|
Year
: 1947
Director:
George Seaton
Starring:
Maureen O'Hara, John Payne,
Edmund Gwenn, Natalie Wood.. |
Miracle on 34th Street
I
will leave you to decide whether the 1947 or 1994
version of Miracle on 34th Street is
the best. (It's the 1947 version obviously).
This
is a real Christmas classic. In fact what could
be more Christmassy than a court room tussle over
the vagaries of judicial process - well quite a
lot I suppose when you think about it.
The
film tells the story of Kris Kringle, an old man,
who through circumstances, luck and knowledge of
Santa Claus he gets a job at Macy's department
store on 34th street as their Santa. Kris excels
at his job and is a sensation - with everyone having
good word to say for him. But when Kris contends
that he is the real Santa the department store
ask their inhouse physician to make
sure Kris is mentally suitably equipped to be an
employee for the firm. Upset by his inquirers
previous behaviour Kris deliberately fails a sanity
test so that he may be permanently remanded in
a mental institution. Buoyed by the warmth of feeling
he has passed onto others a legal challenge is
made to attempt to get him out of the institution.
When the case gets to court the case for the defence
is that Kris Kringle is not mad on the ground that
Kris Kringle is actually Santa. Good luck with
that then.
Much
like It's A Wonderful life form the previous year Miracle
on 34th Street manages to
infuse within its story a certain ideal about Christmas
itself, with its suggestion that even if Kringle
is not the real Santa, the faith and belief that
people have in Mr Kringle means the question
is of whether he is Santa is irrelevant and further
that the belief is all that matters. You cant argue
with that I suppose. With its great story line
it is one of those, precious few, constantly repeated
films that you never tire of.
An
interesting aside about this film - it was originally
released in the cinema during the summer as studio
bosses were of the opinion that movies only do
"business" during the summer. Due to it being a
summer release the advance publicity deliberately
made no mention of the fact that the film is about
Christmas.
Miracle on 34th Street
is at December 22nd on our Films
guaranteed to make you feel Christmassy (UK edition).
Buy
this film and more from our Christmas
DVD Store in association
with Amazon.co.uk
