Miracle On The 34th Street Full Movie

[Gaynelle Alnutt]

Littlegirls are more sophisticated than they used to be. When 6-year-old Susan Walker sees a drunken Santa Claus, for example, she takes it right in stride: "Bombed? It's the pressure." Susan's mother is the PR director for Cole's, a big Manhattan department store, and so the kid knows the angles. "This seems like a pretty pointless exercise," she sighs at one point, while climbing into Santa's lap.

But of course her disbelief in Santa Claus will not last long, because she finds herself in a retread of "Miracle on 34th Street," the 1947 classic about a department store Santa who may possibly be the genuine article. The movie has been remade by producer John Hughes and director Les Mayfield, who follow the original fairly closely, but with a quieter, more elegiac tone. As in the earlier version, this "Miracle" begins with a charming old gentleman who is hired on sight and pressed into service after the department store's Santa gets drunk at the start of the annual New York Thanksgiving parade. The old man says his name is Kriss Kringle (Kriss is spelled with two s's in the new version, for no good reason). Played in 1947 by Edmund Gwenn (who won the Oscar), he's portrayed this time by Richard Attenborough, whose eyes twinkle and whose beard, he proves, cannot be pulled off.

Kringle is such a hit in the parade that he gets the full-time job as Cole's Santa, and inspires good publicity by telling children the truth even when it means sending them across the street for cheaper prices at the evil Shopper's Express store ("Today! Free gum guns!"). In a touching twist on the earlier film, where Santa was able to talk to a Dutch girl in her own language, this Kringle uses sign language with a deaf girl.

Her own dad has not been seen for years, but Bryan (Dylan McDermott), a lawyer who lives next door, is in love with her mother, Dorey (Elizabeth Perkins). Dorey is a cynic, once-wounded and twice shy, who doesn't believe in Santa, or love.

The movie follows the 1947 version into a courtroom where, after some shady tricks by a rival department store, an attempt is made to have old Kriss Kringle declared insane because he really does believe he's Santa Claus. Bryan defends him, with results just as satisfying as in the original, and then there is the happy ending, even more satisfying, because when Bryan and Dorey get married, it is in the very same Chicago church where I got married, and so it was not possible to achieve critical objectivity.

There will never really be a movie to replace the 1947 "Miracle on 34th Street," nor a performance to replace Edmund Gwenn's, but this modern update is a sweet, gentle, good-hearted film that stays true to the spirit of the original and doesn't try to make everything slick and exploitative. You know it's a good movie when you walk out humming the songs, and this time, it was "Joy to the World."

Miracle on 34th Street takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas and follows the story of a department store Santa Claus who claims to be the real deal, straight from the North Pole. Doris, who works for Macy's, hires Kris Kringle for the Thanksgiving Day Parade after their original Santa is discovered to be inebriated. The new Santa does such a great job that Doris hires Kris Kringle to be their Santa in the department store. Kringle is a quick favorite among the kids who come to see him, but Doris is concerned about the fact that he seems to believe he is the real Santa. Even more concerning is the fact that Doris's daughter, Susan, is being swayed by Kris Kringle too. The story culminates with a trial to determine whether or not Kris Kringle is the real Santa. The 1947 film stars Maureen O'Hara as Doris Walker, John Payne as Fred Gailey, Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle, and Natalie Wood as Susan Walker.

The 1947 film went on to win three Academy Awards: Edmund Gwenn for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Valentine Davies for Best Writing, Original Story, and George Seaton for Best Writing, Screenplay. And while the film is nearly 75 years old, it remains one of the most-watched and most-beloved movies of the holiday season.

Of course, just because Miracle on 34th Street is a timeless classic doesn't mean there haven't been attempts to remake the film and retell Davies's story. There have been three adaptations for television and one short-lived Broadway musical entitled Here's Love. The Broadway production, written by Meredith Wilson, directed by Stuart Ostrow, and choreographed by Michael Kidd, opened on October 3, 1963, and closed less than a year later.

The most famous reimagining of the Miracle on 34th Street story is the 1994 adaptation, written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Les Mayfield. The film stars Richard Attenborough as Kris Kringle, Elizabeth Perkins as Doris Walker, Mara Wilson as Susan Walker, and Dylan McDermott as Bryan Bedford. The 1994 version premiered on November 15, 1994, at Radio City Music Hall. While this "Miracle" received mixed reviews, many fans and critics consider the film a worthy successor to the original film and book. The 1994 film is the only theatrical remake of Miracle on 34th Street.

The 1947 film was produced at the same time Davies adapted the story as a novella. Because both versions were created at nearly the same time, both the film and the novelization are fairly similar, with minor changes to some scenes and some lines of dialogue. If you are a fan of the 1947 movie, the book offers up the characters and story that you know and love, with a few additional details to keep the story fresh and expand on characters.

The 1994 adaptation, however, is more significantly different from Davies's novella. To start, the department store in the original is Macy's and at the very beginning of the story Kris Kringle plays Santa Claus in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. However, Macy's did not give the 1994 film permission to use its name in their story. And so if you're looking for Macy's in the 1994 film, you won't find it. Instead, the department store in the 1994 film is called Coles, although it looks and acts just like a Macy's department store, right down to the famous Thanksgiving Day Parade.

In the original story, when Susan is trying to decide whether this Santa Claus is the real thing or not, she decides to ask him for something she would never tell her mother about. If she wakes up on Christmas morning and has it, then she will believe in Santa Claus. In the original film and the novella, this idea is Susan's own. In the 1994 film, Susan's mother, Doris, gives her the idea to test Santa Claus in this way.

On that note, Doris in the 1994 version of the film seems much more open to her daughter having different beliefs than her. In Davies's original story, Doris insists that Susan should not believe in Santa, and that believing in magic and fairy tales is ridiculous. While Doris in the 1994 version still thinks that belief in Santa is a waste of time, she's also open to her daughter exploring her own beliefs and making her own decisions, which is why she suggests the idea of testing Santa in the first place.

The resolution of the court scene is one of the biggest changes between the book and the original and the 1994 adaptation. In both the book and the original Miracle on 34th Street movie, Kris Kringle wins his court case after the postal service delivers bags of letters addressed to Santa Claus to him in the middle of the trial. Because the post office recognizes him as Santa Claus, the judge concedes that the law must recognize him as Santa Claus too. In the 1994 remake, the judge dismisses the case because if we can believe that God exists, then we should also be able to believe that Santa Claus is real.

In each version of Miracle on 34th Street, many aspects remain the same. Most importantly, the themes and messages of the story stays true to Davies's original vision in each of the adaptations. Essentially, Miracle on 34th Street reinforces that, while realism and practicality have their place, a world without wonder, fantasy, and magic is a world without heart. And ultimately, we can all benefit from having a little faith and believing in miracles... especially when it comes to Christmas.

On a library visit just before Christmas, I checked out several books from the Christmas display. On Christmas Eve I decided to read Miracle on 34th Street to the kids, and we finished it on Christmas day. Previously I didn't even know there was a book of this story; I'd thought it was just a movie. I picked up the book because it's illustrated by Tomie DePaola. I remembered seeing illustrations by him for Oz, and I like good illustrations for children's books.

The short novel is written by Valentine Davies, who also wrote the screenplay for the movie. Davies published the novel the same year that the movie was released (1947). My kids are not familiar with the movie--and even I have only seen it once (and I can't even recall if it was the original black and white film or the 1994 color remake, which shows what small effect it had on me)--so the story in novel form was new and fresh. Now we're looking forward to finding a copy of the original film and watching it.

The story is pretty good, though not one of my favorite Christmas stories (probably largely because I lack the nostalgic feeling for it, since it wasn't a part of my growing-up years). DePaola's illustrations are good, though not especially memorable. My kids most enjoyed his pictures of the nasty psychiatrist Mr. Sawyer.

Update: Last night we watched the original 1947 film, and loved it (reviewed here: -on-34th-street/). The book and the film each contain some scenes that aren't found in the other, which makes it a good pairing to read and watch both. I now believe that the film I saw years ago was the 1994 remake, which is terrible (after watching the original movie, we put in the disc with the newer version and watched a few selected scenes; it was painful). The original is wonderful.

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