This review is my reflection of the movie, "The Shop Around the Corner" (1940).
Screwball comedy is a subgenre of comedy that became popular during the Great Depression era. It combines slapstick with fast-pace farce humor inside the dialogue of a sophisticated film. Contrary to preceding generation of films, screwball comedy often portrayed battle of the sexes where independent-minded females challenged masculinity. Accordingly, The Shop Around the Corner establishes the female character, Klara Novak, into a co-protagonist role through a man vs. woman conflict as she confronts the male character, Alfred Kralik (20:57). During this dispute, the female character was portrayed as an intelligent person who logically criticizes the male character’s deficient memory in recollecting the dress she wore and confidently boasting her competency as a salesperson. The scene also depicted the female character as a person who’s not intimidated by the male character, because she had successfully resisted the male character’s dominance by telling him that what she wears is none of his business – all while matching an equal vocal tone and rate of speech as the male character.
By the half-time, it became apparent that both male and female actors performed synonymously to dramatize the battle of the sexes. Take for instance, during the numerous man vs. woman conflict scenes that were captured throughout the first half of the film (20:57, 28:07, 53:00), the two co-protagonists starts off a conversation as they do with any other characters. But, as the discussion continues over time, the actors speak at a faster rate, and their voice grows louder. The actors also modify their body postures and facial expressions; the stars frown and lean their body towards the opposing character when they confront each other, whilst throwing personal insults and expressing sarcasm. Hence, by articulating intrusive physical gestures and aggressive vocal tone, both actors together had built a man vs. woman conflict situation.
Although the film establishes the lead male and female as two co-protagonists, in my opinion, gender was an issue in this movie because the female character’s performances were dependent upon the male character’s signals. The female character is the one who acts out the cluelessness of the situation (50:20, 1:32:15), is the person who awaits the male (50:20, 1:08:48), becomes ill in the absence of male’s correspondence (1:10:40), and is emotionally responsive to male character’s gestures (1:12:40, 1:36:10). Thus, the over-arching impression of the movie was depicted as the male character’s adventure in winning over a woman that he wanted. And regardless of however strong of an impression that the female actor had left on the audience, the female character was ultimately an archetype object for the male character in the film.
Moreover, in regards to female character’s influence on male character, although the male character fell in love with the female character, the female character does not have the characteristics of a femme fatale because she does not lead the male character into disaster nor does she purposely seduce the male character with some sort of diabolical plan. As a matter of fact, to reiterate my previous point, the female character does not have any active control in the film – she only reacts to the male character’s actions.
I also found it deeply interesting when the actor contrasted her character’s image. How was it possible that such a character that is so intelligent and resilient against the face of authority, be so weak and oblivious in front of love? The actor accomplished in making of this distinction by controlling her physical gestures and vocal tones like volume and pitch. When the actor was performing a strong character, the actor frowned and exerted a loud voice with an exclamation; actor acted out sarcasm by displaying a facial expression and speech utterance that contradicted the sentential response (20:57). In contrary, when the actor was acting out the submissiveness, she not only softened her speech but her entire body also became slowly stagnant (1:36:10). Overall, I think that the female actor had done a fantastic job.
The male character’s super objective in the film is to reveal his anonymous identity to the female character that he had been blindly corresponding with over the mail. To achieve his super objective, one of the specific objectives that the male character had to accomplish was to approach the female character for the first time at a pre-arranged location (24:30). Unfortunately, the male character encounters a problem of having to discover that the mysterious woman who he had fallen for is actually his previous co-worker whom he had a bad relationship with. So he must overcome the obstacle of the woman’s negative perception of him. In order to overcome his obstacle, the male character attempts to approach the female character without offending her. In his attempt, the actor played the character in a different manner from how he normally approached her at workplace scenes. First, the actor approaches the female character at a distance slowly, full of hesitance. His body movement does not seem confident as perceived at workplace, which was fast paced. To illustrate the awkwardness, the actor cautiously moves his head around from side to side as if he is looking for someone, his lips are unparalleled and tucked in, and once he approaches the female character, he acts as if he had met her in coincidence. The actor’s manner of speech makes a contrasting differentiation as well. In previous scenes, the male character had always spoken in quick and bickering manner toward the female character. However, at the restaurant, the actor starts off a conversation with a slow and calming tone of voice, which is unprecedented prior to this scene.
Asides from the domain of romance, the film showcased an abundant amount of comical scenes with a good mixture of both verbal and physical humor. For example, during the early scenes depicted in 8:14, 16:04, and 18:39, the employer character verbally prepares for a punch line by asking his employees, “all I want is your honest opinion” Then, every time when the employer asks for an honest opinion, Pirovitch – one of the employees – executes a punch line wit'h physical gesture by hiding away in panic. Although I cannot determine whether the comical scene produces laughter amongst the audience, I personally think that the usage of verbal cues were effective with the exaggerated physical movements performed by Pirovitch. According to the lecture, slapstick was effective in silent movies because title cards slowed down the soundless films. So, silent movies had to rely heavily on exaggerated physical gestures and the directors aimed to use as few title cards as possible. On the contrary, The Shop Around the Corner consisted of audio recordings and the linguistic communication did not hinder the continuation flow of the film. Thus, adjoining the verbal and physical gestures allowed the film producers to invest in time, to deliver a joke at the appropriate timing.
5 Stars: This product delivers what the seller claims, and the product demonstrates superior quality compared to other products in the market. Furthermore, the product has a good cost-benefit value.
4 Stars: This product delivers what the seller claims, and the product demonstrates superior quality compared to other products in the market.
3 Stars: This product provides what the seller claims, but you may find something better in the market at a similar cost.
2 Stars: This product works, but not to the effect that the seller claims.
1 Star: AVOID AT ALL COST. It might bring you harm (i.e. automobile windshield repair product might create more cracks).
Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
| Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
|
DVD
"Please retry" | — | 1 | $18.59 | $15.39 | — |
|
DVD
October 1, 2002 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $28.60 | $3.62 |
Watch Instantly with 
| Rent | Buy |
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card
Frequently bought together
$18.59
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Reviews with images
Korean subtitles enabled by default
Black & white, 4:3 aspect ratio, no surprises there. What was surprising was that the packaging was printed in Korean and the movie played with Korean subtitles enabled by default. Took me a while to figure out how to disable the Korean subtitles. Otherwise, I got exactly what I expected. Looks old and grainy compared to modern films, but I was not expecting a remastered, high-resolution version. The box says it includes the original version of 'You're [sic] Got Mail," but that disc was not inside. Only one disc. At almost US$20, it seems a little pricey for what you get.
