Current IMDB score: 8.1
Director: Ernest Lubitsch
Main Actors you care about: James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, Frank Morgan
Why I liked it: I've seen You've Got Mail a few dozen times and knew of this movie from that movie but never sat down and watched it. I like this much better than You've Got Mail. This movie gives a slightly different perspective on love. In college I came up with the statement "People find the similarities in the people they like and the differences in the people they don't like." This is a form of bias which is wonderfully displayed in this movie. At first meeting (in person) the girl and the guy don't care for each other. They find small things that they bother them about each other and make up their minds that this just not a great person. The in real life relationship they find things that that make them prejudice to each other so they look for differences they have. The pen-pal relationship they don't have the prejudice and are able find the similarities in each other. Maybe love is just a bias and "true love" is being in love with that bias when you realize it.
What stands out: It gave me something to think about and is pretty fantastic for a movie made in 1940. I don't even remember if it was in black and white or not which is pretty good for a movie. (Hint: (After checking) It is in black and white.)
Thing(s) I would change: I would want to hear more about what's in their letters. You've Got Mail read us what they wrote in there "secret" correspondence and I think this movie would have benefited from that. I would want the "secret" relationship to make us somehow fall in love with their "secret" relationship before making us know that it's really both them. Maybe just show the whole time from her point of view or something. I think that would made it go up to an 8 because you'd want to rewatch it with the knowledege that he knew by the cafe scene. It would be slightly more interesting I feel like.
There is a scene where she says something like "in first few weeks you could have swept me off my feet". I didn't feel that. That was either poorly acted or put in after they filmed those scenes.
Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
I just found it funny:
Woman Customer: How much is that belt in the window, the one that says "2.95?"
Alfred Kralik: $2.95
Woman Customer: Oh, no!
Alfred Kralik: Pirovitch, did you ever get a bonus?
Pirovitch: Yes, once.
Alfred Kralik: Yeah. The boss hands you the envelope. You wonder how much is in it, and you don't want to open it. As long as the envelope's closed, you're a millionaire.
Whenever I used to get letters/messages from girls I loved I would think much like this.
Similar Movies/TV Shows: You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, Love Actually?, It's a Wonderful Life?
"Side" note:
Apparently all the scenes were shot in sequence.
