One of my all time favorite movie moments comes from the 1940 Ernst Lubitsch romantic comedy The Shop Around the Corner.
In a movie which is about as charming as a movie can get, one moment stands out as one of my favorite scenes of all time.
The movie is filled with some of the best character actors you could ever find, Felix Bressart, William Tracy, Inez Courtney, Joseph Schildkraut, Sara Haden, William Tracy. Add to that James Stewart and Margarat Sullavan in the leads and you really can't go wrong.
The movie has many, and I mean many, memorable and funny moments. The running joke about the cigarette box which plays Ochi Tchornya, Pirovitch continually going through great lengths to avoid any confrontation with shop owner Hugo Matuschek, played brilliantly by Frank Morgan, or watching Matuschek explode in anger but able to turn into the sweetest person once a customer enters the store. There are too many moments to mention, because one leads right into another.
However, the most touching moment comes when the brilliant Frank Morgan returns to the shop after a stay in the local hospital due to a mental breakdown. As the shop workers are gathered together before they leave that Christmas Eve, Mr. Matuschek thanks them for lifting his spirits while he was in the hospital by sending over a Christmas tree and also having one of the best days the store has ever had. He tells them that he spends the majority of his life in the store and that they are his family.
A very sentimental moment, but one that is never hokey or ruined by too much dialogue or close ups of the other actors looking at each other and acknowledging that "this is a touching moment".
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