The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

"There might be a lot we don't know about each other. You know, people seldom go to the trouble of scratching the surface of things to find the inner truth."

Director
Ernst Lubitsch

Cast
Margaret Sullavan - Klara Novak
James Stewart - Alfred Kralik
Frank Morgan - Hugo Matuschek
Joseph Schildkraut - Ferencz Vadas
Sara Haden - Flora Kaczek
Felix Bressart - Pirovitch
William Tracy - Pepi Katona

Occasionally, I see the movie "The Shop Around the Corner" listed among other holiday movies, especially on streaming apps. But it's not a holiday movie on the same level as more common classic holiday movies like "It's a Wonderful Life" even though both this and "It's a Wonderful Life" stars James Stewart. 

The story takes place in a small leathergoods store in Budapest. The owner, Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan) has a loyal staff which includes family man Pirovitch (Felix Bressart), the womanizing Ferencz Vadas (Joseph Schildkraut), saleswoman Ilona Novotny (Inez Courtney), clerk Flora Kaczek (Sara Haden) and the delivery boy Pepi Katona (William Tracy). 

Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) is perhaps his most loyal employee. He's been employed at Matuschek's shop the longest. 

Kralik has been corresponding anonymously with a lady whom he met through a newspaper advert. She's an intelligent woman, but the two haven't officially met. 

Meanwhile, tension has been slowly building suddenly between Kralik and Matuschek. It begins to boil over when Matuschek asks Kralik his opinion about selling a cigarette music box that plays "Ochi Chërnye" when it's opened. 

Matuschek thinks it'll be a popular item, but Kralik thinks it won't sell. 

After their disagreement, Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) walks in and approaches Kralik about a job. 

Kralik says there are no openings, and that Matuschek isn't looking for any new employees.

But when she manages on selling one of the cigarette boxes, Matuschek hires her on the spot. 

Meanwhile, Matuschek suspects his wife is having an affair. She's often out late at night and frequently requests money from him. 

Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart in "The Shop Around the Corner."

With Christmas on its way, Kralik and his mystery lady correspondent plan on officially meeting for the first time. 

They agree to have dinner together at a local restaurant. Unfortunately, the date is stalled when Matuschek requests all his employees stay late to help decorate the shop for Christmas. 

Later that night, he fires Kralik despite being his years of loyalty. 

This leaves the rest of the employees completely baffled. They don't know that Kralik's firing is based on Matuschek's suspicion that Kralik is fooling around with his wife, which of course isn't the case. 

When Matuschek meets up with a private investigator whom he hired to follow his wife, the investigator says he saw his wife with his other employee, Ferencz Vadas. 

Pepi comes back to the shop after hours just in the nick of time as he stops Matuschek from killing himself. 

Kralik, meanwhile, heads to the restaurant to meet his date, only to find his mystery girl is Novak. 

The realization is a letdown for him, but he decides to join her anyways under the ruse that he's there to meet up with Pirovitch. He doesn't let on that he's the mystery penpal. 

However, Novak thinks if her mystery writer sees her with Kralik, it'll ruin everything. She snaps at him, in fact, and calls him a "little insignificant clerk" before asking him to scram.
So, he scrams and makes his way to visit Matuschek who's in the hospital after his attempted suicide.
Matuschek is remorseful how he treated Kralik, apologizes, and offers him the manager position. Matuschek is also grateful to Pepi and offers him the clerk position. 

But Novak is left crestfallen as her mystery man, so she thinks, never showed up for their meeting/ date. So much so, she calls in sick to work the next day. 

Kralik pays her a visit that night after work, during which time she receives a letter from her mystery man. She even reads it to Kralik, unaware he's the guy who penned it. 

Christmas Eve rolls around, and the company holds their customary Christmas party. And that's when the beans spill. 

If the premise sounds familiar, "The Shop Around the Corner" has seen a few remakes, including the 1998 movie "You've Got Mail" with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. 

It also has the same storyline as the musical "In the Good Old Summertime" (1949) starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson. 

"The Shop Around the Corner" isn't necessarily an obscure movie, but when it comes to standard holiday movies, it's not as spoken of as other more movies stapled to Christmas. 

As for the label "Christmas movie," it's a real stretch of holiday logic to call this a Christmas movie. Personally, I think the same is true for the aforementioned "It's a Wonderful Life." In both movies, Christmas shows up sometime around the end. Perhaps it's debatable whether or not the holiday is an integral part of the story. 

As far as I'm concerned, I think the answer to what makes a film a "Christmas movie" is pretty basic. For a movie to be a Christmas movie, the holiday itself needs to support the plot. In other words, the plot is dependent upon Christmas. It's not enough for a movie to convey all those cheery Christmassy feels audiences love to wrap themselves up in around the holidays, though Christmas doesn't support the storyline. Still, people have their favorite flicks to watch around the holidays. And some of those movies happen to take place at Christmas. For a lot of people, that's all that's needed. 

Then again, the resolution seems to depend on Christmas. The reveal takes place on Christmas which adds to the charm and gives a little extra happiness to the already happy ending. Finding love may be the best Christmas gift for these characters. 

It also makes the sadness of the owner's loneliness sting a little bit more. 

There's a bit of heavy drama with Matuschek crushed at his wife cheating on him while thinking she's messing around with Kralik whom he otherwise has much appreciation and loyalty. That certainly pulls at the audience's emotions a lot more, especially as they watch his pain really eat him up. 

For a romantic comedy, the romance falls ever so gracefully and perfectly into place. The audience knows what's going to happen. Still, they want to see it blossom. The experience they're in for is Klara's reaction at the end. 

The problem with both Margaret Sullavan's and Jimmy Stewart's respective characters is that they're too in love with the prospect of being in love. And each one yucks the other's yum so to say. Only when they get over themselves, then the happy ending (or happy beginning) starts.