The Custom of the Country*

Recently I watched Ernst Lubitsch’s charming romance, The Shop around the Corner, starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. Made in 1940. In this time of endless remakes, the latest and most successful iteration of which was You’ve Got Mail.

The storyline has had several revisits of less successful nature: a guy and a gal begin corresponding, while, unknown to either, they are encountering each other daily. Their correspondent selves are busy falling in love as they come to dislike each ot...