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To Shirley Temple it is rather important that they should. This year Cinemactress Temple, now age ten, fell to fifth place among Hollywood stars in box-office rating. Persistent rumor, persistently denied by her studio, has it that the success of The Blue Bird and the future of little Miss Temple are vitally connected.
The Shop Around the Corner (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) picturizes one of those completely unimportant, highly entertaining, expertly carpentered Hungarian plays which Ferenc Molnar used to turn out by the dozen, which Hollywood does better than it does almost anything else and which Ernst Lubitsch does better than anybody else in Hollywood. Producer-Director Lubitsch, riding high again as a result of his success with Ninotchka, calls this one "a miniature Grand Hotel." But this time the improbable goings-on concern the paternal boss and clerks in the Budapest leather-goods shop of Matuschek (rhymes with hat-to-check) & Co. As the plot has as many complications as characters, much of the fun comes in watching Scripter Samson Raphaelson neatly tangle and untangle them without tying himself in a hard knot.
From long experience, audiences know at first blush that the high-minded young man with whom Clerk Klara Novak (Mar garet Sullavan) is corresponding through a lonely-hearts hookup is her detested fellow clerk, Kralik (James Stewart). They also know that Hugo Matuschek is all wrong in suspecting Kralik of mis conduct with Mrs. Matuschek. The culprit, as everybody else can see, is oily Clerk Vadas. The outcome is equally certain.
As kindly, jealous Hugo Matuschek, Frank Morgan (who has a flair for Central European roles) turns in his best perform ance since he was Diana Wynyard's husband in Reunion in Vienna. William Tracy (the much hazed plebe of Brother Rat} is the typically brassy errand boy who, after saving his boss from suicide, badgers him into making his rescuer a clerk. James Stewart walks through the amiable busi ness of being James Stewart. Joseph Schildkraut, as usual in a minor part, as 'usual acts rings around everybody else.
Good shot: Felix Bressart, as a timid clerk afraid for his job, repeatedly dodging out of sight whenever Boss Matuschek asks for an opinion.