The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Here it is, folks: my final DVD from Netflix. I made a point to pick a reputed classic and also to wait until after October, but perhaps I should have waited for late December, because my hunch that the story would take place around Christmas was correct. Perhaps I dimly remembered something similar from She Loves Me, a musical adapted from it. I know it wasn't the case in the modernized remake, You've Got Mail.

In keeping with the source material, Miklós László's play Parfumerie, the setting is Budapest, albeit with mostly American-accented English. Despite long being the best salesman at a gift shop, Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) has begun to lock horns with boss Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan), for reasons not immediately clear. He locks horns considerably more with new hire Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan). But he and a pseudonymous pen pal he discovered through a newspaper ad have become smitten with each other. Less than halfway through the picture, he realizes that Klara is that pen pal. Of course, this wouldn't be much of a comedy if he told her right away....

One Hour with You (1932)

So much for my prediction that if I ever saw another Maurice Chevalier movie, it would be from late in his career. I seem to have a poor memory for such resolutions. Regardless, I had wanted a '30s picture on the unserious side, and that's just what I got.

In Paris, Andre (Chevalier) and Colette (Jeanette MacDonald) are such passionate spouses that everyone assumes they're unwed or at most newlywed. Enter Colette's friend Mitzi (Genevieve Tobin), whose husband Adolph (Charles Ruggles) rightly suspects her of infidelity. She falls for Andre right away and doesn't even care that he's married to her alleged best friend. As Andre's resolve weakens in the face of Mitzi's aggressive advances, Adolph turns his attention to Colette.

The Love Parade (1929)

I was a little surprised at my past self for selecting another early Maurice Chevalier musical, after I'd found Love Me Tonight forgettable and The Smiling Lieutenant, well, questionable in character behavior. To me, Chevalier was like Fred Astaire exchanging his dancing for a thick French accent, which makes him sound more distinctive but not more mellifluous. Nevertheless, The Love Parade called to me with its historical value: In an era full of musicals about music (e.g., The Broadway Melody), it was the first to have songs woven into the story, with characters basically singing some of their dialog to each other. I think all modern fans of musicals appreciate this shift.

It's something of a precursor to TSL in terms of plot, so it figures that Ernst Lubitsch directed both. Here Chevalier plays Count Alfred Renard of the fictitious nation of Sylvania. After playing homewrecker too many times in Paris, he must report to Queen Louise (Jeanette MacDonald in her film debut) for punishment. Tired of her staff's pressure to find a prince consort, Louise quickly warms to his suggestion of keeping a close watch on him at the palace. Guess she likes suave bad boys, because the two marry before long. But just as the ministers had feared, Alfred resents having no authority and basically nothing to do outside the bedroom, except make an occasional smiley appearance for the sake of Louise's reputation -- and, by overblown extension, the good of the country, which seems to matter less to him.