Rendezvous after closing time
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Rendezvous after closing time |
| Original title | The Shop Around the Corner |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1940 |
| length | 99 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ernst Lubitsch |
| script |
Samson Raphaelson , Ben Hecht |
| production | Ernst Lubitsch for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| music | Werner R. Heymann |
| camera | William H. Daniels |
| cut | Gene Ruggiero |
| occupation | |
| |
Rendezvous after the shop closes (original title The Shop Around the Corner ) is an American romantic comedy from 1940. The film was directed by Ernst Lubitsch based on the play Perfumery by Miklós László with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan in the leading roles . It is about the romance between two people who are in an anonymous correspondence and who do not know that they are actually work colleagues.
action
Budapest in the 1930s: The employee Alfred Kralik works for Matuschek & Co. , a small shop for leather goods and accessories . He and his colleagues are a tight-knit community and like a small family in which, however, there is also gossip when someone like Kralik is invited to dinner with the boss. Kralik, the first salesman whom his boss has a lot of trust in and who is about to be promoted to deputy managing director, responded to an advertisement a few weeks ago and has since been in correspondence with a lady he does not know. One day Klara Novak, who is looking for work, appears in the shop. When she asked for a job, she fell on deaf ears with both Kralik and Mr. Matuschek. However, she quickly becomes indispensable when, contrary to expectations, she is able to sell a customer a cigarette case playing music. Kralik and his boss got into an argument about this music box, also because Kralik is someone who often expresses his opinion too confidently.
Klara and Alfred are unsympathetic from the start. He nags her and she lets him understand that she doesn't think much of him. And for a few days the relationship between Mr. Matuschek and his first salesman has cooled noticeably, which Kralik cannot explain. He is also undecided as to whether he should intensify the relationship with his pen friend or whether he should leave it with the affectionate, but rather distant, written exchange on cultural topics. He has arranged to meet the stranger in a café the next evening. The next day, both Klara and Alfred have an appointment. However, today, of all times, her boss asks her to stay longer after business hours to redecorate the shop window. When both Pepi, the messenger boy, and Klara and Alfred ask him to leave earlier, Mr. Matuschek freaks out. To calm things down, Novak and Kralik stay. Kralik is later asked to go to his boss's office, where he unexpectedly gives him the resignation. Completely perplexed, Kralik leaves the store with expressions of sympathy from his colleagues.
Later, Mr. Matuschek received a call and released his employee despite the unfinished shop window. A detective comes into the store and confirms Matuschek's fears about his wife's infidelity. To his astonishment, however, it is not the Kralik whom he suspects is his wife's lover, but the vain and opportunistic salesman Mr. Vadas. When Pepi comes into the shop late in the evening, he can just prevent his boss from suicide. Mr. Matuschek is admitted to the hospital.
Kralik, still depressed about the resignation, is accompanied to the café by his colleague Pirovitch. Alfred asks Pirovitch to take a look inside to see if his pen pal is there. But it is Ms. Novak who is waiting for him with the agreed identification mark, a carnation. Alfred doesn't want to meet her at all, and he says goodbye to his colleague. A short time later, however, he returns and enters the restaurant. However, he does not reveal himself to Klara as her pen friend and puts forward an appointment of his own. Ms. Novak feels pressured by him and throws him a number of insults, such as that Vadas told her that Kralik had crooked legs, which is what he finally walks on.
Mr. Matuschek has recovered and apologizes to Kralik. Since he still has to take it easy, however, he transfers the management of the company to his previous first salesman with the stipulation that Vadas must be dismissed discreetly and his own salary increased. Pepi, who saved his boss's life, can talk him out of a promotion to the salesman. However, Kralik has a hard time keeping his cool with Vadas and literally throws him out of the store. Pepi has hired a new delivery boy named Rudi; the workforce decides to ensure that this year's Christmas business is the best in the history of Matuschek & Co. in order to please their boss. In the meantime, however, Klara has fallen ill and Kralik pays her a visit. He takes care of them and manages to build something like friendship between them. Klara's illness is also more of an emotional nature, as her unknown pen pal has not written for days. However, when suddenly a letter arrives, she is ecstatic and promises to be back for work the next day.
Since the Christmas business is booming, Mr. Matuschek distributes special bonuses to his employees on Christmas Eve. Rudi, the new messenger boy, also gets something, although Matuschek doesn't even know him. Klara wants to spend Christmas Eve with her pen pal, who is still unknown to her, Pirovitch with his small family, Pepi with his new girlfriend and the other two female employees have plans. Only Mr. Matuschek, now separated from his wife, is alone. But when it turns out that Rudi doesn't have anyone either, Matuschek happily invites him to dinner.
When everyone has left the shop, only Miss Novak and Mr. Kralik remain. Kralik has to lock the shop and Miss Novak has a present to wrap, a wallet. She actually wanted to give her boyfriend one of these music boxes, but Kralik had Pirovitch dissuade her. Just before they leave the shop, the two start a conversation through Klara's boyfriend. However, Alfred manages to discredit this with her by telling all kinds of negative things about him. Alfred met him and saw that he was quite fat. He is also unemployed and intends to be put up with by Klara. In addition, the poetic lines that he always sent her were stolen and not written himself. Completely disaffected, Klara admits that she would be happy if her pen pal was like Mr. Kralik. Now he finally reveals himself and overjoyed they sink into each other's arms - not without Kralik having to pull up his pants beforehand to prove that he doesn't have crooked legs.
background
Director Ernst Lubitsch really wanted James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan to play the leading roles. Since they were not available at first, he waited and in the meantime shot Ninotschka with Greta Garbo . The film was shot almost immediately after Ninotschka and in just 28 days. What is striking is the setting, which Budapest was supposed to imitate with modest means, and Lubitsch's change from the erotic comedy with European flair, usually set in higher social circles, to a warm, calm comedy about people from a simple milieu. Lubitsch's Europeanizing films about “high society” had less and less success at this time. In addition to Frank Capra's Is Life Not Beautiful, the film is the bittersweet “Song of Songs” to the happiness of the common people.
In 1949 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer shot a remake of a musical under the title In the Good Old Summertime , in German: Back in the summer (also: With music into happiness ). It was directed by Robert Z. Leonard , with Judy Garland and Van Johnson in the lead roles . The location of the action was relocated to Chicago at the turn of the 20th century. In 1963, the Broadway musical She Loves Me by the authors Jerry Bock , Sheldon Harnick and Joe Masteroff , for which Miklós Lászlós play also formed the basis, premiered. In 1998 Nora Ephron shot an updated version of the material for you with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks under the title em @ il . While this version, which is based in today's New York, spreads its action over far more locations, the 1940s film adaptation has a much stronger chamber play character and is more based on the stage play in its studio atmosphere.
synchronization
The German dubbed version was created for the cinema premiere there on April 29, 1947. The well-known film director Kurt Hoffmann was responsible for the dialogue script and dialogue direction.
| role | actor | German Dubbing voice |
|---|---|---|
| Alfred Kralik | James Stewart | Ernst Fritz Fürbringer |
| Klara Novak | Margaret Sullavan | Eva Vaitl |
| Hugo Matuschek | Frank Morgan | Otto Wernicke |
| Ferencz Vadas | Joseph Schildkraut | Ulrich Folkmar |
| Perovitch | Felix Bressart | Herbert Kroll |
| Pepi | William Tracy | Hans Richter |
Awards
The Shop Around the Corner was honored with an entry in the National Film Registry in 1999. The American Film Institute voted the film 28th Best American Romance Films in 2002. The BBC voted the film 58th of All-Time American Films in 2015.
Reviews
Frank S. Nugent wrote in his review in the New York Times of July 26, 1940 that Lubitsch enabled his main actors Stewart and Sullavan to have a "warm and tender romance". The predominantly American actors would find their way into Lubitsch's European milieu and would master both the comic and the first scenes. Sullavan proves to be "the spiciest and funniest film actresses", while Frank Morgan plays his role of the "lovable dictator" almost without the exaggerations and self-importance that would have made him one of the most sought-after comedy actors in Hollywood.
In its December 1949 issue, the Evangelische Film-Beobachter spoke of a comedy "full of mature, kind humor, the focus of which would be the small joys and needs of employees". The film service ruled: “A brilliantly staged comedy with wonderful actors. In contrast to Lubitsch's cheeky salon comedies, this adorable little people story takes place against a relatively realistic background. "
literature
- Miklós László (Nikolaus Laszlo): Perfumery. Comedy in 3 acts . [Not for sale stage manuscript.] Georg Marton, Vienna and London 1937, 123 pp.
Web links
- Shop Around the Corner in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Christmas with Matuschek and Company - review and analysis of the film at Telepolis
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://german.imdb.com/title/tt0033045/trivia
- ↑ Hellmuth Karasek : My cinema. The 100 Most Beautiful Films , Bertelsmann, Rheda-Wiedenbrück 1994, pp. 141–145
- ^ All Movie Guide In the Good Old Summertime
- ^ Film at the German dubbing index
- ↑ AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Passions. Retrieved November 6, 2017 .
- ↑ July 20, 2015: The 100 greatest American films. Retrieved November 6, 2017 .
- ^ Frank S. Nugent: THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; Ernst Lubitsch Offers James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan in a Genial and Tender Romance in The Shop Around the Corner 'at the Music Hall . In: The New York Times . January 26, 1940, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed May 13, 2020]).
- ^ Protestant film observer (review No. 12/1949)
- ↑ Rendezvous after the store closes. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 1, 2016 .