“The Shop Around the Corner” (1940)
My favorite holiday movie is The Shop Around the Corner, later remade as In the Good Old Summertime and You’ve Got Mail. Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan are bickering store clerks in Budapest. Unknown to them, they’re also pen pals, writing provoking and passionate anonymous letters to one another.
The rest of the store’s staff has a more robust plot than might be expected, which is part of what gives this romantic comedy some heft and impressive momentum.
This movie might be perfect. I love it.