This excellent film starring James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, and Frank Morgan is one of the best holiday movies I’ve ever seen. It’s so well acted, written, and directed that it really is something more movies should aspire to.

The film tells the story of the employees of the leather goods shop Matuschek and Company in Budapest. The top salesman Alfred Kralik, played by James Stewart, is in a contentious relationship with fellow salesperson Klara Novak, played by Margaret Sullavan. Neither realize that they have been annonamously corresponding with one another through letters. They fall in love on the page while fighting in person.

This premise is based on a Hungarian play called Perfumerie by Miklos Laszlos written in 1937. The play was full of interpersonal drama, grand political ideas, and a touching love story. The play became a smash hit and was adapted to film by Sampson Raphaelson, and directed Ernst Lubitsch. They decided to cut all the politics and the grander scope of the play and focus on the characters working in the shop, espescially highlighting Alfred and Klara’s love story. And they made the right call, because this premise has been remade again and again and again from a 1949 Judy Garland musical (In the Good Old Summertime), to a late 90’s Tom Hanks Meg Ryan romcom (You’ve Got Mail).

What struck me watching it this time was how good this movie is. It is so expertly directed. Ernst Lubitsch was famous for his elegant and sophisticated touch as a director, and you can feel that in every second of this movie. From the broad comedy of Frank Morgan ranting and raving at his staff, but turning off the rage and turning on the charm as soon as a customer walks in to the devastating tragedy of a suicide attempt, the movie works in every single moment and handles every tonal shift beautifully.

One moment that completely broke my heart was when Alfred is fired. The long slow silence as he walks from the office and out the front door is just devastating. The way Stewart’s small soft voice reads out his letter of recommendation to his fellow staff is so sad. It really got me.

But then when it’s time to fire the weaselly toady of the shop (a character very reminiscent of some people I’ve worked with, every workplace has an insufferable brown nose) the comedy is delightful and hits just the right notes.

The movie is one of the least Christmassy Christmas movies. It’s really about the relationships of these people and how they come into conflict with one another and resolve those conflicts. The climax is at Christmas and so it qualifies, but more than that the story stands on its own and is just so good. This is a great movie and I’d be watching it regularly regardless of the holiday setting.

I loved it. I laughed. I cried. I am looking forward to watching it again. It is my cup of tea. A