Seven Samurai (1954)

Tinseltown has never been shy about taking a critically acclaimed or popular foreign film and remaking  it into a product that mainstream American audiences will pay to see.  A successful example would be Edouard Molinaro's French comedy LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (1978) that was remade into THE BIRDCAGE (1996) with Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, and Gene Hackman, directed by the great Mike Nichols (THE GRADUATE). The location changed from Saint Tropez to Miami but the plot about a gay couple faced with meeting their straight son's future conservative in-laws stayed pretty much the same. It doesn't always work out.  Wim Wenders beautiful German film WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) about an angel in Berlin who wants to become human did not translate as well in Brad Siberling's American remake CITY OF ANGELS (1998) with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan.  Or in the case of the French/Dutch psychological thriller THE VANISHING (1988) which was well received internationally, its director George Sluzier would direct the American remake also called THE VANISHING (1993) starring Jeff Bridges and Kiefer Sutherland.  The American version did not garner the positive notices that the Dutch original did. 

One of the greatest foreign films ever is Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI (1954). Kurosawa's samurai masterpiece about seven distinct samurai (a Japanese version of a mercenary that lives by a code) who are hired by a village to fend off a marauding group of bandits (bad samurai) had to be turned into some kind of American version.  Six years later, John Sturges (THE GREAT ESCAPE) would make THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960), a western starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, and James Coburn based on Kurosawa's film. Sturges would change the location from feudal Japan in 1586 to 19th century Mexico but keep the plot and characters mostly intact. SEVEN SAMURAI'S and Kurosawa's influence would extend beyond THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and influence contemporary filmmakers ever since from Rober Aldrich (THE DIRTY DOZEN) to Sam Peckinpah (THE WILD BUNCH) to Quentin Tarantino (INGLORIOUS BASTERDS). In retrospect, Kurosawa himself may have been inspired by the westerns of American director John Ford (STAGECOACH, THE SEARCHERS). 

Kurosawa's films translated well to the western genre. Besides SEVEN SAMURAI, two other Kurosawa's classics were turned into American westerns. RASHOMON (1950) about four different characters recollection of a a bride's rape and her husband's murder would be remade as THE OUTRAGE (1964) directed by Martin Ritt and starring Paul Newman, set in the 1870s Southwest. YOJIMBO (1961) about a lone samurai who plays two gangs off against one another would be the inspiration for Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964) with Clint Eastwood as the enigmatic Man with No Name. Another surprising genre would find fancy from one of the Japanese director's movies. Kurosawa's THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (1958) is said to have inspired George Lucas's space fantasy STAR WARS (1977).  The storyline of two peasants in pursuit of treasure who unwittingly escort a princess past her enemies in THE HIDDEN FORTRESS would have similarities to Lucas's two droids R2D2 and C-3PO who aid Princess Leia in her escape from Darth Vader and his Imperial Forces. Lucas and fellow filmmaker Francis Coppola would repay their love and respect to Kurosawa later in his career (more on that later). 

With a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguni and directed by Kurosawa, SEVEN SAMURAI is set during Japan's ongoing civil wars of the Sengoku period in the 16th Century.  A band of bandits ride up to a ridge overlooking a village. They debate whether to attack it or not. Having stolen the village's rice earlier, they decide to return in the spring after the barley has been harvested. As the bandits ride off, Farmer Yohei (Bokuzen Hidari) emerges from underneath the ridge, having overheard their plan. He reports back to the village. The farmers argue on what to do. They turn to the Village Elder Gisaku (Kokuten Kodo) who suggests they hire samurai, hungry samurai to fight their battle. Led by the young, fiery villager Rikichi (Yoshio Tsuchiya), they go into town looking for samurai.  The villagers eventually settle on an aging ronin (a masterless samurai) named Kambei Shimura (Takashi Shimura) as their leader after they see him rescue a child from a thief.  Kambei declines at first but eventually decides to take up their cause.

A young, inexperienced samurai Katsushiro Okamoto (Isao Kimura) requests to be Kambei's disciple. Kambei reluctantly agrees. After determining how big the village will be to defend, Kambei holds auditions to select five more samurai.  He chooses Gorobei Katayama (Yoshio Inaba), a talented archer who will assist with the planning for the defense of the village; Shichiroji (Daisuke Kato), a trusted friend and former lieutenant; the stone cold deadly swordsman Kyuzo (Seiji Miyaguchi); Heihachi Hayashida (Minoru Chiaki), a less skilled but humorous samurai who keeps up the spirits of the group; and the loose cannon Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune), a charming rogue who's not a real samurai but will prove his worth to the team. The seven samurai arrive at the village. Kambei and Gorobei begin to devise the defenses for the village with moats, barricades, and tall fences while the other samurai begin to train the villagers in the tactics of warfare.

The apprentice Katsushiro will stumble across a young woman in a a forest filled with white flowers named Shino (Keiko Tsushima) disguised as a boy. She's the daughter of farmer Manzo (Kamatari Fujiwara) who wants to protect her virtue from the samurai. Katsushiro and Shino will have a relationship that is forbidden as he comes from a wealthy family and she's a low-class peasant. The man-child Kikuchiyo discovers the farmers plunder, samurai armor and weapons acquired from previous bad samurai who died attacking the village. The villagers are not as innocent as they seem. Spring arrives and the farmers begin to cut the barley. About to consummate their love, Katsushiro and Shino discover three bandit scouts in the nearby woods. Kikuchiyo, Kyuzo, and Katsushiro kill two of the bandits and capture one who reveals their hideout before he is killed. The samurai and villagers take the fight to the bandits first as they journey through a canyon and waterfalls to their fort. They light their houses on fire to flush the bandits out. The farmer Rikichi discovers his kidnapped wife has become a concubine for the scoundrels. Rather than return disgraced to her husband, Rikichi's wife runs back into a burning hut and dies. The samurai lose their first member when Heihachi is shot and killed by a retreating bandit. The samurai have swords and arrows, but the bandits have a new, modern weapon - the musket.

The samurai and village are devastated by Heihachi's death. Kikuchiyo, the wannabe samurai, grabs the banner designed by Heihachi representing the samurai and village and plants it at the top of one of the huts. The samurai and village are united by this gesture and get over their grief just in time as the bandits (about 40 of them) begin their assault on the village, burning the outer homes first. Kikuchiyo rescues a baby from its mortally wounded mother, proving his courage to his comrades and revealing his past. The samurai and villagers work their plan, isolating a couple of bandits at a time to be killed while keeping the larger posse at bay. The silent, lethal samurai Kyuzo stealthily slips into the forest at night and captures one of the muskets, killing two bandits in the process. Kikuchiyo will disguise himself as one of the bandits to grab another musket. Kambei's lieutenant Gorobei will be killed by gunfire and the remaining samurai mourn his loss. After defending another siege with losses by both farmers and the bandits, Kambei prepares everyone for one final showdown. The Battle in the Rain begins and there will be more death and loss before the bandits are completely wiped out. Soon, the sun emerges, and the village rejoices, planting new crops and singing. The three remaining samurai watch wistfully. "In the end, we've lost this battle too, "Kambei says. "Victory belongs to those peasants, not to us.'

What makes SEVEN SAMURAI such an incredible film are its many layers.  Foremost, it's an adventure film that will inspire countless movies in the future with the universal plot of a band of good guys (or gals) versus bad guys, often outnumbered ten to one. It's a film about bonding, taking two different groups of people (samurai and farmers), and becoming one cohesive fighting force. It's a film about different class structures that existed in Japan in the 16th century and how they interacted. It has a forbidden love story between a wealthy samurai's son trying to make it on his own and a farmer's daughter whose class status prohibits her from loving his type. There are comical moments like Kikuchiyo trying to ride a horse. There are subplots like the farmer Rikichi's kidnapped wife and their tragic reunion.  Or the origins of Kikuchiyo, the wannabe samurai and his mercurial personality. 

Prior to SEVEN SAMURAI, Kurosawa had only done modern, urban films like DRUNKEN ANGEL (1948) and STRAY DOG (1949) about a cop looking for his stolen gun in Tokyo. With SAMURAI, Kurosawa opens up his lens to a grander scale and displays bravura filmmaking with some unforgettable shots.  Kikuchiyo holding a crying infant after the mortally wounded mother hands the child to him, a burning water wheel turning in the background. Repeated fast tracking shots of each individual samurai running when they believe an attack has begun. Katsushiro and Shino laying in a bed of white flowers in a grove of trees. Battle scenes in mud, streaks of pelting rain almost obscuring the action, gloriously shot in black and white. And the final image, the surviving samurai gazing at the burial mound of their deceased brothers, their swords planted next to them, a marker to their memory and a sign of the beginning of the decline of the samurai warrior class. 

At three hours and 27 minutes, SEVEN SAMURAI was the second longest movie ever made at the time next to Victor Fleming's GONE WITH THE WIND (1939). The length allows Kurosawa to let his epic story move at its own pace, explore his characters in depth, let the plot and situations unfold, and draw out the suspense as they wait for the bandits to return.  We get to meet and evaluate the farmers Rikichi, Manzo, and Yohei and better understand their personalities. The auditioning of the samurai occurs at nearly the one-hour mark. We even watch as some samurai turn down Kambei's offer before he selects his final five. We get to watch the one main female character Shino in SEVEN SAMURAI as she transforms from disguised boy (at her father's wish to hide her femininity and sexuality from the samurai) to secret lover to young Katsushiro to outcast when her father Manzo catches the two of them together. The old ronin Kambei and the extrovert Kikuchiyo get the most screen time, but Kurosawa allows us to get to know the other samurai as well: the rotund master planner Gorobei; the Zen master Hihachi; the almost God-like taciturn swordsman Kyuzo; and Kambei's trusted old friend and fighting buddy Shichiroji. SEVEN SAMURAI never feels slow. Every scene and sequence have a purpose and propels us toward the big finale which last for more than an hour at the film's climax.

Watching SEVEN SAMURAI, there are so many elements to the film that have influenced filmmakers ever since.  Kurosawa loves to show the meticulous details of Kambei and Gorobei's plan to defend the village like building fences and creating a moat to frustrate their attackers. In GOOD FELLAS (1990) director Martin Scorsese shows the step-by-step planning and heist by the gangsters of a Lufthansa payload. The father/son relationship of master Kambei and disciple Katsushiro will pop up in the STAR WARS films both with master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guiness) and apprentice Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in STAR WARS and a younger Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) in Lucas's THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999). Or look at the similarities in the sequence where Kyuzo walks into the forest and off-screen, kills a few bandits and returns with one of the muskets that killed Hihachi with George Miller's MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015) when Max (Tom Hardy) leaves Furiosa, the Wives, and the War Rig, walks into the wasteland darkness and off-screen kills the Bullet Farmer and two of his men, returning covered in blood with a bag of weapons and ammunition. Everywhere you look, SEVEN SAMURAI'S influence can be seen. 

At first glance SEVEN SAMURAI appears to be a celebration of the samurai warrior (Kurosawa himself was a descendent of the samurai). We see their code of honor and ethics, their bonding with one another, their skills as warriors, and how they work as a team.  Kurosawa has many shots with two, three, four even all seven of the samurai in the same frame. As the film progresses, we realize the samurai are a dying breed.  Like George Roy Hill's BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1967) or Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH (1969) where the gunfighters and bank robbers are running up against new technology and the modern age, the samurai with their swords and arrows are no match for rifles and bullets. Historically, the samurai class flourished as a hereditary nobility serving a shogun or military dictator (who was actually just a figurehead) from the late 12th century until the late 1870s. SEVEN SAMURAI foreshadows the beginning of the samurai's demise. 

Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa's favorite actor, has the good fortune (or luck) to play Kikuchiyo, the flashiest role and as it turns out, the most complicated character in SEVEN SAMURAI. Kikuchiyo's not even a samurai although he dresses the part. He's a wanderer, a clown, a hanger on who wins over Kambei and eventually the other samurai with his bravado and fearlessness. Kikuchiyo is a bridge between the revered samurai and the peasants.  We eventually learn Kikuchiyo was the son of a farmer who became an orphan, his father most likely killed by rogue samurai like the ones attacking this village. Kikuchiyo understands the dynamics of village life, enlightening the other samurai about the good and the bad aspects of these seemingly suffering farmers. When Hihachi is killed, Kikuchiyo sits next to his grave for days like a loyal dog. Kikuchiyo will have several brave scenes in SEVEN SAMURAI. He will also fall asleep at his post and leave parts of the village defenseless with his reckless actions that put the whole plan at risk. 

Like the collaboration of Robert DeNiro with Martin Scorsese, John Wayne with John Ford, or Robert Redford with Sydney Pollack, Mifune and Akira Kurosawa teamed up for a total 16 films.  From early in their careers with STRAY DOG or RED BEARD to their masterpieces like RASHOMON and THRONE OF BLOOD (1957), Kurosawa trusted Mifune to be his avatar for his cinematic storytelling. With over 168 film credits, Mifune did work occasionally in a few Hollywood films including John Boorman's HELL IN THE PACIFIC (1968) with Lee Marvin; Terence Young's western/samurai hybrid RED SUN (1971) with Charles Bronson and Ursula Andress; and Steven Spielberg's war comedy 1941 (1979) with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. 

All the actors in SEVEN SAMURAI are superb.  It took me a few viewings to figure out who all the characters are. Another Kurosawa favorite who appears in SEVEN SAMURAI is Takashi Shimura who portrays the veteran leader Kambei. Kambei is wise and patient, the glue that holds all these masterless ronin together. Even though Kambei projects confidence, we learn that he has not had many victories in his samurai career. Yet, Kambei has survived his share of battles. Shimura provides Kambei with a nice gesture that makes him recognizable throughout the film: rubbing his head when he's pleased or mystified.  Shimura first appeared as the lead in Kurosawa's IKIRU (1952) and would top Mifune by making 19 films with Kurosawa, some roles bigger than others. Besides SEVEN SAMURAI, Shimura appeared in Kurosawa's THRONE OF BLOOD, THE BAD SLEEP WELL (1960), and HIGH AND LOW (1963). Shimura even appeared in Japan's classic monster films like Ishiro Honda's GODZILLA (1957) with Raymond Burr and Honda's MOTHRA (1961) about a giant moth.  Shimura's last appearance in a Kurosawa film before his death would be KAGEMUSHA (1980). 

If you're wondering which characters in the western remake THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN are represented from SEVEN SAMURAI, here's my attempted breakdown. Yul Brynner plays Chris Adams, the Kambei character, who leads these seven gunslingers against Mexican bandits terrorizing a group of farmers. James Coburn plays Britt, a silent but lethal expert with knives who represents the Kyuzo character in the original.  After that, the comparisons are a little muddled.  Steve McQueen as the drifter Vin Tanner would seem to be Brynner's right-hand man, a cross between Gorobei and Shichiroji. Horst  Buchholz who plays the hot shot but inexperienced gunman Chico is part Mifune's Kikuchiyo with his wild antics but also the understudy Katsushiro learning from Brynner and McQueen the ways of the gunslinger. Charles Bronson as Bernardo O'Reilly may be a piece of Kikuchiyo with his connection with the farmers young kids. The most interesting new twist is Robert Vaughn, a southern Civil War veteran who must overcome his cowardice to aid his brothers-in-arms.

The western and science fiction genre may have adapted storylines and plots from Kurosawa, but Kurosawa was no stranger to borrowing from one of the best for a couple of his film adaptations.  THRONE OF BLOOD is Kurosawa's Japanese version of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. Instead of a nobleman in Scotland spurred by his ambitious wife to kill his king, Kurosawa moves it to feudal Japan where a Japanese general encouraged by his scheming spouse plots to usurp his commander and rule his castle. One of Kurosawa's last films would be RAN (1985), his interpretation of the Bard's King Lear switching the storyline from Shakespeare's old king and his three daughters to an elderly medieval warlord and his three sons. One of the best filmmakers in the world reimagining one of the greatest storytellers in history.

Kurosawa's influence on western filmmakers would be repaid when Kurosawa prepared to make KAGEMUSHA, a film about a petty criminal who resembles a warlord and is hired to be his double.  The film was going to be more expensive than Japan's Toho Studios was willing to finance.  Kurosawa reached out to George Lucas and Francis Coppola on a visit to San Francisco.  With the enormous success of STAR WARS, Lucas and Coppola were able to convince 20th Century Fox (who gave the greenlight to make STAR WARS) to put up the rest of the money for KAGEMUSHA in return for international distribution rights outside of Japan. At the top of the poster for KAGEMUSHA, it proudly proclaims "George Lucas and Francis Coppola Present a film by Akira Kurosawa." Ironically, Kurosawa was not as revered in Japan as he was around the rest of the world. 

SEVEN SAMURAI'S legacy of a group of different individuals who join together to fight a greater evil lives on recently from Sylvester Stallone's THE EXPENDABLES (2010) where ex-mercenaries team up to take down a South American dictator to Joss Whedon's THE AVENGERS (2012) about unique individual superheroes who form together to fight back an alien invasion. Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI will always be the gold standard, weaving memorable characters, social commentary, history, adventure, a love story, and intense battle scenes into one truly epic film that changed the cinematic world forever. 

The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and You've Got Mail (1998)

With Europe becoming progressively dangerous for Jews in the late 1920s and early 30s as Adolf Hitler began his rise to power, many talented Jewish writers, directors, and actors began to emigrate to the United States and Hollywood.  Among the notables who came over were writer/director Billy Wilder (DOUBLE INDEMNITY), actor Peter Lorre (CASABLANCA), director Michael Curtiz (THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD), writer/director Robert Siodmak (PHANTOM LADY), and director Ernst Lubitsch (BLUEBEARD'S EIGHTH WIFE).  Lubitsch's brief but highly successful run of sophisticated comedies often took place in Europe whether it was Paris (NINOTCHKA) or Nazi occupied Poland (TO BE OR NOT TO BE). Even though the locale was European, American actors like Melvyn Douglas, Jack Benny, Claudette Colbert, and James Stewart played European characters. Case in point is Lubitsch's classic THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940), set in Budapest, Hungary with James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan as Hungarian employees working at a leather goods store who are secretly in love as nameless pen pals.

Flash forward to screenwriter/director Nora Ephron in the late 80s/early 90s.  Ephron would capture lightning in the bottle not once but twice, taking two classic films from the past and updating them to the modern age without losing the essence of the original source.  SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE (1993) would be Ephron's remake of Leo McCarey's romantic comedy AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr (which McCarey remade from his own 1939 version LOVE AFFAIR with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne). SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE was Ephron's second hit of a classic. In 1998, Ephron pulled it off first with YOU'VE GOT MAIL, a modern remake of Ernest Lubitsch's THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER.  Only this time, instead of the two pen pals who work together but don't know they're in love with each other, Ephron makes the love interests anonymous internet chat room participants who in real life are bookstore adversaries. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan would play the couples in both YOU'VE GOT MAIL and SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE.

THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER and YOU'VE GOT MAIL are not holiday movies per se as they don't involve Santa Claus or a friendly angel. Both films have scenes during the Christmas season, always a good time for a romance to bloom or heartbreak to happen.  The climactic scene when the two star crossed lovers discover who each other are occurs on Christmas Eve in THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER but not until spring for YOU'VE GOT MAIL.  Lubitsch's SHOP has a slightly darker slant to the story with one of the characters attempting suicide when he discovers his wife is having an affair. Ephron's YOU'VE GOT MAIL turns All-American good guy Tom Hanks into a corporate villain at the beginning of the film who transforms into a more compassionate person as the film progresses. 

With a screenplay by Samson Raphaelson (and an uncredited Ben Hecht) based on the play Parfumerie by Miklos Laszlo and directed by Ernst Lubitsch, THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER begins one morning in Budapest, Hungary as all the employees of Matuschek and Company, a leather goods store, arrive for another day of business.  They wait for the owner, Mr. Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan) to open the store. The employees include Alfred Kralik (James Stewart), Matuschek and Company's top salesman; Pirovitch (Felix Bressart), a good-hearted family man; Ferencz Vadas (Joseph Schildkraut), an obsequious Casanova; Ilona Novotny (Inez Courtney), a saleswoman; Flora Kaczek (Sara Hayden), a clerk; and cocky delivery boy Pepi Katona (Wiliam Tracy who nearly steals the film with his hilarious performance). Mr. Matuschek arrives and opens the store.  Alfred confides to Pirovitch that he has begun corresponding with an anonymous woman he came across in a newspaper advertisement.  Alfred reads one of the letters to Vadas.

Mr. Matuschek and Alfred butt heads over Matuschek's idea to sell a leather cigarette box that plays music (Ochi Chernye). A young woman named Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) enters the store, looking for a job.  Alfred tries to shoo her away. Klara approaches Mr. Matuschek.  She grabs one of the cigarette boxes and sells it to a customer.  Mr. Matuschek hires her. Alfred and Klara are now co-workers.  They bicker about everything. Alfred confides to Pirovitch that he's falling in love with his secret pen pal. But Alfred hasn't met her in person.  Mr. Matuschek's demeanor begins to change. He suspects his wife is having an affair. Alfred wants to ask Mr. Matuschek for a raise.  Matuschek won't meet with him.  Alfred contemplates quitting. 

Both Alfred and Klara have important engagements one night. Mr. Matuschek makes everyone stay after hours to begin decorating the store windows for the holidays. Matuschek calls Alfred into his office.  He quietly fires Alfred and then abruptly sends everyone home. Klara races to her secret liaison. Pirovitch tries to tell Mr. Matuschek he's made a mistake letting Alfred go. Matuschek won't listen.  A private detective (Charles Halton) hired by Matuschek arrives at the store. He reports that Matuschek's wife has not been seeing Alfred (who Matuschek suspected due to an anomymous letter).  Instead, Mrs. Matuschek is having an affair with Matuschek's employee Ferencz Vadas. After the detective leaves, Matuschek goes into his office and closes his door. Pepi returns to the shop after some late deliveries and discovers Matuschek about to shoot himself. Pepi saves Mr. Matuschek. 

Alfred and Pirovitch wander to the Cafe Nizza where Alfred was to meet his secret pen pal.  She's supposed to be wearing a red carnation and reading Anna Karenina. Pirovitch peers into the window and only sees one woman. Klara. Alfred realizes Klara is his secret pen pal.  Alfred goes in and sits next to Klara, pretending to be waiting for Pirovitch.  Klara is upset that Alfred might spoil her evening and the two insult one another until Klara realizes her secret man isn't coming. Later that night, Pepi calls Alfred to tell him Mr. Matuschek is in the hospital.  Alfred goes to visit him. Matuschek apologizes to Alfred and makes him manager of the store and Pepi a clerk.  On his first day as manager, Alfred fires Vadas. Klara calls out sick, despondent her secret admirer failed to show. Alfred goes to visit Klara.  A new letter arrives from her mystery man (written by Alfred). She reads it in front of him. Christmas Eve arrives.  Matuschek and Company have their biggest earning day ever.  Matuschek shows up for the first time from the hospital.  He hands out bonuses and gives everyone Christmas off. Alfred walks into the back room where Klara is wrapping a present for her special guy.  Klara admits she had a brief crush on Alfred when she first was hired. Alfred shows her a diamond necklace he bought for his secret gal and has her try it on. Alfred puts a red carnation in his lapel and reveals to Klara he's her mysterious pen pal.  They kiss. The End.

Sophisticated comedy is another word for a smart film.  Lubitsch and his writers trust that the audience is acute enough to be able to follow the storyline, multiple characters, and subplots.  It's not a comedy of manners. The characters are not wealthy (except for Mr. Matuschek) but they are intelligent, hardworking, and interesting. THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER is not a Howard Hawks or Frank Capra screwball comedy like BRINGING UP BABY (1933) or IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1931) with rapid fire dialogue.  The film takes its time revealing its plot points, allowing us to become acquainted with Alfred Kralik, Klara Novak, Hugo Matuschek, and the employees of Matuschek and Company. 

The cleverness of THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER is highlighted with the relationship of Alfred and Klara who can't stand each as coworkers yet they're falling in love with each other through their alter egos as secret pen pals. Lubitsch waits until about two thirds into the film before allowing Alfred to discover first who his mystery pen pal is.  Klara doesn't learn her mystery lover's identity until the last few minutes of the film.  It provides tension for the last act and makes the big reveal all the sweeter and worth the wait. 

Lubitsch has a running gag with both the leather cigarette boxes and the song it plays "Ochi Chernye." The cigarette boxes begin a rift between Mr. Matuschek and Alfred that's exasperated by Matuschek's suspicion that Alfred is cheating with his wife. Alfred felt having the song attached to the gift might sour on the buyer if the relationship went bad after the purchase. Klara manages to sell one of the cigarette boxes to a customer to get herself hired which puts her on Alfred's bad side.  When Alfred runs into Klara at Cafe Nizza, the band plays "Ochi Chernye" which sounds like a funeral dirge to Alfred who's been fired and Klara whose mysterious rendezvous never shows. When Alfred fires Vadas and they scuffle, he pushes Vadas into a stack of the cigarette boxes, "Ochi Chernye" playing a dozen times at once for the disgraced Vadas.  Finally, Alfred goes into the back room to reveal to Klara he's her secret pen pal.  Klara is wrapping a leather cigarette box to give to her pen pal aka Alfred.  The leather cigarette box has come full circle. 

James Stewart was just another contract actor for MGM in the 1930s playing either shallow heels or handsome villains (AFTER THE THIN MAN). It wasn't until 1939 that Stewart would work with some talented directors who saw how to utilize his talent.  Stewart would appear in Frank Capra's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and George Marshall's comedy western DESTRY RIDES AGAIN.  1940 would be even bigger with Lubitsch's THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER and George Cukor's THE PHILADELPHIA STORY which would snare Stewart the Academy Award for Best Actor.  Stewart's role as Mike Connor in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY is flashier but Stewart's Alfred Kralik is the glue that holds the ensemble cast in SHOP together. His co-workers look up to him, one co-worker is jealous of Alfred's success, and the newest co-worker Klara will discover that the man she loathes at work is her secret pen pal lover. It's a joy to watch Stewart play a wide range of emotions from cocky salesman to fired employee to compassionate manager. 

If you didn't think actor Frank Morgan was the nicest actor in the world after watching him play the Great and Powerful Oz (and four other characters) in Victor Fleming's THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939), his performance as Hugo Matuschek in THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER will win you over. Even when Morgan has to be mean (like firing Alfred or making his employees stay late to dress the shop windows), he still comes across as sympathetic and fatherly. Morgan as Mr. Matuschek starts out as a grumpy, fussy shop owner but after he survives his suicide attempt, he becomes Oz like. He makes Alfred manager of the store and gives him a raise (which Alfred wanted).  And he promotes Pepi (who saved his life) from errand boy to clerk. Other films to watch the jovial Morgan in include Gregory La Cava's THE AFFAIRS OF CELLINI (1934) with Fredric March in which Morgan was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award and Victor Fleming's TORTILLA FLAT (1942) based on the John Steinbeck novel with Spencer Tracy, John Garfield, and Hedy Lamarr. 

I had never heard of Margaret Sullavan who plays Klara Novak in THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. Her filmography isn't very long and THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER may be her best known film. She even has top billing over James Stewart.  Sullavan's performance as the dreamy, sweet Klara in love with her secret pen pal who she doesn't realize she works with will have you thinking of another sweet actress who just happens to play her character in the SHOP remake -- Meg Ryan. Offscreen, Sullavan was temperamental on film sets and had a tragic life.  She had failed marriages to actor Henry Fonda (THE GRAPES OF WRATH) and director William Wyler (THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES) and two of her three children committed suicide as adults. Sullavan would die of an accidental overdose in 1960. 

Lubitsch favorite Felix Bressart (TO BE OR NOT TO BE) plays Alfred's co-worker and confidante Pirovitch.  If there is one weakness in THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, it's that the two other female players Inez Courtney and Sara Hayden have no character development, just a line or two.  Director Nora Ephron would remedy that in YOU'VE GOT MAIL with several well-developed female roles.  William Tracy steals THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER for me with the few scenes he's in as the store's precocious delivery boy. Besides a starring role in TERRY AND THE PIRATES (1940) based on a comic strip, Tracy's career never really took off.  Appreciate his best work in THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. 

Nora Ephron's remake YOU'VE GOT MAIL modernizes THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER and breaks new ground with the original while keeping the heart of the story intact. The remake takes place in New York City instead of Budapest, Hungary. One of the tools Ephron uses in YOU'VE GOT MAIL is to give both protagonists not only a love interest besides their internet romance but a best friend that they can confide in.  Ephron mastered the buddy character in her screenplay WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1989) directed by Rob Reiner when she gave lead actors Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan a buddy to commiserate with in Bruno Kirby for Crystal and Carrie Fischer for Ryan. She doubles it in YOU'VE GOT MAIL.

Co-written by Nora Ephron and her sister Delia Ephron and directed by Nora Ephron based on the film THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, YOU'VE GOT MAIL begins with our two protagonists Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) and Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) waiting for their significant others to leave for work in the morning so they can hop on their computers and anonymously communicate via an internet chat room. Kathleen uses Shopgirl as her alter ego. Joe is NY152. Joe and Kathleen have never met in person...yet.  They live near each other, almost bump into each other on the street, and shop at the same local market.  On the internet, they exchange observations on life, books, New York City, and Starbucks. Joe and Kathleen are both bookstore owners who are about to become rivals.  Joe is building a new giant Fox and Sons Books superstore directly across from Kathleen's small independent children's bookstore The Shop Around the Corner. Joe's company was started by his grandfather Schuyler Fox (John Randolph) and later Joe's father Nelson Fox (Dabney Coleman). Kathleen's little bookstore was started by her deceased mother and employs book lovers Christina Plutzker (Heather Burns), George Pappas (Steve Zahn), and accountant Birdie Conrad (Jean Stapleton). 

Joe watches his sister Gillian's (Cara Seymour) kids Annabelle (Halle Hirsch) and Matt (Jeffrey Scaperrota) one weekend before Thanksgiving. They wander into Kathleen's bookstore and Joe and Kathleen meet for the first time. Matt almost reveals Joe's identity to Kathleen. Joe scoots his niece and nephew out in time. Fox and Sons Books has its fancy grand opening. Soon, Kathleen's accountant Birdie immediately notices sales are down. Joe attends a book publishing party with his self-absorbed girlfriend Patricia Eden (Parker Posey). They run into Kathleen and her columnist boyfriend Frank Navasky (Greg Kinnear) at the same party. Kathleen finally discovers she's talking to her competitor Joe Fox. Joe and Kathleen do not hit it off in person and go out of their way to avoid each other when they cross paths in their neighborhood. Online, Joe proposes that he and Kathleen meet in person. Kathleen's not ready yet.  Kathleen and her co-workers put up a fight against the Fox Superstore.  Kathleen's customers protest and demonstrate. Kathleen makes speeches outside her bookstore. Frank writes a column about the little Shop Around the Corner against the big conglomerate bookstore giant. Joe comes off as a villain on a television interview. Despite all the publicity, Kathleen's store is headed for closure. Personally, Joe is not happy with the person he's becoming. 

Secret internet pals Joe and Kathleen agree to meet in person at Cafe Lalo as the Christmas holiday approaches. Joe asks his work partner Kevin Jackson (Dave Chappelle) to peer into the cafe and tell him what his secret lover looks like.  She's supposed to have a book and a flower with her. The only woman Kevin sees fitting that description is Kathleen Kelly, Joe's nemesis. Joe can't believe Kathleen is his online sweetheart.  Joe enters the cafe pretending to be meeting someone else. Kathleen begs Joe to leave so he doesn't embarrass her in front of her internet boyfriend when he shows up. Joe taunts her. Kathleen's mean to him back. Joe leaves the cafe. Kathleen realizes she's been stood up and leaves as well. Kathleen shares her heartbreak with Christina, Birdie, and George.  George thinks maybe her date was the Rooftop Killer who was captured that same night. Joe emails Kathleen apologizing for missing their date and pledges to be her friend.

Kathleen decides to close The Shop Around the Corner after 42 years. Kathleen and Frank go to a movie and have a fight. Later, they both realize that they're not in love with each other.  Frank moves out. Kathleen checks out Fox and Sons Books. She's not impressed. Joe and Patricia return to their apartment and end up stuck in the elevator.  Patricia throws a tantrum.  Joe realizes he's not in love with Patricia.  He moves onto his moored boat where he's joined by his father Nelson whose girlfriend has just left him. Joe makes an effort to be Kathleen's friend in person.  He brings her flowers when she's sick.  They walk around New York. Kathleen thinks about writing a book.  Chatroom partners Joe and Kathleen agree to meet again, this time at a garden park.  Kathleen is surprised when it's Joe who comes around the corner.  Her true love has been right in front of her all this time. They kiss. The end. 

Co-writer/director Ephron expounds on the original. She takes Alfred's co-worker and confidante Pirovitch in THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER and doubles him in YOU'VE GOT MAIL, giving both Joe and Kathleen a friend or friends to confide in. Adding to that, Ephron gives both Joe and Kathleen a significant other in Frank and Patricia.  Both love interests are into themselves and faintly oblivious to their partners Joe and Kathleen which makes it easier for the audience to understand why Joe and Kathleen have been driven to an anonymous chat room to find romance and good conversation. 

YOU'VE GOT MAIL has a few nods to the original.  First, Kathleen's children's bookstore is cleverly called The Shop Around the Corner after Lubitsch's film.  It's the perfect name for an independent, woman-owned bookstore and a great homage to the original film. Director Ephron smartly keeps the cafe meeting scene in YOU'VE GOT MAIL from the original when Joe discovers the woman he's been knocking heads with in their bookstore war is his secret internet chatroom companion. It was the pivotal scene in THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER and it sets in motion how Joe will figure out how to reveal his true self to Kathleen, not the pompous, evil corporate bully he's become. Ephron changes the final reveal from Christmas Eve in the back room of Matuschek and Company in SHOP to a sunnier, outdoor garden park setting in YOU'VE GOT MAIL complete with Joe's dog along for the big moment. If YOU'VE GOT MAIL'S ending doesn't make you teary eyed, you have become the new cold Joe Fox.  

The filmmakers in YOU'VE GOT MAIL take a few shots at giant corporations like Amazon (which started out as an online bookstore) and Walmart that push out the independent shop owners and Mom and Pop stores with their supersized stores. Kathleen and her The Shop Around the Corner children's bookstore are the David against the Goliath of Fox and Sons Books. YOU'VE GOT MAIL is also a time capsule of the early days of the internet and email with Joe and Kathleen using AOL (acronym for America Online which briefly bought Warner Bros in 2001, the studio who made YOU'VE GOT MAIL) and that familiar dial up noise and little jingle "You've Got Mail" when an email arrived. 

The strength of YOU'VE GOT MAIL is its cast. The chemistry between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as the two anonymous cyber crossed lovers is a winning formula that director Ephron would repeat again with the two actors in 1993 with her hit SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE.  Hanks and Ryan also appeared together in John Patrick Shanley's JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO (1990), their one film that was not a box office success. Like WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, YOU'VE GOT MAIL humorously explores the differences between men and women. Hanks's Joe Fox finds that everything in life can be explained by quotes from THE GODFATHER.  Ryan's Kathleen Kelly is inspired by her literary heroine Elizabeth Bennett from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Hanks had mostly played goofy, likable characters early in his career (SPLASH) so Joe Fox is a departure.  The corporate world has made him cold and ruthless as he and his company devour smaller bookstores.  The impact his superstore has on not just Kathleen Kelly's store but on Kathleen and her employees will change his course for the better. 

Two of my favorite characters in YOU'VE GOT MAIL are new ones created by the Ephron sisters. Greg Kinnear (AS GOOD AS IT GETS) is hilarious as Kathleen's compliment craving columnist boyfriend Frank Navasky who loves typewriters. Indie screen favorite Parker Posey (BEST IN SHOW) almost equals Kinnear as Fox's equally self-centered publishing house girlfriend Patricia Eden. Both Kinnear and Posey have one delicious scene that truly shows who they are and why they are totally wrong for Ryan and Hanks.  Dabney Coleman who played selfish, inconsiderate characters to humorous effect in films like Colin Higgins NINE TO FIVE (1980) and Sydney Pollack's TOOTSIE (1982) has a similar role as Fox's father Nelson in YOU'VE GOT MAIL.  Younger Fox begins to realize he may become like his father (and his three failed marriages) if he doesn't turn his life around soon. 

Some inspired casting includes comedian Dave Chappelle (CHAPPELLE'S SHOW) as Fox's business partner and friend Kevin Jackson. Hanks and Chappelle seem like an unlikely pairing as friends, but it works.  Apparently, Chappelle turned down the role as Forrest Gump's buddy Bubba in Robert Zemeckis's FORREST GUMP (1994) and regretted it.  Hanks suggested Chappelle to Ephron for the buddy role in YOU'VE GOT MAIL.  I had not seen Jean Stapleton in anything since her incredible stint on the CBS Comedy series ALL IN THE FAMILY (1971-1979) as Archie Bunker's ditsy wife Edith. Stapleton plays Birdie, Kathleen's mother's old friend who does the accounting for the bookstore.  Stapleton's Birdie provides sage advice for Kathleen as she closes one chapter of her life and begins another. 

A special shout out to film editor Richard Marks whose work on YOU'VE GOT MAIL epitomizes his esteemed career.  Marks cut his teeth on coming-of-age comedies like Howard Deutsch's PRETTY IN PINK (1986) with Molly Ringwald and Cameron Crowe's SAY ANYTHING (1989) with John Cusack.  Marks would really flourish in comedy dramas when he collaborated with director James Brooks on TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983) starting Jack Nicholson and Shirley MacLaine and BROADCAST NEWS (1987) starring William Hurt, Holly Hunter, and Albert Brooks. With YOU'VE GOT MAIL, Marks shows his skill juxtaposing Joe and Kathleen conversing on their computers with their scenes together.  He skillfully handles montages like with Joe and the kids at a street carnival or Kathleen's crusade to save her bookstore.  Every actor's performance is the right take and the film never hits a wrong note.  Marks passed away in 2018 and it should be noted director Nora Ephron died in 2012.  Both talented artists that are truly missed.

It's very rare when a remake like YOU'VE GOT MAIL captures the main elements of its predecessor 58 years earlier like THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER yet expands upon it and adapts it correctly to the modern age. There's no denying that Tom Hanks is the James Stewart of his generation. And Meg Ryan is the sweet, pretty spunky actress that reminded us of actresses from the 40s like Claudette Colbert or Irene Dunne (or Margaret Sullavan had her career flourished instead of stalling).  What's nice about both films is there are many differences between them too. They can be watched individually and taken on their own merits (I would surmise that a great deal of moviegoers didn't know that YOU'VE GOT MAIL was based on THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER).  I would call either of them a holiday films as they make you feel good which is all that we ask during the holidays.