Tuesday Minute
No. 197 | December 21, 2010

‘Tis the Season

The news from Hollywood is no new Christmas movies this year or next.  It’s a shame, in a way, because the season is ripe for big-screen storytelling.  Holiday films have become as much a tradition as mistletoe, candy canes, and nutcrackers.  On the other hand, the folks in Hollywood may be admitting they just don’t know how to make them the way they used to.  No argument here.

The best Christmas films, in my mind, are the old ones.  From our vantage, they hark back to earlier, simpler times, and they stand in contrast to our own age, when the spirit of the season seems to burn not so bright.  But the stories in these films don’t think of themselves as old-fashioned.  Typically, the world portrayed onscreen is one that’s become too modern, too skeptical, too commercial, and the theme is the reminder to step back and put aside inconsequential matters:  there are more important things.

Perhaps these days we need Christmas films more than ever, and if we don’t have new ones to watch, we always have the classics.  This week, we’ll look at three of the best, films that even today, years after they were made, still work their magic.

Our theme this week
Classic Christmas films

Program Note:  Yes, MAD About Movies has returned!  We’ll have an abbreviated line-up this week.  I’ll be back again next week, as we close out 2010, with a few posts on recent movies.  Starting in January, look for a new schedule.  Stay tuned for more.

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Imagine a world in which no one believes in Santa Claus.  That’s the sad setting for this charming 1947 fantasy about a gentle old man named Kris Kringle.  He comes to town, takes a job as Santa, and before he’s done he has people doubting their own disbelief.  Could it be?  That’s where the film takes us.  There’s no need to convince anybody.  It lets us muse on the possibility.

Miracle on 34th Street is a quiet film, not one to make a lot of noise about miracles and all that.  No need for elves or flying reindeer or anyof the usual accessories.  The magic isn’t a trick (and certainly no special effect), but comes from a warm and wonderful portrayal by Edmund Gwenn, a veteran character actor with a plump belly, a white beard, and a twinkle in his eye.  He certainly looks the part (after gaining thirty p0unds to prepare for the role).  Gwenn is the embodiment of good cheer, and he radiates a kindness that is truly something special.  His performance earned him an Oscar, one of three for the film (the other two went to the writers).

It’s a terrific cast.  Top billing went to Maureen O’Hara and John Payne, playing Doris and Fred, two friends and neighbors who develop a romance.  Doris is a divorcée (the film makes little fuss about that inconvenient fact) with a daughter, Susan, a second-grader played by Natalie Wood, in one of her first roles.  Other familiar names include Gene Lockhart, Porter Hall, William Frawley, Jack Albertson, and Thelma Ritter (in a small but memorable appearance, and in her early forties, her film debut).

The movie has its share of classic moments:  Kris rebuking the hired Santa caught drinking before the parade, skeptical Susan tugging on Kris’s beard at Macy’s, the courtroom scene with Santa on trial. 

Generations of fans have made Miracle a holiday tradition, and Hollywood has attempted to extend the brand, so to speak, with a remake and several TV versions.  None, though, has touched the original, which rightly deserves it place among the pantheon of holiday favorites.

One caveat for viewing at home:  the film was colorized in 1993, and you’ll want to avoid that version if you can.  The DVD comes with two discs; go to disc two for the black-and-white movie, the only one you want.  If you’re stuck with the colorized version, turn off the color on your TV.  To paraphrase a line from the film, you don’t want to see things that are not really there.

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Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
George Seaton, director
Valentine Davies (story), George Seaton (screenplay), writers
Lloyd Ahern, Charles Clarke, directors of photography
Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn, Natalie Wood
Television Spot

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Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Theatrical Trailer

From the “They Don’t Do It Like That Anymore” Department:  Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, believed the film would do better business during the summer, when audiences were bigger.  He scheduled it to open in May.  How did Zanuck promote a movie about Santa Claus to warm-weather audiences?  He never told them what the movie was about, that’s how.  Take a look at the poster above and the trailer here.

Did she really say that?  Teen actress Peggy Ann Garner (at  2:50):  “I tell you it’s a groovey movie!”  And a couple of minutes later we get the pitch:  “You’ll Love ‘Miracle on 34th Street.’  It’s Hilarious!  Romantic!  Delightful!  Charming!  Tender!  Exciting! …”

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Quote of note
“You see, Mrs. Walker, this is quite an opportunity for me.  For the past fifty years or so, I’ve been getting more and more worried about Christmas.  Seems we’re all so busy trying to beat the other fellow in making things go faster and look shinier and cost less that Christmas and I are sort of getting lost in the shuffle.”
—Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn), Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

…58…59…60.