Director: George
Seaton
Screenplay:
George Seaton based on the story by Valentine Davies
You lose track of time in living in Las Vegas sometimes. I
thought it was still Septmeber yesterday when I realized that the pizza place,
the Starbucks, the sandwich place, the Panda Express, and the second Starbucks
on College and Horizon were all covered in garland. It feels way too early to
think about Christmas to me, but it’s a good excuse to talk about holiday
movies and traditions. I think the best traditions would probably involve bad
Bing Crosby music, family get-togethers, which are quickly followed by
family-get-the-hell-out-of-my-house-togethers, egg nog sprinkled with just a
slight touch of nutmeg and half a bottle of Captain Morgan’s, hot cocoa with
little marshmallows and the other half of the bottle of Captain Morgan’s,
forgetting to decorate the fake Christmas tree because you know nobody will
ever take it down until February, and while we wait for Santa to bring us the
gifts that we told our parents that we wanted instead of the clothes and books
that they actually gave us, we all sit around one of the TVs in the house, and if
we aren’t completely plastered by the Captain Morgan’s egg nog, and watch our
favorite holiday specials, or play poker over cheesecake and coffee if the
specials aren’t good and frankly most of them aren’t really all that special. (Once
you’ve seen “A Judy Garland Christmas”, you have no reason to ever really see
it again.) But despite this cynicism there are still some that get me in the jolly mood. “Merry
Christmas, Charlie Brown,” is far and away the best of the holiday special
programming, followed by “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” the cartoon, not the
bad Jim Carrey movie. There are three movies that have become holiday staples as well: "Miracle on 34th Street", "It's a Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Story". (I know, we al have our personal other favorite Christmas movies too, mine for instance is Richard Curtis's "Love, Actually". [My mom's favorite Christmas movie is "Die Hard", stretching the definition of a Christmas movie a little but but whatever...])
Of those three that are undeniable must sees come
holiday time, in my opinion, “Miracle…” is far away the best of these and the
one that I think holds up better year after year. It takes a premise that is
absurd, and decides to let the film play it out not with cynicism, but with glee.
It’s the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, (an early example of product placement
in film) and Santa Clause is fairly drunk, so a nice old man with a white beard
takes his place in an emergency. And as a Santa, he receives glowing reviews,
including from the daughter of the parade organizer, Susan, (A very young
Natalie Wood) even though she seems to have first-hand knowledge that there is
no such man as Santa Clause. Edmund Gwenn, one of the greatest of all character
actors won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his delightful work as Kris
Kringle, who finds himself struggling to convince people that he is in fact the
real Santa Clause. One of my favorite shots is seeing the insert of Maureen
O’Hara looking at Kris Kringle’s application from, to check his real name, and
seeing that he indeed put down Kris Kringle, and all the reindeer as next of
kin. Up until that point, you don’t think they’re actually going there with the
film, despite some hints. That really must’ve been a shock to a 1947 audience.
In other hands, the premise would’ve been used for a “Saturday Night Live”
sketch or something like that, but they take it seriously, but still keep the
movie in the realm of the fantastic.
The seriousness comes in both the
supporting actors like William Frawley and Jerome Cowan as the District
Attorney, but also in the John Payne character, who defends Santa Clause with
all seriousness, at the same time falling for O’Hara, letting it show with his
actions, not with his feelings, up until the end, partly ‘cause she’s a single
mother, partly because of the case. That’s an unusually nuanced performance as
well. If you don’t know what happens at the end, then you must still be 4 years
old, or really had a weird childhood. It belongs on the same fantasy shelf as
“Harvey” or some of those wondrous flights of fancy, but the movie never talks
down to its audience, and it gives us legitimate reasons why some sane people,
skeptics even, find themselves believing in the impossible. Christmas films
aren’t really about logic anyway, they’re there to get you in the mood to feel
and believe that you can believe in miracles, and really, there isn’t anything
wrong about that. It’s also interesting to note that the miraculous events of
the movie, really aren’t that miraculous. They’re just like most miraculous
things, just simple acts like writing a letter....- well, I’ll stop there, because I’m giving
away wonderful ending scene in the courthouse trying to determine whether or
not he’s insane. Don’t think too much here, this film is just for believers,
and those who want to believe in Santa Clause.
Note: Some stations have aired “Miracle…” nonstop or
occasionally throughout the holiday season usually in Black & White, but
also in the horrible “colorized,” version that got out back when people started
the colorization of black and white films back in the '80s. Most people have
come to their senses on that but this is maybe the only film that is still
regularly aired in color once in a while, despite the b&w version, not only
being better but cheaper to air. Don’t watch the colorized version of anything,
it ruins the original essence of the film, and it looks particularly bad in
this film. Most networks have stopped airing “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which was
even more atrocious;- basically if it was meant to be seen in b&w, then it
should be in b&w.
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