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

romance comedy

99 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Jonathan White ★★★★★ 76

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 eely 🎃 ★★★★

imagine having a secret pen pal and them turning out to be jimmy stewart i would Die on the spot
Review by Cam ★★★★★ 12

Cinematic Time Capsule
1940 Marathon - Film #5
”She's expecting to meet a pretty important man...
Well, I'm in no mood to act important tonight”
The Lubitsch Touch
Watch as Lubistch creates yet another cinematic cavalcade of charm in this fairy tale of false expectations, which even he referred to as “the best picture I ever made in my life”
Margaret Sullavan and Jimmy Stewart star as a couple of bickering store clerks who also happen to be secret pen-pals of love.
Every role in this film is so well written and performed that this little shop of charm actually becomes a world all its own and one I’d be happy to spend my time in over and over again.…
Review by Patrick Willems ★★★★ 1

Wait this movie is set in BUDAPEST? Jimmy Stewart's character is HUNGARIAN???
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.
Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★ 8

Decades Project: 3/4 of the 40's
"Well I really wouldn't care to scratch your surface, Mr. Kralik, because I know exactly what I'd find. Instead of a heart, a hand-bag. Instead of a soul, a suitcase. And instead of an intellect, a cigarette lighter... which doesn't work."
Growing up in the 90's, there were a lot of bad rom-coms in my house, and while they all became increasingly grating over time, there was always something effective about You've Got Mail. Don't get me wrong, it's not a great movie, but there are these moments where Tom Hanks knows that his business rival Meg Ryan is also his secret romantic pen pal which build tension in an almost Hitchcockian way (show…
Review by Monday Seagull 6

I’m gonna say something. Nothing too crazy; just wanna declare my position on something. You likely won’t be surprised by this revelation. It’s a pretty common standpoint. A predictable opinion that many hold but not enough seem to share...
I love Jimmy Stewart.
He’s my favourite actor.
Review by Sara ★★★★★ 2

“How much is that belt in the window, the one that says $2.95?”
“$2.95......”
Review by Vanina ★★★★ 7

They don't make 'em like Jimmy Stewart anymore, do they?

Recent reviews

Review by liz ★★★½

pirovitch was the cutest little man
Review by Albert Bullock ★★★★

*sighs* "Psychologically, I'm very confused"
Review by em ★★★½

we love a good enemies to lovers story arc
Review by releach

Ceaseless charm; almost physically exhausting to take in
Review by Ziad ★★★★

I love watching classics from time to time
Loved every second
Review by x666x666x666x4 ★★★★

Crazy how all these ppl in the middle of Hungary speak perfect English with no accents.
I just don’t see frank Morgan as a well to do shop owner and I’m glad someone else didn’t either since they quickly started making him a bit of clumsy bumbler, he started off cold and smart but didn’t last too long. marge Sullivan also for some reason just kinda has a girl next door look to me but she def doesn’t act that way for long. Also marge Sullivan should ONLY ever play someone with terminal illness lol. I like her but like yeah just her voice seems even more suited to that kinda role than juney Allyson.
The ending to this is…
Review by Maaz

Cute little film. Watching a young Jimmy Stewart drop a charming performance was fascinating to see. Not a typical rom com that you would call these days, one not suffering from the usual cliches of the genre, managed to be heartwarming without being dramatic or overly sentimental & was nice that they gave other little subplots decent amount of screentime to shine too.
"Well she just didn't want to grow old with me"
Review by dudley_98 ★★★½

Most spoken word in this movie: "Matuscheck." Or "Kralik."
Based off a play which was what You've Got Mail was based off of. I liked it considerably more than that Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan flick, and it was a delightful little love story.
The actors do a really great job here. Jimmy Stewart is as good as ever, and so is everyone else.
Overall, I guess I don't have too much to say, but it's a nice film that I enjoyed a lot.

3.5/5; Worth Your Time
Review by melissanilen ★★★★

So chill so cool i love it
Review by Cate ★★★★★

- Well... you treated me like a dog.
- Yes, but instead of licking my hand, you barked.
Beyond charming, every character is a joy, and it's so bewitchingly tender and fragile at times? Magic.
Review by Woojin ★★½

장신의 제임스 스튜어트는 진짜 전설이다..
Review by a_reel_girl ★★★★

Jimmy Stewart makes me all sorts of psychologically confused.