holden pitches Nancy Olsen the script idea of teachers who share the same classroom (day school/night school) and fall in love without ever meeting.

Besides a clever concept, The Shop around the Corner goes one better by creating a world around the lovers that we really enjoy sharing. The picture created is almost a valentine to an Utopian Europe that, in 1940, Lubitsch might have feared was disappearing forever. Budapest is peaceful and prosperous, and there's harmony among the relatively humble employees of Matuschek's, even with disagreements and misunderstandings. The other clerks, especially Joseph Schildkraut, are beautifully drawn characters, and even the boss is a charmer. Rather than casting the supporting players as hicks or silly eccentrics, as in a typical Frank Capra, Lubitsch generates sympathy for each and every one of them as deserving of our full respect. All of them have personal dreams equally as valid as those of the star leads.

For instance, in the movie there's a nervy, somewhat obnoxious errand boy played by William Tracy. Instead of becoming a baddie, he becomes a hero, saving the day at one point. He turns out to be a real take-charge guy in a pinch - still nervy, exploiting the opportunity to the hilt, but a great guy just the same.

Shot with the seamless gloss of the top MGM product of the time, The Shop around the Corner isn't the kind of movie where you remember any particular visual patterns or cutting style. We're focus instead on its central relationships. People who love this film are swept up with anticipation of how the romance will unfold; we spend much of the running time knowing things the characters don't, eager for them to find out. With a sweet good humor, the picture doesn't disappoint. It's the kind of confection that appeals directly to the heart.

Taking place around Christmas time, The Shop around the Corner is a great holiday movie. For all the talk about income and selling, the overall tone of the film isn't about money - for Americans at least, all the denominations and names of the Hungarian currency mean nothing! The quaintness and formality of the little store probably demanded that the story be set in Europe: if it were set here, we'd be expecting a labor-management theme to run through it.

Warner/Turner's DVD of The Shop around the Corner is in perfect shape. The b&w image is crystal clear, and the sound is equally rich. Not to take anything away from TCM, the cable channel where most of us have seen this gem, but after the satellite transmission and the compression take their toll, TCM's signal doesn't look all that hot on a bigscreen television. I think I'd pay to subscribe if some HD TCM channel came into being.

The extras are brief and not as advertised on the box. A 1930s MGM short subject called A New Romance of Celluloid, The Miracle of Sound tells of the technical development of sound films, but mostly wants us to know, in MGM's self-important way, just how wonderful the studio is and how we should all say our prayers for it at night like good children. A text file relates the various remakes and the stage play version of the film. A nifty trailer appears for Shop in which Lubitsch himself makes a short appearance, but I couldn't find trailers for the other two remakes, even though they're listed on the back cover. Not that I wanted to see anything having to do with You've Got Mail - it was a terrible picture that somehow managed to make both Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan totally unlikeable and undeserving of favor. No Lubitsch Touch, there.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, The Shop Around the Corner rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: short subject, trailer
Packaging: Amaray case
Reviewed: October 10, 2002