Nearly all the reviews are warm, and the praise clusters where you would expect: on Ernst Lubitsch’s direction, his handling of the small quarrels and loyalties of the shop floor, and the irony of two lovers whose grand letters keep them from recognising each other across the counter. Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart are singled out repeatedly, Sullavan for her warmth and Stewart for the ease of his comic playing. Several critics treat the film as seasonal viewing and find it more affecting than the later films made in its image.
Reservations are mild and few. Slant Magazine thinks the second half loses dramatic weight once the central crises resolve, and Radio Times calls the plot thin, though charm carries it. Empire finds the clerks’ money worries as touching as the romance. The spread is narrow, from good to glowing, with no negative notice; the one contemporaneous New York Times review could not be read in full, so its verdict stands unverified.