Remembering Margaret Sullavan, Who Would Have Been 100 (or 102) This Year

[Matilda]

I found this tribute to Margaret Sullavan (and The Shop Around The Corner), and it was so tender and expressed so perfectly my own feelings about this wonderful, tragic actress, I'd like to share it with you:

Every now and then, you run into people who have not seen The Shop Around the Corner. These men and women seem normal enough. They speak English, they wear clothes, they comb their hair. They may be walking the dog or looking for a pinot noir at a party, and they say, “What was that film you mentioned?” They’re good-natured about their ignorance, especially when you tell them the film is 71 years old and in black-and-white. There are people who reckon those conditions are beyond their range or pay level, like the famine in East Africa or the bubbling of the permafrost in Siberia. Never mind, you say, not having seen The Shop Around the Corner is easier to remedy than those other problems. And this week I am taking the opportunity to remember the film because Margaret Sullavan would have been a hundred this year (or 102—read on). Not that she ever showed much promise of getting close to those ages.

http://www.tnr.com/article/film/95359/sullivan-sterwart-shop-around-the-corner-hollywood


I particularly like the last paragraph:

Some people say, “Didn’t Nora Ephron remake that film, with … Meg Ryan?” I tell them, no.

My sentiments exactly.