The Shop Around the Corner is a suave, dancy, and subliminal film about loving and working, primarily following Hungarian general store Matuschek and Company employee Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) as he does in fact love and work. As the oldest employee at the store, he’s allotted more responsibilities than his co-workers, and is treated more like a son by store owner Mr. Matuschek (Frank Morgan) himself. Because of the store, he lacks time for much else, including romance. Thus he signs up for an anonymous romantic pen pal program, and quickly becomes infatuated with a mysterious woman who shares his undisclosed intellect. Around the same time, a chippy new employee named Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) persuades her way into a job, demonstrating how easily she finesses customers into buying junk. Miss Novak and Mr. Kralik butt heard; they fight, they feud, they insult. But unfortunately for Mr. Kralik, Miss Novak is actually his mysterious lover. Mr. Kralik must simultaneously upkeep his secret relationship with Miss Novak, steady their (and her unacknowledgably) separate working lives, and maintain his own work ethic to keep his boss happy—or else he’ll be out of a professional and personal life.

Life is about balance. If you’re lucky enough, you have a job, a partner, friends, family, hobbies, etc., etc. If you’re even luckier, you’re emotionally stable or aware enough to keep these routines relatively unchanged—making your life one of reliability. But why keep all these things separate? Shop demonstrates the relaxed reality that could come with blending these components. In Mr. Matuschek’s store, the employees are friends as well as co-workers; they gossip, confide, laugh, and cry together. For example, Mr. Kralik’s companion and second longest store employee, Pirovitch (Felix Bressart), is both a friend and mentor to Kralik and others. When Mr. Kralik decided to go on his first date with Miss Novak, he brings Pirovitch for his marriage advice and for him to confirm Kralik’s date’s identity and beauty. Miss Novak later comes to him asking for advice about what to get men for holidays, to which he tells her a wallet after Kralik said something similar when he was asked—“you’ll get your wallet,” Pirovitch tells Mr. Kralik after the Miss Novak encounter. In their own ways, each employee helps the others as more than just acquaintances, solidifying their relationships in what’s usually seen as a work-only environment.

Another example of this is Mr. Matuschek’s relationship with everyone. While he is their boss—even firing Mr. Kralik, falsely accusing him of an affair with his off-screen wife Mrs. Matuschek—he’s more like a father. He treats everyone pretty fairly, making what’re basically dad-situational-jokes in his sales pitches, such as when he rambles for 10 minutes early on about some Russian classical music playing cigar boxes. He even tells Mr. Kralik directly that “you must know you’re more like a son. How could I have hated you…” while on his almost-death bed, rehiring and making Mr. Kralik manager more because of their personal bond than Mr. Kralik’s workmanship (though that isn’t half bad either). By indirectly treating his employees as his work children, the store becomes their home, and their work their lives—a blended reality where you can live and find bits of joy at the same time.

The film’s most significant problem is actually Mr. Kralik and Miss Novak’s relationship. While the writing is classic ‘40s snip-snap, especially as the romantic duo feuds, and their dynamic is generally enticing, it’s a bit silly. Mr. Kralik learns early on that his mystery woman is Miss Novak, but he doesn’t tell her; he seems to test her and their dynamic to see if it will naturally bud. It doesn’t, and viewers know that about two scenes in. It’s frustrating to watch Kralik coyly toy her, because everything could change so easily if he were to just say—as it does by Shop’s end. There’s also no conversation on the murkiness of their romance despite his later being her literal boss; it’s either completely forgotten and swept aside or wasn’t thought of to begin with (and it should’ve been!). It feels unrealistic, and while the pair is charming when fighting, it doesn’t feel earned once Kralik learns Novak’s true connection to him. Overall, though, The Shop Around the Corner is a funny, lighthearted, complex, and fairly slick display of how life can be. For James Stewart fans, Margaret Sullivan fans, old flick enthusiasts and those looking for something old but fresh, there’s a lot to buy in Shop.

Screens Monday, 12/16, 7:00 pm @ Coolidge Corner Theatre
Part of the ongoing repertory series: Big Screen Classics