A few weeks ago, I bought this holiday movie set on Amazon. I mostly bought it because I wanted "Christmas on Connecticut." But it includes three other holiday movies. You can't beat four movies for $12. Especially when one of them is "The Shop Around the Corner."
"The Shop Around the Corner" is the sweetest movie! Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan star as coworkers in a small Hungarian shop who cannot stand each other. They are both writing to and falling in love with their secret penpals, not knowing that they are actually writing to each other.
If this sounds a little familiar, here's why. This movie was made in 1940. It was remade as a musical, "In the Good Old Summertime," in 1949, starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson. I'll be posting another review of that one soon. :) Then it was remade again in 1998 as "You've Got Mail."
When I first started watching this movie, I was thinking that I might be a little disappointed with it, that it wouldn't be as good as "In the Good Old Summertime," despite the fact that this one is the original. But it just got better as it went along. It was such a sweet, funny movie, but it definitely had a slightly darker tone than the cheerful musical remake. I don't want to give anything away about how it's different, but it mostly revolves around the shopkeeper. Some parts were the same word for word from both movies. The shopkeeper, incidentally, is played by Frank Morgan, aka the Wizard of Oz. Jimmy Stewart is perfect as usual, and Margaret Sullavan pairs up nicely with him. William Tracy was a real highlight as Pepi, the pompous, hilarious delivery boy-turned clerk. (You might recognize him from the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney musical "Strike Up the Band.")
In other words, highly recommended! For anyone, but especially if you've already seen "In the Good Old Summertime" or "You've Got Mail." Or if you're a Jimmy Stewart fan. Again, this isn't strictly a "Christmas movie," but most (if not all) of it takes place during the Christmas season.
Until next time,
Kristin, I received the hoop art in the mail today! It is just lovely, thank you so much! I love it!
ReplyDeleteI love all three versions of this story. Jimmy Stewart is just adorable in "Shop," isn't he? *sigh* So happy it's that time of year for me to start breaking out this and other Christmas-y DVDs.