MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET works so well because it's refreshingly free of the kind of cloying sentimentality we've come to associate with holiday movies (case in point: I watched SANTA CLAUS: THE MOVIE yesterday). And who thought that a film about Father Christmas would end up as a tense courtroom drama? One word to describe this film would be 'timeless'.
Despite being made back in 1947, in black and white too, this is very much a modern-feeling production. A man claiming to be the genuine Santa Claus finds himself assailed on all sides by disbelieving authorities, who court him off to an institution and then the courthouse to prove that he's an impostor.
Edmund Gwenn seals the deal on this movie. The other actors are good, yes, but it's Gwenn who proves to be the icing on the cake. His jolly, exuberant character exudes the kind of warmth and giving that's all too often forgotten in place of Christmastime commercialism, and he possesses a knowing look in his eye which makes him perfectly suited for the role.
Kudos, then, for a film which actually has something to say about the true meaning of Christmas in an original way, without shoving it down the viewer's throat.
Despite being made back in 1947, in black and white too, this is very much a modern-feeling production. A man claiming to be the genuine Santa Claus finds himself assailed on all sides by disbelieving authorities, who court him off to an institution and then the courthouse to prove that he's an impostor.
Edmund Gwenn seals the deal on this movie. The other actors are good, yes, but it's Gwenn who proves to be the icing on the cake. His jolly, exuberant character exudes the kind of warmth and giving that's all too often forgotten in place of Christmastime commercialism, and he possesses a knowing look in his eye which makes him perfectly suited for the role.
Kudos, then, for a film which actually has something to say about the true meaning of Christmas in an original way, without shoving it down the viewer's throat.