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The Shop Around the Corner poster

Movies that feel likeThe Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.

If you loved The Shop Around the Corner, the closest films we have are Limelight (1952), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) and Holiday (1938). All three share The Shop Around the Corner's witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948).

🍅 99% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Ernst Lubitschwittyplayfulcontemplativeromantictender
8 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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See it on the Mood Map

If The Shop Around the Corner hit the spot, these will too

Limelight poster
Limelight
1952 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 88%★ 8romance · drama · comedyMax

Common ground: black and white

A fading music hall comedian tries to help a despondent ballet dancer learn to walk and to again feel confident about life.

I Know Where I'm Going! poster
I Know Where I'm Going!
1945 · dir. Michael Powell
🍅 100%★ 7.4romance · drama · comedy

Both are built on the same subject: black and white

Plucky Englishwoman Joan Webster travels to the remote islands of the Scottish Hebrides in order to marry a wealthy industrialist. Trapped by inclement weather on the Isle of Mull and unable to continue to her destination, Joan finds herself charmed by the straightforward, no-nonsense islanders around her, and becomes increasingly attracted to naval officer Torquil MacNeil, who holds a secret that may change her life forever.

Holiday poster
Holiday
1938 · dir. George Cukor
🍅 100%★ 7.7comedy · romance · drama

Witty where it counts, playful underneath

Johnny Case, a freethinking financier, has finally found the girl of his dreams — Julia Seton, the spoiled daughter of a socially prominent millionaire — and she's agreed to marry him. But when Johnny plans a holiday for the two to enjoy life while they are still young, his fiancée has other plans & that is for Johnny to work in her father's bank!

The Cameraman poster
The Cameraman
1928 · dir. Edward Sedgwick
🍅 100%★ 8comedy · romance · drama

Contemplative and romantic in the same breath

A photographer takes up newsreel shooting to impress a secretary.

The Circus poster
The Circus
1928 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 97%★ 8.1comedy · drama · romancePrime VideoMax

Tender comedy, and it commits to that

Charlie, a wandering tramp, becomes a circus handyman - soon the star of the show - and falls in love with the circus owner's stepdaughter.

Sabrina poster
Sabrina
1954 · dir. Billy Wilder
🍅 89%★ 7.6comedy · romance · drama

The same preoccupation in both: love

After two years in Paris, chauffeur's daughter Sabrina returns home elegantly transformed and immediately catches the attention of David, the playboy son of her father's rich employers. David woos and wins Sabrina, who has always been in love with him, however their romance is threatened by David's serious older brother Linus, who runs the family business and is relying on David to marry an heiress in order for a crucial merger to take place.

Children of Paradise poster
Children of Paradise
1945 · dir. Marcel Carné
🍅 98%★ 8.3drama · romance

One thread runs through both: love

The difference: Goes its own way on the wit

In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.

Sissi poster
Sissi
1955 · dir. Ernst Marischka
★ 7comedy · drama · romance

Drama with a pulse of wit, in both cases

The young Bavarian princess Elisabeth, who all call Sissi, goes with her mother and older sister Néné to Austria where Néné will be wed to an emperor named Franz Joseph, Yet unexpectedly Franz runs into Sissi while out fishing and they fall in love.

Letter from an Unknown Woman poster
Letter from an Unknown Woman
1948 · dir. Max Ophüls
🍅 100%★ 7.8drama · romance

Both keep coming back to the same thing: anonymous letter

A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember. As she tells the story of her lifelong love for him, he is forced to reinterpret his own past.

Brief Encounter poster
Brief Encounter
1945 · dir. David Lean
🍅 95%★ 8drama · romanceMax

Both lean on stillness more than on romance

Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.

Roman Holiday poster
Roman Holiday
1953 · dir. William Wyler
🍅 97%★ 8romance · comedy · drama

Playful comedy in both cases

Overwhelmed by her suffocating schedule, touring European princess Ann takes off for a night while in Rome. When a sedative she took from her doctor kicks in, however, she falls asleep on a park bench and is found by an American reporter, Joe Bradley, who takes her back to his apartment for safety. At work the next morning, Joe finds out Ann's regal identity and bets his editor he can get exclusive interview with her, but romance soon gets in the way.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town poster
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1936 · dir. Frank Capra
🍅 90%★ 7.8comedy · drama · romance

Drama built on romance, twice over

Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Shop Around the Corner’s defining feeling.