In Budapest, Hungary, Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) is the best salesman in Hugo Matuschek's luxury store. Hugo hires Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) as a new saleswoman and Alfred is not happy. They are fire and water. He has been clashing with Mr. Matuschek. After he asks for his first night off to meet his pen pal for the first time, Mr. Matuschek lets him go. Without a job in the tough environment, he is reluctant to meet his mystery pen pal. In reality, Mr. Matuschek had assumed that Alfred was having an affair with his wife.This takes a little while to get funny or romantic. It's about halfway thru when they get together in the coffee shop. It is the height of hilarity as each has differing point of views. It's done with a dash of darkness. Alfred can be a high-minded snob but Jimmy Stewart keeps his endearing personality in the role. That's the secret. He make this character work and maintains the romantic connection. Some modern audience will recognize the plot's similarities to You've Got Mail. Note Meg Ryan's store is called The Shop Around The Corner. This is definitely a rom-com classic.

The plot of this movie is charming, yes, though of course you know from the very beginning how it will end and just wait to see how the two main characters get there.But to me the real magic of this movie is in the small, perfect moments of acting, primarily by Stewart and Morgan.Stewart can convey with just the slightest change of his face, or a hushed, half-breathed voice more deep feeling than others try to express with endless yelling and flailing of arms. There are moments in the movie, such as when Clara insults him during their meeting in the café, or when he visits Matachek in the hospital - the most moving scene in the movie for me - when I just marvel at the understated quality of his acting.The same is true of Morgan. We think of him as the Wizard of Oz, and he was great in that movie. But he was not all big gestures and exaggeration. When he faces the infidelity of his wife, and then has to apologize to Stewart for suspecting him of having an affair with his wife, or at the end when he is desperate to find someone to spend Christmas Eve with, now that he finds himself without a family to go home to, the understated perfection of his acting is really very impressive. If you have ever seen him in *Port of Seven Seas*, based on Marcel Pagnol's *Marcel* and *Fanny* plays, this won't come as any surprise to you.In 1940, when this movie was made and released, Hungary was still an independent nation, though moving closer to Germany and Italy and passing several anti-Semitic laws. (Felix Bressart, who plays Pirovitch here, would play the Jewish actor Greenberg two years later in *To Be or Not to Be* and, in his riff on Shylock's speech, enter into cinematic history.) The next year Hungary would enter World War II on the German side against Russia. But in this movie, Budapest is still a charming Eastern European city where people care about each other and everything looks warm and wonderful under the falling snowflakes.If you ever feel a need to watch great actors make miracles out of small moments, watch this. You will be amazed.

On the whole, the movie comes across as good, but over-rated, despite the "Lubitsch touch". Perhaps I was expecting too much. The supposed comedic part doesn't really come off, as its scattered instances quickly bump into a prevailing serious side. Too bad, for example, the screenplay drops in Matuschek's heartbreak over his wife's infidelity so awkwardly. Unfortunately, that comes at expense of the prevailing mood. Nonetheless, the lead roles are poignantly performed by leads Stewart and Sullavan even though they must play out their darker moments. Then too, the plot poses a thoughtful conflict between personalities on paper versus personalities in the flesh. Klara (Sullavan) and Klavik (Stewart) are in love as pen pals, but without knowing their true identities, quarrel constantly in as co-workers in the gift shop. That's an interesting idea since it counterposes constructed identities to real ones, and we wonder which set will prevail. Kudos to production for refusing to glamorize the gift shop staff, especially Klara. Nor, for that matter, is Klara all that likable in her shop work. In fact, the story's almost as much about the shop business as it is about romantic dreams of everyday people. Anyway, there's much to recommend in the 100-minutes, but the overall result is not particularly memorable, Lubitsch or no.

I find myself having to see this film every Christmas season. I am never disappointed - even though I know the drift. But that's the sign of a great film - you always delight in something new each time you see it. And these are characters you grow to love so much you want to be in their company, so to speak, every year - they're like old friends you missed and have to see again. This movie has humor and pathos, a wide range of emotions, and though it's ostensibly a comedy, it's also a romantic film and one that speaks of the human condition. In other words, it works on many levels. And all of the many brilliant actors in this film shine brightly. It's one of Jimmy Stewart's, Frank Morgan's, Felix Bressart's and Joseph Schildkraut's best - and perhaps Margaret Sullavan's very best (her comic timing is brilliant). And the other character players are lovable and brilliant, too - especially William Tracy as "Pepi." Sad that so many of them came to tragic ends or died fairly young in real life. What a great cast and sweet, touching story! And this is also one of those great old films where wit was in abundance.