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The free film series "The Screening Room: Classics, Crowd-Pleasers, Cult Favorites and Neglected Gems" begins a two-part salute to the spirit of Valentine’s Day with Ernst Lubitsch’s light-hearted love story "The Shop Around the Corner" (1940).

The Berlin-born director’s clever and captivating romance – which inspired the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan favorite "You’ve Got Mail" more than fifty years later – will be screened at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library, 350 N. Wood Ave., Florence, Alabama.

Based on a play by Miklos Laszlo, The Shop Around the Corner" tells the tender and charming story of two gift-shop employees (played by James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan) who openly despise each other. As on-the-job tension between them grows, the two are unwittingly falling in love in their private lives through letters they write to one another as anonymous pen pals.

Named to the National Film Registry in 1999, "The Shop Around the Corner" also stars Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut and Felix Bressart.

"The Screening Room" ’s pre-Valentine’s lineup will conclude with a screening of the critically acclaimed love story "The Whole Wide World" (1996) at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11. The fact-based film tells the tragic but moving story of the love affair between pulp writer and "Conan the Barbarian" creator Robert E. Howard (Vincent D’Onofrio) and poet Novalyne Price (Rene Zellweger).

"The Screening Room" will also observe Black History Month in February with screenings of "Sounder" (1972, starring Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield and James Best) at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 23, and the Oscar-winning "Glory" (1989, starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman) at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25.

"The Screening Room" is sponsored by the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library and Pillar of Fire. The series is organized and hosted by film historian and Pillar of Fire founder Terry Pace, who teaches English at UNA.

All "Screening Room" programs are free and open to the public. For details, call the library at (256) 764-6564 or Pillar of Fire at (256) 366-4512, or e-mail pillaroffire@bellsouth.net.

“There might be a lot we don’t know about each other. You know, people seldom go to the trouble of scratching the surface of things to find the inner truth.” – Alfred Kralick (James Stewart) in Ernst Lubitsch’s "The Shop Around the Corner" (1940)
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