Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Excellent, a Must See

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The perfect film for Christmas. for its nuances. for charming performances. for James Steward in his special way to build the role. for family atmosphere. for the small detail than, each you see it, it seems different. the motif - it is one of films who could be defined as ...perfect. the atmosphere, the story, the Capra flavour, the science to use each actor in the best manner for create a small universe, far to be perfect, but seductive, nice and lovely. a film about love and essence of love. beautiful. or just admirable.

The plot of this movie is charming, yes, though of course you know from the very beginning how it will end and just wait to see how the two main characters get there.But to me the real magic of this movie is in the small, perfect moments of acting, primarily by Stewart and Morgan.Stewart can convey with just the slightest change of his face, or a hushed, half-breathed voice more deep feeling than others try to express with endless yelling and flailing of arms. There are moments in the movie, such as when Clara insults him during their meeting in the café, or when he visits Matachek in the hospital - the most moving scene in the movie for me - when I just marvel at the understated quality of his acting.The same is true of Morgan. We think of him as the Wizard of Oz, and he was great in that movie. But he was not all big gestures and exaggeration. When he faces the infidelity of his wife, and then has to apologize to Stewart for suspecting him of having an affair with his wife, or at the end when he is desperate to find someone to spend Christmas Eve with, now that he finds himself without a family to go home to, the understated perfection of his acting is really very impressive. If you have ever seen him in *Port of Seven Seas*, based on Marcel Pagnol's *Marcel* and *Fanny* plays, this won't come as any surprise to you.In 1940, when this movie was made and released, Hungary was still an independent nation, though moving closer to Germany and Italy and passing several anti-Semitic laws. (Felix Bressart, who plays Pirovitch here, would play the Jewish actor Greenberg two years later in *To Be or Not to Be* and, in his riff on Shylock's speech, enter into cinematic history.) The next year Hungary would enter World War II on the German side against Russia. But in this movie, Budapest is still a charming Eastern European city where people care about each other and everything looks warm and wonderful under the falling snowflakes.If you ever feel a need to watch great actors make miracles out of small moments, watch this. You will be amazed.

The Shop Around the Corner (1940): Dir: Ernst Lubitsch / Cast: James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut, William Tracy: Delightful romantic comedy that sometimes surrenders to jerking us around, but often times it is relentlessly charming. The action centres around a small shop where James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan star as employees who are unknowingly pen pals. Frank Morgan plays the shop owner who wants everything in tip top shape for Christmas. Director Ernst Lubitsch does a fine job at presenting relationships within an ordinary corner shop, but the film has tremendous depth as well. Stewart is terrific as someone who has mastered the shop and maintained its order but a misunderstanding results in his firing. Sullavan plays the female counter part who regrets the actions against Stewart despite their disagreements. Morgan steals his moments as he learns to take a closer look at life in the shop and demonstrate benefits to those of hard work. Joseph Schildkraut plays the film's villain whose tactics lead to the one act of violence where he is sacked in the jaw. William Tracy plays a young delivery boy who frequents the shop and eventually prevents a tragedy. While the ending is corny, the film's presentation of the characters through the walls of this little shop make for an interesting observation of those of us who must tolerate one another through eight hour periods. Score: 8 / 10

It's too bad that more of Miklós László's plays haven't been translated into English. The few that are from the Hungarian-born playwright have made wonderful plays and films. One has been copied and revised a number of times for Broadway production, TV musicals and films. "The Shop Around the Corner" is the original film version, true to the setting. The most recent that modern audiences will recognize is "You've Got Mail" from 1998. Billed as a comedy first, this movie shows us a slice of life of working people in 1930s Budapest, Hungary. Europe was also a part of the worldwide depression that had begun in the U.S. Even as the economies began to improve, jobs were scarce and hard to come by. That sets the stage for this story that has a wonderful mix of light comedy with romance and drama. It's a very good study of people. The entire cast shine in this movie. James Stewart as Mr. Kralik and Margaret Sullavan as Miss Novak play off each other splendidly. Sullavan especially does a wonderful job as Novak subtly comes around after noticing the changes in Kralik. Felix Bressart is perfect as Pirovitch. This wonderful supporting actor had a fine career in film before he died at age 57 from leukemia. Frank Morgan's performance as Mr. Matuschek is also worth noting. He portrayed a worrisome man with something on his mind exceptionally well. As I watched this movie again recently, I remember being curious about the monetary units in the story. We see the cash register tills ring up pengos, and Matuschek talks about the how many pengos they take in. I was a stamp collector for years growing up, and got to know a lot of world geography and other things from those stamps. Among them were monetary systems, capitals, famous historical figures, etc. For instance, I knew that Magyar referred to an area and people of Hungary, and I had stamps in denominations of korona. But the pengo had me stumped, so I just looked it up. The pengo replaced the korona as the basic monetary unit of Hungary from 1927 to 1946, when it was replaced by the forint. It was the equivalent of 100 fillers, making it similar to the U.S. dollar as the form of currency. Encyclopedias explain that the pengo was part of the stabilization program for Europe following WW I. It lasted only 20 years and apparently had the worst hyperinflation of all time. I don't know what the value of the pengo was in U.S. dollars then. The Hungarian Florint for several years now has ranged between one-third and one-half a U.S. cent. At the time this film was made, the pengo was issued only in denominations of 10-, 5- and 2-pengo bills. Minted coins included 1, 2, 10, 20 and 50 filler, and three in pengo amounts of 1, 2 and 5. The front of the 10-pengo bill had a picture of Mary holding the baby Jesus on the left, and a female model bust on the right. The reverse had the picture of a statue of King Stephen astride a horse. The story takes place around the holiday season. "Shop Around the Corner" makes a nice film to add to one's Christmas collection for annual viewing.