Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Release Date: June 11, 1947

Watch Date: December 7 – December 9, 2023

“The holiday season is in full swing when an older gentleman is hired as a department store Santa Claus. He claims his name is Kris Kringle, and soon fills everyone with Christmas spirit – except his boss, Doris Walker. When Kris is declared insane and put on trial, everyone’s faith is put to the test as old and young alike face the age old question: Do you believe in Santa Claus?”

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    I had never watched this film before…two years ago? And at the time I wasn’t super looking forward to it. Black and white movie from the immediately post war era? Not really my cup of tea, generally speaking. I grew up with a father who loved those movies and I now just sort of brush them off as movies dad’s watch and mean that I won’t get to have control of the television for around ninety minutes.

    Now, however, this has probably become one of my favorite Christmas films of all time. I think Kris Kringle is probably one of my favorite depictions of Santa Claus, he looks exactly how I’ve always imagined the mythical gift giver, and he acts exactly the way I’ve always expected him to as well.

    I think, just generally, that this film is a lovely plea for belief and faith in general, not just in Jolly Old Saint Nick. Keeping the magic alive not only when you’re a child, but finding your faith in something, finding something that keeps you going even when times get hard. For some that’s a higher power, for other’s that’s just a general faith in humanity. But we all need to find something, because other wise what’s the magic in living?

    The weak points of the film are really the rest of the cast. Susan is, well, a child actor so what are you going to do really? Doris and Mr. Bailey are…fine. Doris is very wooden, and just generally unlikeable. Bailey isn’t above manipulating a woman through her child, and at some point they do start dating but it’s not really spoken about. Doris doesn’t like him and then suddenly she does. I mean, they make sense together, and it was obviously going to happen, but…it doesn’t make a lot of sense when it does.

    Honestly this movie is sweet, it’s cute, it’s lighthearted. It’s got a lot of Christmas spirit for a film that came out in the summertime. I don’t really know how I’d go through a holiday season without watching this film, so I hope Bob enjoyed his first time watching it as much as I did.