Summer Under the Stars 2011 -- Day Thirteen Review: The Shop Around the Corner

Contrary to what many people seem to believe, film remakes are neither a modern innovation nor always a terrible idea, even as crappy remakes like The Heartbreak Kid (2007) and The Women (2008) seem to point to the contrary. Hollywood studios have always recycled films; if anything, we have more reverence for "originals" today than they did seventy years ago, when producers thought nothing of remaking films that had come out less than ten years before. Think of Waterloo Bridge (1931 and 1940); When Ladies Meet (1933 and 1941); and The Unholy Three (1925 and 1930). In many of these cases -- Waterloo Bridge is a good example -- the remake is generally considered better than the original, either because filmmaking techniques had advanced or because the story had enough clout from the first time around to attract bigger actors, writers and directors. I don't mean to suggest that all remakes are better -- just look at Weekend at the Waldorf (1945) and Grand Hotel (1932) -- but I am suggesting that remakes, in and of themselves, are not inherently a bad idea. They simply become bad ideas when producers choose the wrong films to revisit.

And what are the wrong films, exactly? I would argue that anything iconic (Gone with the Wind; Casablanca) is a no-go, as is anything that is very story-driven, with a specific time and place that are essential to the plot (Psycho). I think studios should avoid films that are intrinsically tied to their original stars (Astaire and Rogers musicals), as well as films that made a strong cultural statement (The Graduate). Why anyone would want to touch films that are generally loved and lauded in their original forms (Now, Voyager) is a mystery to me. That being said, there are a number of films I do think are ripe for remaking, particularly films that weren't very good the first time around (this is why the Ocean's Eleven remake worked so well) or films whose stories suddenly seem relevant again, though in a different way (I think the WWII drama The Best Years of Our Lives could act as the basis for a great post-9/11 film). In general, films with simple plots are the easiest to remake, because the rest of the story can be flipped and stretched and changed in such a way that the new film almost becomes its own entity, the much-seeked and but rarely-attained "reinterpretation."

Think about it in terms of literature: Romeo and Juliet has been told a hundred, maybe a thousand, times over because at its core its plot is nothing more than "Boy and girl from feuding families fall in love." The rest of the story -- the plague; the apothecary; the Capulets and the Montagues -- is incidental. Maybe the families aren't families, but countries; maybe they're spaceships; it doesn't matter. As long as you retain the plot, the way you choose to tell the rest of the story is up to you -- you're still "remaking" Romeo and Juliet (or, rather, the myths and stories that preceded and undoubtely inspired Shakespeare). This is what people mean when they say "universal plot," and it's the real reason it would be a terrible idea to remake something like Gone with the Wind: the plot is not simple, and even when reduced to its simplest terms, it is extremely specific -- you need the Civil War; you need Tara. The only reason to remake a movie like that is because you believe the original is somehow lacking, and that you could do better, and if that's the case...well, good luck.

The Shop Around the Corner, released in 1940 and directed by Ernst Lubitsch, is a good example of a film that does stand up to a remake, and in fact has been remade twice already, as a musical starring Judy Garland in 1949 (In the Good Old Summertime), and as a romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in 1998 (You've Got Mail). The Lubitsch version is itself an adaptation of a 1937 play by Miklos Laszlo entitled Parfumerie, and the plot could not be simpler: two people (James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan) hate each other by day even as they're unwittingly falling in love as pen pals. That's it. The fact that in The Shop Around the Corner they happen to be coworkers living in Budapest during the Christmas holidays is irrelevant to retelling the story, though those details certainly make the film more enjoyable to watch. It might not really matter that The Shop Around the Corner is set in Hungary -- the location certainly doesn't affect the story in any way, evidenced by In the Good Old Summertime's location in Chicago and You've Got Mail's location in New York -- but it gives the film a distinctive atmosphere, as if everything we're seeing is taking place inside a snow globe right before someone tips it upside-down.

Much of the film's magic rests on the shoulders of Stewart and Sullavan, a frequent onscreen couple who also appear together in Next Time We Love (1936), The Shopworn Angel (1938), and The Mortal Storm (1940). They're an unusual pair in that MGM didn't attempt to capitalize on their chemistry by casting them in the same parts over and over again; rather, each of the four films they made is unique, and generally does not end with the two stars in a loving embrace -- The Shop Around the Corner is the exception here, not the rule. I'm ambivalent toward Stewart -- I like most of his films, and I think he's a good, though repetitive, actor -- but I love Sullavan, who preferred stage work and made relatively few films but has shone in every single one I've seen. She grounds The Shop Around the Corner -- she makes it real -- yet simultaneously elevates it through her soft eyes and distinctive voice; she plays comedy without once resorting to battiness, a real feat for an actress of her generation, and she makes us feel every ounce of longing and disapointment hidden in the barbs she shoots at Stewart's character. I don't know that I'd call The Shop Around the Corner my favorite of her collaborations with Stewart -- The Shopworn Angel is a lesser film, but one I found more affecting overall -- but it is certainly a wonderful film, and one that I think could be remade ten times over, whether it's set in China or in the middle of Small Town, USA (speaking of things that exist in a snow globe).

Grade: A