Lubitsh's Shope Around the Corner shows what Hollyood could achieve - and ignore

Ernst Lubitsch's 1940 film, The Shop Around the Corner, a Hollywood studio comedy-drama based on a Hungarian play an set in Hungary ca 1930 or so is obviously dated but still worth watching of for nothing else for the fantastic first "reel," in which EL brilliantly establishes the culture of 6 employees and an irascible boss in a little high-end gift shop on a busy city street - a world of employee loyalty and dependence, of personal shopping and retail commerce that was probably already near extinction, at least in the U.S., at the time of filming - and with a special poignancy added by the European setting, as that world was already under siege and about to change forever - although there are no elements that reference or even foreshadow then-contemporary unease in Europe and the world. EL - known for what has been called the Lubitsch Touch - uses great camera angles and fluid motion, terrific period settings (right down to the luggage and leather goods in the showroom, the dreary back rooms where the staff congregate, the filigreed cash register itself a monument to commerce long gone, and in later scenes a gemutlich coffee house w/ a live band of all things. The action is crisp, the dialog entertaining and even LOL funny, and the characters quickly established, most notably Jimmy Steward and Margaret Sullivan as a Benedick-Beatrice romantic couple who despise each other until they discover their love. OK, but after the first hour or so every viewer in the world can see exactly where the drama is headed - and eventually I didn't care to see how EL unwinds all the strands and I turned it off 20 minutes shy of the ending and I don't think I missed a thing. It's a great piece of craftsmanship, some fine and funny acting among the leads and among the various "types" that work at the store, but overall it's a period piece and a curiosity, worth watching, at least up to a point: It shows us what Hollywood (esp the refugee directors) could achieve, as well as what they could ignore.