Xmas in Film: The Shop Around the Corner

It's hard to believe, but I've actually gone through the first four days of December without talking about anything film related (non-animated, that is).  Well, that ends here as does my moratorium on talking about romantic comedies (I did say that holiday themed ones didn't count) as we look at the first Christmas movie of the season.  It stars a man who is ubiquitous with the Christmas season, starring in one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time- Mr. James Stewart.  But, we're not talking about It's a Wonderful Life today- that would be way too obvious.  Instead, I wanted to highlight Jimmy's role in another great Christmas movie, 1940's The Shop Around The Corner, directed by Ernst Lubitsch.

The plot of The Shop Around The Corner is a very familiar (it was remade twice, as 1949's In The Good Old Summertime and 1998's You've Got Mail).  Two shop clerks who can't stand each other turn out to be each other's secret pen pals, with whom they are in each love with.  Stewart plays Alfred Kralik, a clerk at Matuschek & Company, a Budapest leather goods store and Margaret Sullivan plays Klara Novak, his fellow clerk/nemesis who turns out to be the woman of his dreams.  To be honest, their relationship doesn't really do much for me.  I find Margaret Sullivan's character to be incredibly histrionic and there are times when Stewart's character can be downright mean.  That been said, there are a couple scenes between the two that really shine - the scene where Stewart's character discovers that Sullavan's is his pen pal and toys with her while she nervously waits for her "pen pal" and the scene at the very end when Sullavan finally realizes that Stewart is her pen pal and they finally get together.  These scenes help make up for the rest of the film's lacklustre interactions between the two.

Now that I've taken care of the main plot of the film, I can focus on the reason that I really love this film- the subplots and the characters who inhabit them.  Like any retail establishment, this film is populated with an assortment of characters that give the film its life.  From the wise-ass delivery boy Peppy, to the kindhearted yet timid family-man Pirovitch, to the sleazy dandy Vadas - they all have their little backstories.  The biggest one involves the big man himself Mr. Matuschek (played by The Wizard of Oz himself Frank Morgan) who incorrectly suspects that Kralik is having an affair with his wife.  Prior to his suspicions he and Kralik had a relationship similar to that of a father and son, and this has a major effect on Stewart's employment and causes Matuschek to make an attempt suicide.  Not to worry though, this is a comedy and all turns out well in the end with everyone getting what's coming to him.

Everything culminates on Christmas Eve with one of my favourite Christmas scenes in any film.  Mr. Matuschek, who has just been released from the hospital has just given everyone their Christmas bonuses after a very successful Christmas Eve, looks to his staff (his one true family) for someone to spend Christmas with now that his marriage is over.  One by one they all tell them of their plans with friends and loved ones.  It looks like he's destined to be alone when he learns of the new delivery boy's situation (his family don't live in town) and he generously offers to take him for a wonderful Christmas dinner.  It's an unusually touching moment that makes the film for me.  Here it is...

An Early Xmas Present - Fashion of the Swinging Sixties Now on the Main Site

Great news!  We now have the latest page on our retro fashion review up on our main site.  In an admittedly lame attempt to tie the coming of the sixties section on the main page into our Bombshell Photography Christmas season,  I've used a screen shot from the Christmas episode of the AMC series Mad Men (episode 2 of season 4, entitled Christmas Comes But Once a Year, to be exact).  To be honest, it is the only picture from the episode that I could find that had a clear shot of some classic sixties fashion (sorry Christina Hendricks fans).  Oh well, Trudy Campbell (played by actress Alison Brie) has actually grown on me as a character.  If you've never watched Mad Men, I highly recommend it: if not for the stories for the series' brilliant recreation of the sixties.

To view our updated sixties fashion page click here.

A Bit of Holiday Auditory Nostalgia: Christmas Magic

The Christmas season brings out the most amazing array of seasonal music, considering the limited number of songs and the ridiculous number of covers that have been made of each.  Still there is something comforting about those old recordings made in the forties and fifties with their warm acoustic atmosphere, luscious orchestrations, and the use of a choral backing that has long since been abandoned in this age of cold, digitally manipulated music. 

As a child, my mother always used to play an old cassette copy of an LP that my grandparents used to own when she was a child.  It featured a number of orchestrated and choral numbers that to an untrained ear sounded like the usual old timey Christmas music of the era.  What distinguished it were three tracks the featured a singer who literally sounded like a grown woman trying her best to sound as if she were the most insipid five years-old to ever grace the planet.  My brother an I, not so endearingly, dubbed her the Neutered Chick.  A couple years ago I was feeling sentimental about the Neutered Chick and that whole album, and not knowing the name of the album, nor who the artists behind it were took up an evening of tenacious online research led me to both the name of the album and artist: Christmas Magic by The Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra, released in 1958.  The Neutered Chick's real name turned out to be Julie Valentine.  I managed to get a copy of the original LP (it's also available on iTunes now).

The Tracks include an orchestral version of White Christmas and Swing on a Star, the Neutered Chick singing Winter Wonderland, That's What I Want For Christmas, and I Want To Hitch  Ride With Santa Claus, and choral renditions of The Second Star To The Right, Carol of the Bells, I Saw Three Ships, Deck the Halls, I Love That Christmas Feeling, Away in a Manger, and Christmas Island.  Listening to it now, the choral tracks are the ones that really stick out the most to me (although, the Neutered Chick still holds a special place in my heart).

Upon receiving my own copy of the LP, I found a new reason to enjoy this album- the cover artwork is really great.  I enjoy the use of the old fashioned frosted glass Christmas lights draped around the girl and her beau.  It actually inspired a test photo session that a friend of mine and I held last Christmas.  I would like to fully imitate the cover with a couple at some point down the road.  If you and your significant other is interested you can always email us at info@photobombshell.com.  Here's a  sampling of the Neutered Chick.

Classic Holiday Animation Retrospective: Peace on Earth

I was thinking of talking about Hugh Harman's MGM short, Peace on Earth, around Remembrance Day, but I figured with its strong Christmas vibe that I would save it for December.  It's a pretty powerful short that nominated an Oscar for best animated short film way back in 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, and it was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.  Peace on Earth features a Utopian earth that has been reconquered by the animals of the world after mankind has successfully obliterated himself from the face of the planet through modern warfare.  It starts with woodland squirrels singing a song that sounds suspiciously like Hark the Herald, but with the key lyrics replaced by the word, "Peace on Earth, good will to man."  A pair of young squirrels don't know what man is, so they ask their wise old Grand Pappy who relates the sad tale of how the race of man ceased to exist.  The short goes into dark territory as Grand Pappy relates the terrifying realities of war, with animated tanks, soldiers in gas masks brandishing bayonets take one and other out.  The animators used rotoscoping (drawing over live battle footage) to accurately portray what war really looked like in 1939.

The result is a harrowing piece of animation that I would imagine flooring audiences who were used to kinder, gentler animated short before and between their features-something from the Wonderful World of Disney, perhaps.  I have to say the ending is more than a little preachy as the animals take their cues from living in peace from the Bible.  It's a little heavy handed for a cynical gal like me... but the message of peace remains as topical as ever.  Little has changed in the world as we still teeter on the brink of complete annihilation.  I take comfort in the fact that in this post-apocalypse the animals survive.  This short was remade in 1955 by Hanna-Barbara, under the new name Good Will to Men.  Here's the original short in all its glory...

Welcome to Bombshell Photography's Official Christmas Kick Off!

Christmas time is here, and we've got something very special to celebrate the  beginning of the Christmas season here on the blog.  As the official beginning to the season we have some Christmas themed pin-ups featuring myself and Lady B to help spread some Christmas cheer.