\u201cThe Shop Around the Corner\u201d is an MGM movie starring Jimmy Stewart that combines elements of comedy, drama and romance to tell the story of a retail store in Budapest, Hungary called Matuschek and Company.\u00a0 Mr. Matuschek, played by Frank Morgan is the owner of a leather goods store that is struggling to survive at the end of the Great Depression.\u00a0 Matuschek is enthusiastic, self-important and comically hot-headed.<\/p>\n
His lead salesman is Alfred Kralik, played by Stewart.\u00a0 Kralik is intelligent, earnest and falling in love with a woman he\u2019s never met.\u00a0 He\u2019s in an anonymous pen-pal relationship with a woman that he knows simply as \u201cdear friend.\u201d\u00a0 As it turns out dear friend also happens to be his co-worker Klara Novak, played by Margaret Sullavan.\u00a0 But in their real life Kralik and Klara detest each other.\u00a0 In addition to this comedy of errors love\/hate relationship, there are other characters and other sub-plots.\u00a0 Kralik\u2019s closest friend at the shop is Mr. Pirovitch played in a wonderfully comic turn by Felix Bressart.\u00a0 Pirovitch is Mr. Matuschek\u2019s favorite whipping boy.\u00a0 His favorite statement is \u201cPirovitch you\u2019re an idiot.\u201d\u00a0 To which the meek Pirovitch replies, \u201cYes, Mr. Matuschek, I\u2019m an idiot.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is Ferencz Vadas, another of the sales clerks, played with enormous pomposity and self-regard by Joseph Schildkraut.\u00a0 And finally, there is the errand boy Pepi Katona who snipes sarcastically at all his superiors and ends up as the hero of the second plot line.\u00a0 For along with the romance there is a drama.\u00a0 Mr. Matuschek has become aware of the fact that his wife is having an affair and he believes it is with one of his employees.\u00a0 And since Kralik has had the most opportunity to meet Mrs. Matuschek he is the prime suspect.\u00a0 So, whereas formerly Matuschek treated Kralik almost as a son now he hates and distrusts him.\u00a0 After goading Kralik into anger, Matuschek discharges him.\u00a0 But when the private detectives finish their investigation, they name Mr. Vadas as Matuschek\u2019s rival.\u00a0 With his life in shambles Matuschek attempts to end it all with a pistol.\u00a0 But in the nick of time Pepi breaks in on his suicide and hands Matuschek over to the hospital for psychiatric observation.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Kralik discovers that on top of being fired his \u201cdear friend\u201d is Klara Novak.\u00a0 He finds this out when he is supposed to be meeting her at a caf\u00e9 with each of them wearing a carnation.\u00a0 Spying Klara\u2019s carnation from outside he throws away his carnation and pretends that he was just stopping at the caf\u00e9 to meet Pirovitch.\u00a0 Klara accuses him of trying to spoil her prospective date, insults him and finishes by calling him an insignificant clerk.\u00a0 After this he leaves in complete dejection and misery.<\/p>\n
But in the next act Matuschek calls Kralik to his hospital bed to apologize for his terrible treatment and to beg him to come back and manage the store while Matuschek recuperates from his nervous breakdown.\u00a0 Even Pepi is rewarded for saving Mr. Matuschek by becoming a salesman.\u00a0 Now with roles reversed Klara is dejected because her date never showed up and on top of that she finds that the man she insulted is now her boss.\u00a0 But all ends well.\u00a0 Kralik fires the despicable Vadas in royal fashion.\u00a0 The store has a stellar Christmas sales total and Mr. Matuschek returns in time to give everyone a wonderful bonus.\u00a0 And finally, the lovers are re-united.\u00a0 But first Kralik has some fun with Klara by pretending that he had met her \u201cdear friend\u201d and he was fat, bald, old, and a greedy fraud.\u00a0 When Klara finally discovers that Kralik is her \u201cdear friend\u201d she is relieved and happy.<\/p>\n
This is a relatively silly story.\u00a0 But the dialogue and the acting are remarkably good.\u00a0 Even the minor parts are played skillfully and with great comic verve.\u00a0 There is great heart here.\u00a0 And the humanity of all the characters, even the villainous Vadas feels very real.\u00a0 You believe the story.\u00a0 There is a Dickensian feel to the production.\u00a0 I highly recommend this story to everyone.\u00a0 It\u2019s a gem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThe Shop Around the Corner\u201d is an MGM movie starring Jimmy Stewart that combines elements of comedy, drama and romance to tell the story of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,238,237],"tags":[3208,3206,1228,3207,43,191,38,1355,3209],"class_list":["post-15445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-classic-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-felix-bressart","tag-frank-morgan","tag-jimmy-stewart","tag-joseph-schildkraut","tag-movie-review","tag-ocf-classic-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-the-shop-around-the-corner"],"yoast_head":"\n