Last week
we drew attention to the fact that one of our very own was about to make his debut on nation television when frequent Poseidon's Underworld visitor and commenter Gingerguy was selected as one of TCM's Fan 25 winners, with the opportunity to introduce and dedicate one of his favorite films. He selected 1940's
The Shop Around the Corner, dedicated to his partner who was shown onscreen in a snapshot, though his family was also featured as classic movies were and are a facet of their lives.
I almost didn't get to see this broadcast even with the DVR set because we happened to experience hellacious storms that evening right as the airtime was approaching! My satellite was out for a fair amount of time, but thankfully fell back into place before the program began. Anyway, it was neat to see TCM host Ben Mankiewicz interacting with someone who - while we have never met - I feel I know thanks to interaction on this site as well as occasional personal correspondence via e-mail.
The merits of the film along with the circum- stances that lead to it having personal meaning in his lifer were discussed in a genial, thoughtful manner. He and Ben established a nice conversational rapport with one another. For his part, Ben has ably stepped up to the (huge!) plate in the wake of beloved Robert Osborne's passing. No one will ever surpass Osborne, but Mankiewicz does a very fine job.
As I noted in the earlier post, I myself had never seen
The Shop Around the Corner. To be perfectly honest, I have long avoided movies featuring Margaret Sullavan. Somehow I just felt I would not enjoy her brand of acting, possibly due to her vague resemblance (with modified pageboy hair and a throaty speaking voice) to one June Allyson, who is often a challenge for me to watch. While I can't say she's now a favorite and I will rush to see all her work, I did appreciate her performance here. But from the picture above-right can you understand my confusion?
The story primarily takes place in a Budepest, Hungary leather goods shop. We're introduced to the cast early on which includes, from left to right, Joseph Schildkraut as a dandified employee, James Stewart as the longest tenured clerk, Felix Bressart as a meek fellow worker, William Tracy as a delivery boy, Inez Courtney as the younger of two female coworkers, Frank Morgan as the sometimes imperious owner and Sara Haden as the prim, older female saleswoman. Their world, particularly Stewart's, is about to be altered by the arrival of Ms. Sullavan.
She weasels her way into the shop and, even after being told that there is no job for her, proceeds to sell merchan- dise to a lady customer and as a result is hired. She and Stewart take an almost immediate dislike to one another, a situation that gets worse before it gets better.
However, unbe- knownst to either of them, they are exchanging thoughtful, romantic letters with one another, arranged through a classified ad in a local paper and handled through anonymous post office boxes. The deeper they fall in love via their inspiration missives, the more their loathing of one another continues at work.
A subplot concerns the store owner Morgan undergoing a personal crisis which threatens to escalate to the point of deadliness. See here with him is the expensively-appointed Schildkraut, in clothing and accessories that likely outweigh his ability to pay for them with his limited salary. Having known this actor principally as Anne Frank's father in the 1959 adaptation of
The Diary of Anne Frank, it was fascinating to see him in this guise.
The film is many things (I sold it short in the first post by describing it as a "romantic comedy" - that term, since shortened for today's audiences as "romcom," doesn't do the movie full justice.) Considered by many to be one of the all-time great movies (it is in the Top 100 of AFI's list of classic romances and Time Magazine listed it as an all-around Top 100 film), it was unbelievably shut out of any and all Oscar consideration.
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| Stewart did, however, win a Best Actor Oscar that year for The Philadelphia Story. |
If nothing else (such as Art Direction, Direction or Adapted Screenplay) could have been nominated, the very least that the movie warranted was a Best Supporting Actor nod for
Frank Morgan. I'm on record as adoring him and his particular brand of befuddled antagonism mixed with touching sentiment, but this time he truly outdid himself. He was my favorite part of the movie.
But the MOST extra- ordinary thing for me about the motion picture was the use of silence and/or ambient sound without the "benefit" of too much scoring. There is precious little music in the movie apart from the delightful music box sound of the Russian folk song "Ochi Tchornya (Dark Eyes.)" Scenes like the one shown here are stunning in their quietness, wherein you can hear Stewart laying a small notebook and pencils on a cloth-covered display table and even hear him place a small key on top. The effect is incredible.
Today's movies and TV shows are mind-numbingly over-scored, with fanciful, "atmos- pheric" music endlessly droning on under any and all scenes as if to telegraph the required emotions to the viewer which the performers and script are not able to muster on their own. No such trouble here...
Stewart, who is incredibly charming in this, was selected by director Ernst Lubitsch because he was "the antithesis of the old-time matinee idol; he holds his public by his very lack of a handsome face or suave manner." Though Sullavan is top-billed and was at the time the bigger star, it is to me Stewart's story. Despite Lubitsch's assessment of his (non!) appeal, he was quite a ladykiller in his day. He practically owed his film career to Sullavan, however. She was his friend from early days in the theatre and the wife of his close friend Henry Fonda and she not only campaigned for him to star opposite her during his earliest days in Hollywood, but worked with him to develop his own unique talents as a actor. (And at thirteen inches taller than her, he was able to afford her flattering close-ups as her face and neck were drawn upwards towards his.)
It was so awesome to feel a certain level of personal investment in this airing of the movie and a rewarding experience to finally get around to watching it. Thanks, Gingerguy, for helping to present it and congratulations on being selected as one of the winners of this contest! I'm gonna have to "up my game" and get my own face on there one of these days! Ha ha!
