Why, it’s another movie by Ernst Lubitsch! And it could not be more different from the stately silent film we looked at last week. (My God, it’s almost like this was planned.)

A classic comedy of manners, “The Shop Around the Corner” got a boost in 1998 when “You’ve Got Mail” came out; it had also been remade in 1949 as the musical “In The Good Old Summertime” with Judy Garland (and a 3-year-old Liza Minnelli). Timeless as the theme may be, it works really well as a period piece. Shops like this just don’t exist anymore.

James Stewart plays Alfred, top salesman at a retail shop in Budapest, and Maureen Sullavan is new hire Klara. They get off on the wrong foot and spend most of the movie arguing with each other, both unaware that they’re also anonymous pen pals. For both of them, life pretty much revolves around the shop, and both find their letters a welcome escape into a higher realm of thought — and eventually into love!

Really though this is much more of a workplace story than a romance. From the opening scene, when all the shop employees filter in to start the day, the movie’s often an ensemble piece. Stewart’s Alfred is the only person who’s not afraid of boss man Matuschek (Frank Morgan), and a lot of scenes hinge on the different ways the employees try to ingratiate themselves to their boss. Any modern worker can relate, although the top-top boss is more likely to be in a city across the country than an office right off the sales floor. There’s also frequent and noisy comic relief provided by errand boy Pepi (William Tracy).

Once Stewart and Sullavan get going, their snippy exchanges become the movie’s best scenes. My favorites are her hiring scene and another bit in a storage room as she works up to asking for some time off — both scenes start off with a tone of friendly detachment and then gradually dissolve into icy rancor. I love how they coldly address each other as “Miss Novak” and “Mr. Kralik.” Over time, though, they develop a grudging respect for each other.

Before the jump here, I just have to warn you people that there’s a still from one of the final frames toward the bottom there and, well, if you got at all freaked out by Cary Grant dressed as Santa Claus, you might want to brace yourselves. Life is not always pretty, and neither are the movies. OK, here we go.

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There's not much reason to watch Ernst Lubitsch's silent historical epic "Anna Boleyn" (which Netflix informs me is also called "Deception"), unless you're, say, a movie blogger who has set herself the cussed task of watching only films from 1920, 1940, 1960 and 1980. Fortunately for you, I am just such a blogger, and so I have watched this film so that you do not have to!

It's not that it's bad by any means; for 1920, the sets and costumes are pretty impressive. Five minutes in, I was waving a pizza slice around and expostulating to the cats, "Look at that crowd shot! All these people in costume! This thing must have cost a fortune!" And the acting is often hammy but fun, and it fits the material. Also, a wench jumps out of a cake! It's just that the thing is so long. Run time is about two hours, but it feels longer.

Part of the problem is that you already know the story, although the tragedy's been hepped up until it feels like "Tess of the d'Urbervilles." Young Anna (German for "Anne," I guess) Boleyn arrives from France to stay with her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk (Ludwig Hartau), and be a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon. She's excited to meet the queen and also to be reunited with her boyfriend, megacutie Sir Henry Norris (Paul Hartmann).

Instead, she catches the roving eye of big gross King Henry VIII (Emil Jannings, clearly enjoying himself tremendously). He openly chases Anna around, devastating Catherine (the lusciously named Hedwig Pauly-Winterstein) and shattering Anna's relationship with Sir Henry. Anna ends up married to the man she loathes, and we all know how that goes for her.

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