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The Shop Around the Corner
1940 99 min United States of America 12+
★8.4
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
🎭 Based on
«Parfumerie»
byMiklós László
Trailers
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Teaser
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Description
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
Budget:
$500,000
Starring
Margaret Sullavan
Actor
James Stewart
Actor
Frank Morgan
Actor
Awards
7 wins total
Key opinion
The Shop Around the Corner is widely celebrated as a masterful, timeless romantic comedy that balances lighthearted charm with psychological depth. Critics and audiences alike praise Ernst Lubitsch’s elegant direction and the nuanced performances of James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, which anchor the film's enduring appeal.
| Acting | The performances of James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan are widely regarded as quintessential, grounding the film's romantic tension with authenticity and emotive precision. | |
| Direction | Ernst Lubitsch’s direction is lauded for its elegance, thematic subtlety, and ability to weave a cozy, atmospheric "chamber piece" that avoids the need for heavy-handed moralizing. | |
| Screenplay | The screenplay is praised for its sophisticated, witty dialogue and its clever subversion of romantic tropes through the interplay of anonymity and real-world rivalry. | |
| Theme | The film’s portrayal of character dynamics offers profound thematic depth, with some viewers finding that the overt hostility between the leads serves as a complex, realistic expression of burgeoning intimacy. | |
| Pacing | While most viewers find the narrative construction superb and tightly knit, some critics note that the subplot involving the shop owner feels unnecessarily drawn out. |