Miracle On 34th Street (1947)

The film begins as Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn)finds that the department store Santa that will be at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is plastered. He can't have that, so he complains to the event director for Macy's, Doris Walker(Maureen O'Hara) and she persuades Kris to take his place. He does such a fabulous job that she tells Mr Shellhammer(Philip Torge), who is the head of the toy department at Macy's, to sign him up to be the store Santa Claus.

After the parade, Doris goes home to find her daughter Susan (a very young Natalie Wood) watching the parade from her neighbor Fred Gailey's (John Payne) apartment. While watching the parade with Susan, Fred learns that Susan doesn't believe in Santa or Fairy Tales. When he questions Doris about this, she says that she wants Susan to know what's real. He basically invites himself over for Thanksgiving dinner and it is obvious that he has a crush on Doris.

The day after Thanksgiving, Kris is told by Mr. Shellhammer to promote certain toys that are overstocks. He doesn't like this and when a mother is frustrated by Santa telling her child that she would get him a certain toy, Kris tells her where to get it at a good price at a store that isn't Macy's. When Mr. Shellhammer finds out about this, he blows a gasket. Shortly after that, a customer congratulates Mr. Shellhammer on Macy's program to help the consumer during the Christmas season. Macy's adopts this philosophy of gift giving and goodwill and the store becomes the busiest store in town. Their chief rival, Gimbell's Department Store, adapts a similar policy and their years long rivalry is softened by a photo-op in which Mr. Macy and Mr. Gimbell shake hands.

Fred brings Susan in to see Santa and she tells Santa that she knows that he is a make-believe Santa as her mother is Mrs. Walker, although she admires his real beard. She later sees Santa speak Dutch to a little girl that doesn't speak English and begins to believe that he may be Santa.

Doris begins to worry that Kris may harm someone because he must be delusional if he believes that he is Santa and sends him to their in-house psychologist Mr. Sawyer (Porter Hall). Kris passes the tests, but angers Mr. Sawyer by taunting him. The doctor at the nursing home where Kris lives assures Doris that Kris is harmless, but asks if there is somewhere close that Kris can stay so that he doesn't have to travel every day. He ends up staying with Fred. While babysitting Susan one evening, Susan tells him that if he can get her a life sized house, she will know he is Santa Claus instead of just a nice old man like her mother says.

When Kris learns that Mr. Sawyer has upset one of his friends at the store, he confronts Mr. Sawyer and smacks him with his cane. This lands Kris in a mental hospital where he fails his tests on purpose because he is so upset.

Fred quits his job with his law firm so that he can defend Kris from being permanently committed. Kris goes before Judge Henry Harper (Gene Lockhart) and the Judge is put in the unenviable position of being the judge to put Santa away. His own grandchildren are mad at him. The district attorney, Thomas Mara (Jerome Cowan) asks Kris whether or not he thinks that he is Santa Claus and when Kris says yes, Mara rests his case. Fred decides to prove that Kris is Santa Claus. Fred subpoena's Mara's little boy and when he asks the boy who is Santa, the boy points at Kris. When asked who told him this, he says his father did. Cute!

A smart postal worker comes up with the idea to send all of the Santa letters from the dead letter office to the courthouse thereby getting rid of them and helping Santa. Fred proves that because the Post Office, a branch of the government, sent the letters to that courthouse and to Kris, that he is indeed the real Santa Claus. The Judge rules in favor of Kris. Doris invites Kris over for dinner, but he states that he will be very busy that night, "It's Christmas Eve!".

When Doris, Fred and Susan visit Kris at the rest home on Christmas morning, he gives them a map of a shortcut to go home. The map leads them to a house for sale that is the exact house that Susan wanted. Mission accomplished Santa!

This film was nominated for best picture and best supporting actor. Edmund Gwenn won for best supporting actor. This movie was released in May instead of at Christmastime as the studio thought more people saw movies in the summertime. This film was also played live on the Lux Radio Theater. Most of the same characters were on the radio show. I own this CD. It has all of the original Lux detergent commercials included. Fabulous!

96 Minutes. Not Rated. I give this movie FOUR AND ONE HALF STARS! A TRUE CLASSIC!

The clips below include one from the television and one theatrical trailer. The theatrical trailer is a hoot, shameless studio promotion at it's best! Look for the big stars!