tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622159271440854440.post4835545951515033787..comments2024-03-06T15:05:52.856-06:00Comments on 1001: A FILM ODYSSEY: THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940)1001: A Film Odyssey is produced, directed and written by Chris, a librarian.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04803620768028761898noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622159271440854440.post-66010766250116933702017-08-07T15:07:51.903-05:002017-08-07T15:07:51.903-05:00Thank you for all of your insights! I think I may ...Thank you for all of your insights! I think I may also put this film aside to show at the library around Christmas when I'm looking for something older with a holiday theme that isn't really one of the standard classics.1001: A Film Odyssey is produced, directed and written by Chris, a librarian.https://www.blogger.com/profile/04803620768028761898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622159271440854440.post-77682491800904964442017-08-04T18:45:27.219-05:002017-08-04T18:45:27.219-05:00I love this film but I always think of it as a 30&...I love this film but I always think of it as a 30's film as well. 1939 specifically, I guess the superior quality of it makes me lump it in with that golden year. <br /><br />Margaret Sullavan is one of my favorite classic film actresses and I regret that she isn't better known. She was unique and having seen all her small output of films, except the elusive The Moon's Our Home, can say she never gave a bad performance. I think that scarcity of films is part of the reason for the lack of public awareness aided by the fact that she apparently hated filmmaking seeing them as a necessary evil to allow her to work on her true love the stage and still make a living so she only did them when she had to. A shame she's a bewitching presence, that rough scratch in her voice conveys so much. <br /><br />Jimmy Stewart is aces as well, if he had to win a consolation Oscar for losing for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington I wish it had been for this much deeper performance than his delightful but hardly challenging Philadelphia Story one. <br /><br />As much as I think both of them are wonderful and disarming for me the film's standout performance is Frank Morgan's absolutely magnificent account of Mr. Matuschek. How the hell he missed out on a nomination in a year that saw Walter Brennan win an unnecessary third award is a mystery I'll never understand.<br />His last scene with Rudy the new delivery boy is a delicate thing of beauty.<br /><br />But then everyone in the cast is pitch perfect and Lubitsch's direction spot on so I can't fathom how it came up completely empty handed in the Oscar race that year. Well hindsight I guess. <br /><br />I've seen both remakes, Judy Garland's In the Good Old Summertime is quaint but absent the pathos of this original though it has some lovely songs. You've Got Mail gives me a headache. <br /><br />I read Haywire when it came out and it made me sad that such a talented group of people could be so plagued by illness and misfortune. It was much more even handed and clear eyed than Mommie Dearest. Brooke Hayward saw her parents as they seemed to be, loving but flawed people who while often self absorbed cared for them deeply. It seemed like she and her brother had reached some sort of understanding of their issues at the end of the book so I was saddened to read several years ago that William Hayward also committed suicide. <br /><br />There was a good TV adaptation of the book in the 80's with Lee Remick as Maggie Sullavan and Jason Robards as Leland Hayward.joel65913https://www.blogger.com/profile/14526657073681774683noreply@blogger.com