Rent The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Comedy Drama. - The Shop Around the Corner review by Steve

A candidate for the saddest comedy the Hollywood studios ever made. There's a classic romcom premise of a pair of quarrelling work colleagues falling in love through unwittingly being pen pals... But the whole film is immersed in a heavy melancholy. Not so much because of the attempted suicide of the pair's employer, but the sombre mood of sorrow.

The speech of the actors is slowed right down. James Stewart talks the whole film in a hushed monotone like he is hypnotised. The workers are poor and controlled by an often inconsiderate boss (he does redeem himself). Their employment in a Budapest luxury goods store doesn't bring them satisfaction, but indignity. They toil only to provide and survive.

The simple solace the workers have is the support of each other, which cannot be relied on. And the possibility that they may marry one day. It's a film about the tension between appearances and reality, which leads to misunderstanding. Stewart and Margaret Sullavan hate each other, but when they exchange their deepest thoughts by letter, they fall in love.

It's not a typical Ernst Lubitsch film. We are back in Europe, but there's no carefree innuendo or high society glamour. Its influence on Billy Wilder's The Apartment is unmissable. Without the element of comedy the feeling of despair would be unbearable. It's one of the great American films; heartfelt, captivating and unorthodox. But thank goodness for the happy ending.