This excerpt from Alfonso Duralde’s book Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas takes us to a charming Hungarian boutique where almost everyone seems to speak with an American accent: Co-workers Klara (Margaret Sullavan) and Alfred (James Stewart), both clerks at an upscale Budapest boutique at the turn of the 20th century, despise each other, but they unknowingly exchange breathlessly romantic letters as pen pals. There’s no shortage of intrigue at the store, owned by Mr. Matuschek (Frank Morgan), whose wife is cheating on him — he incorrectly believes Alfred may be cuckolding him, not realizing that his wife’s lover is someone else on his payroll. When Alfred loses his job, he’s too depressed to keep his date with his pen pal, but after a friend peeks in and tells him that Klara is the girl he was supposed to meet, Alfred has to decide whether or not to declare his love to his rival. Whatever happens between Alfred and Klara, it’s going to have to wait until after the Christmas rush.
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12 Films of Christmas: The Shop Around the Corner
