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 S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
USA 1940

 

Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) and Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) are employees at Matuschek and Company, a general store in Budapest. Klara and Alfred are constantly at odds with each other, butting heads and disagreeing on almost everything. Both are enamored of their respective pen pals, who serve as welcome distractions in their lives. Little do they know, they are each the other's pen pal and, despite outward differences, have unwittingly fallen in love through their letters.

***

Tell bickering Budapest gift-shop workers Alfred and Klara that they love each other and they might call you crazy. No lover can compare to the romantic, secret pen pal each knows only as Dear Friend. What Alfred and Klara do not know, of course, is that they are each others Dear Friend. In the third of their four luminous screen pairings, Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart star in this valentine to love wrapped in the ribbon of director Ernst Lubitschs trademark touch: wit instead of buffoonery, sentiment instead of sentimentality, affection instead of attitude. As enchanting today as it was yesterday, The Shop Around the Corner will cheerfully reward your patronage.

***

Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.

Posters

Theatrical Release: January 10th, 1940

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Review: Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover

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Bonus Captures:
Distribution Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime 1:38:40.956         
Video

1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 37,814,121,423 bytes

Feature: 28,661,766,144 bytes

Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:

Audio

DTS-HD Master Audio English 1772 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1772 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles English, None
Features Release Information:
Studio: Warner Archive

 

1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 37,814,121,423 bytes

Feature: 28,661,766,144 bytes

Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Edition Details:

• New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound (10:57)
 • Screen Guild Players Radio Broadcast (9/29/40) (29:46)
 • Lux Radio Broadcast (6/23/41) (59:53)
 • Theatrical Trailer (4:05)


 Blu-ray Release Date: December 22nd, 2020
 Standard Blu-ray Case

Chapters 34

 

 

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Warner Archive Blu-ray (January 2021): Warner Archive have transferred Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner to Blu-ray. The 1080P transfer looks wonderful on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. the HD image is tight, well layered contrast, grain texture support and even some depth. I've never seen The Shop Around the Corner looks this good. 

NOTE: We have added 58 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Warner Archive use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. It is another advancement in the film's audio and supportive score by Werner R. Heymann (Lubitsch's Angel and Bluebeard's Eighth Wife), sounding effective and consistent in the lossless. Warner Archive offer optional English (yellow) subtitles (see sample below) on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray offers the 10-minute New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound - a 1940 short directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer takes us for a behind the scenes look at how the sound portion of a talking picture is created. There are also two Radio broadcasts - Screen Guild Players from September 1940, running 1/2 hour with Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart and Frank Morgan plus an hour long Lux Radio Broadcast from June 1941 with Don Ameche and Claudette Colbert - produced by Cecile B. DeMille. I got into these radio broadcasts years ago - just play as you putz around the house. Lastly, is a theatrical trailer.

Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner is brilliant vintage cinema. 'Masterpiece' would be an appropriate word. James Stewart is fantastic as the outwardly verbose but inwardly shy salesman and Margaret Sullavan is excellent as an unsettled young lady thinking of her future rather than embracing her heart's longings. Frank Morgan is, as always, perfect. Dark themes surround The Shop Around the Corner from extra-marital affairs, loneliness, even suicide - a serious drama, delightfully scripted comedy and warm romance all at ounce. It's a film I am thrilled to own on the Warner Archive Blu-ray and my only complaint is this certainly deserved a commentary - Joseph McBride (author of How Did Lubitsch Do It?) or Samm Deighan would have been my choice. Without looking a gift-horse in the mouth - this is still an essential Blu-ray. An absolute 'must own' for every cinephile's digital library.

NOTE: If this did not come out so late in 2020 - it would have easily made more noise in our Year End Poll.

Gary Tooze

 

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Box Cover

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Bonus Captures:
Distribution Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray


 


 

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