The Shop Around the Corner
The Shop Around the Corner is a 1940 American romantic comedy-drama film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, and Joseph Schildkraut. The screenplay by Samson Raphaelson is based on the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László. The film is about two employees at a leather goods shop in pre-war Budapest who can barely stand each other, not realizing they are falling in love as anonymous correspondents through their letters. It follows social themes associated with the lives of the middle class. Though the film did not do well at the box office, it was met with generally positive reviews from film critics. It has since been adapted into three productions. In 1999 The Shop Around the Corner was selected with 24 other films to be included in the National Film Registry. It is also included in the top 100 movies selected by Time magazine.
Plot
During the Great Depression, Alfred Kralik is the top salesman at Matuschek and Company, a leathergoods shop in Budapest owned by the high-strung Mr. Hugo Matuschek. Kralik's co-workers include his friend, Pirovitch, a kindly family man; Ferencz Vadas, a two-faced womanizer; saleswoman Ilona Novotny; clerk Flora Kaczek; and Pepi Katona, an ambitious, precocious delivery boy. One morning, Kralik reveals to Pirovitch that he has been corresponding anonymously with an intelligent and cultured woman whose ad he came across in the newspaper. Kralik responded to the ad, wanting to increase his knowledge about culture. As they correspond, they agree to withhold details about their personal lives.Kralik is Mr. Matuschek's oldest and most trusted employee, but tension starts arising between the two. They get into an argument over Mr. Matuschek's idea to sell a cigarette box that plays "Ochi Chërnye" when opened. After their exchange, Klara Novak enters the gift shop looking for a job. Kralik and Mr. Matuschek tell her there are no openings, but when she is able to sell one of the cigarette boxes as a candy box, Mr. Matuschek hires her. However, she and Kralik do not get along. Mr. Matuschek is becoming irritable because he suspects his wife is having an affair, as she stays out late and requests money from him.
Six months later, as Christmas approaches, Kralik is preparing to meet his mystery correspondent for a dinner date. On that day, Mr. Matuschek suddenly demands that everyone stay after work to decorate the shop. Kralik asks to speak with Matuschek in his office and requests the night off. Mr. Matuschek becomes angry, and Kralik implies that he is willing to leave his job. Novak also asks to have the night off, which further infuriates Matuschek. Now, Mr. Matuschek calls Kralik to his office and fires him, giving him one month's pay and a letter of recommendation. No one in the shop understands Mr. Matuschek's actions are related to his suspicions that Kralik is having an affair with his wife. Later, Mr. Matuschek meets with a private investigator who informs him that his wife is having an affair with Vadas, not Kralik. Shocked, Matuschek says, almost to himself, that he was married for 22 years to his wife and proud of her, but "I guess she didn't want to grow old with me." Later, Pepi returns to the shop just in time to prevent Mr. Matuschek from committing suicide by shooting himself.
Meanwhile, Kralik arrives at the Cafe Nizza, where he discovers that his mystery woman is Novak. Despite his disappointment, Kralik goes in and talks with her, pretending he is there to meet Pirovitch. In his mind, Kralik tries to reconcile the cultured woman of his letters with his annoying co-worker, secretly hoping that things might work out with her. Concerned that Kralik's presence will spoil her first meeting with her mystery correspondent, she conducts a continuously abrasive conversation with Kralik, finally calling him a "little insignificant clerk." Deeply insulted, Kralik leaves.
Later that night, Kralik goes to the hospital to visit Mr. Matuschek, who apologizes for suspecting him of having an affair with his wife before offering him a job as manager of Matuschek and Company. Grateful to Pepi for saving his life, Mr. Matuschek promotes him to clerk. The next day, Novak calls in sick after her mystery man failed to show, and at Mr. Matuschek's behest, Kralik fires Vadas. That night, when Kralik visits Novak at her apartment, she receives a letter from her correspondent and reads it in front of Kralik, who wrote the letter.
Two weeks later, on Christmas Eve, Matuschek and Company achieves record sales. Kralik and Novak, alone in the shop as they close up, discuss their planned dates for the evening. Novak reveals that she had a crush on Kralik when they first met. She explains that she was initially irritable with him in an effort to pique his interest in her. After pretending to have met Novak's mystery man, Kralik describes him in unflattering terms. When Novak expresses her disappointment, Kralik quotes one of her letters and places a red carnation in his lapel, revealing to her that he is her mystery correspondent. They embrace and kiss.
Cast
Production
Development
purchased the rights to Miklós László's play Parfumerie in 1938. According to Variety, Lubitsch initially planned to create a film adaptation of the play working with Myron Selznick. After Steffie Trondle translated the play into English, Lubitsch worked with screenwriter Samson Raphaelson to write the script from 1938 to 1939. Lubitsch considered it “the best script I have had in a long time in my hands”. Selznick proved unable to fund the production, so the filmmakers turned to other methods. Lubitsch and Selznick pitched the film to Paramount, among other studios, but none were interested in producing it. At the time Hollywood was still hesitant to produce films about the middle class. Studios were also not interested in working with Lubitsch. When Lubitsch's plan did not come to fruition, he decided to work on it after joining MGM. Before he joined MGM, the studio had purchased the rights to the film from him for $62,500. MGM wanted him to produce and direct Ninotchka, to which he agreed on the condition that he also produce and direct The Shop Around the Corner. The studio agreed on the condition that Ninotchka be produced first and assigned a low production budget to The Shop Around the Corner, which meant that the film's screenwriter Samson Raphaelson received a lower salary than usual. In an interview Raphaelson commented that the story was substantially dialogue-based but felt that it did not threaten the film's overall quality. He also claimed that, while the film was based on the play, it was vastly different. In his own words, Lubitsch felt that none of his preceding films had "atmosphere and...characters were truer than in this picture".Casting and production
and Janet Gaynor were each at one point attached to the film before Margaret Sullavan was cast in the lead role alongside James Stewart; neither was available at the time that production was originally set to begin, so Lubitsch decided to postpone the start date. Sullavan and Stewart had worked together before in leading roles. Lubitsch chose to cast Sullavan because he decided the plotline was too risky to use an actress who was less-known. His worries stemmed from thinking audiences might not find the plot interesting enough to watch it. Years later Lubitsch remarked that Sullavan and Stewart worked well together and did not try to out-do each other in their acting. Lubitsch called Sullavan "a tonic for the cast" because of her playfulness between scenes. Raphaelson commented that Stewart's portrayal of Kralik "is one of the great performances in film history". Stewart remarked, "It was wonderful to work with . He had such great style and an inspiring sort of comic touch."Several weeks before filming began, Henry Nordlinger researched leather goods shops so the one in the film could be an accurate portrayal. Lubitsch decided the studio should use "real snow" for the Christmas Eve scenes instead of using fake snow. As a result, thirty tons of ice were shaved to create the effect. Filming began on November 2, 1939, the day after James Stewart completed work on Destry Rides Again. The scenes were shot in the order as they appear. In total, filming took about a month. The final cost was $474,000.