The Shop Around the Corner

1940 Directed by Ernst Lubitsch

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.

Margaret Sullavan James Stewart Frank Morgan Joseph Schildkraut Sara Haden Felix Bressart William Tracy Inez Courtney Sarah Edwards Edwin Maxwell Charles Halton Charles Smith Charles Arnt Joan Blair Mary Carr Mabel Colcord Claire Du Brey William Edmunds Grace Hayle Mira McKinney Sol Murgi Renie Riano Gertrude Simpson Ruth Warren

Alternative Titles

Het winkeltje om den hoek, A Loja da Esquina, Rendezvous nach Ladenschluß, Den lille butik, El Bazar de las sorpresas, Kauppa kulman takana, Rendez-vous, To magazi tis gonias, Saroküzlet, Scrivimi fermo posta, Магазинчик за углом

drama comedy romance

99 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Jonathan White ★★★★★ 77

I met my wife, Lise, through correspondence. Over 100 pages of e.mails through the entire month of August, 1999, before we finally met up on August 31st.
After our first perfunctory exchanges about who we were and what we liked, .. me: bands, biking, mixtapes and movies … Lise: bookcases, throw pillows, dogs and cats, and, amongst a list much longer than mine … ‘talking about movies’. Bingo.
Our next set of letters was all about the movies.
My top 10:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Doctor Zhivago
Dr. Strangelove
The Graduate
Brazil
The Deer Hunter
Blood Simple
Raising Arisona
Smash Palace
The Great Santini
One From the Heart
Bonus pick – Joe Versus the Volcano
Lise’s Top 10:
The Vanishing…
Review by Jake Cole ★★★★★

So perfectly constructed it can be easy to initially overlook its feeling of spontaneity and human interaction. Even a suicide attempt, framed indirectly by the pop of a light bulb, plays less as black comedy than an impossibly optimistic show of human empathy and interdependence. That its revelation of lovers' identities to each other occurs after all the bright lights have been turned off around them seems so fitting for a film that subtly inverts everything you expect while producing a paragon of generic entertainment.
Review by Lise ★★★★★ 13

I went into screenwriter mode about 30 minutes into the film. I could predict where it was going and how it was going to get there. I was enjoying it, but I knew where it was headed.
Ha!
HA! I said.
I've never been so happy to be so wrong, and JHC was I proved wrong. Every friggin' 10 minutes Lubitsch and the screenwriter and the playwright were giving me the middle finger salute and I was loving it. The writing would come at me sideways, I would adjust my expectations and then get hit from the other side 10 minutes later. On and on it went, and I was lapping it up laughing out loud with a smile wider…
Review by Rida ★★★★★ 8

Jimmy Stewart is perfect.
Review by Jacob ★★★★★

Thrilled to have witnessed this and know it will live on in my heart forever. The cleverness lays not in the unpredictability, as it's not difficult to imagine the conclusion, but rather how effectively it uses dramatic irony. The Shop Around the Corner is an adorable, silly little story with fun characters and great, great jokes. This didn't just make me laugh; it made me hold a pillow to my chest and giggle. Highly recommend this to anyone who loves to have fun.
Review by Ian West ★★★★★

Like many households (I assume), we have a small tv in our kitchen, you know.. the one you have in doing dishes or meal prep or late night foraging... oddly enough it’s the only non hd tv in our house at this point (my old clunker in the basement kicked the bucket this past summer). It’s super small and has an old dial that many of you will remember clicking back and fourth. Anyway, while helping out my folks prepare stuff for tonight and tomorrow, this was spotted on cable and we all ended up standing there, huddled together, accomplishing zero work, and being utterly charmed by The Shop Around the Corner. What a wonderful little moment and wonderful little movie to get wrapped up in.

Recent reviews

Review by Lance Grabmiller ★★½

A cute early James Stewart romantic comedy with the Wizard of Oz as the boss.
Review by maxine ★★★★

so wholesome :')
Review by nikita0 ★★★★

very cute! what an adorable story! i want the best for these two!
Review by Royce Yun ★★★★½

Streamed via Criterion Channel
Klara: All my knowledge came from books, and I'd just finished a novel about a glamorous French actress from the Comedie Francaise. That's the theater in France. When she wanted to arouse a man's interest, she treated him like a dog.
Kralik: Yes, well, you treated me like a dog.
Klara: Yes, but instead of licking my hand, you barked.
Classic story that was well-told, all the characters developed smoothly, and the comedic breaks were humorously charming. What's not to like about this film? I'd love to revisit one day when there's a proper bluray release of it.
I didn't get why this story had to be set in Budapest, Hungary, so I found this interesting…
Review by mfl134 ★★★★★

Lubitsch really might just be my favorite director. I love everything I watch from him.
Review by Amir Soltani ★★★★★

This is my ultimate comfort film, a charming, funny and heartfelt film that cuts deep with intelligent observations on solitude, romance and marriage all while appearing sprightly and endlessly entertaining.
Review by alison 🐺 ★★★★

someone remake this but instead of pen pals they’re twitter mutuals
Review by false10 ★★★

Some lively direction and charming performances, but I like my rom-com plots less generic and the humour more audacious.
Review by Isaac Owens ★★★★

Has there ever been anyone as romantic as Jimmy Stewart??
[Criterion Channel]

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