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B__Lee
Oct 11, 2011B__Lee rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
A modest masterpiece. This is one of the few movies I can say is absolutely perfect.---On the surface a conventional romantic comedy, dig a little deeper and there are bittersweet depths about love, acceptance and the passage of time. -----In the centerpiece story, James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan, two youngish clerks in a Hungarian luggage shop are otherwise perfectly nice people who get off on the wrong foot and things go from bad to worse-----Embroidering the edges of of the main story we have the stern, aging shop owner confronting the despair of an unfaithful wife and taking it out on his employees, a meek older clerk just able to support his family unable to speak up to the boss, a handsome clerk whose obsequiousness makes him unbearable, an ambitious delivery boy on his way up and the sweet boy who replaces him----Unusual for a romantic comedy, there is an undercurrent about how the workplace defines our lives, the unfortunate need to take blows to one's pride in order to get a job and keep it.-----Also unusual, the director Ernst Lubitsch delights in revealing these characters unpleasant qualities without making us dislike them.