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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Holiday > Children > Miracle On 34th Street (1947 DVD-Video Set)

Miracle On 34th Street (1947 DVD-Video Set)

 

Picture: D (colorized)/C+ (black & white)    Sound: C+     Extras: B-     Film: B-

 

 

In the debate of what the best holiday (explicitly Christmas if you choose) film of all time, the choice only in recent years has been Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life, though I previously argued at the following link that the British A Christmas Carol is the best overall for a classic holiday film:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1541/A+Christmas+Carol+(1951,+VCI)

 

 

So as far as American films are concerned, what is the film that can take on Capra’s classic?  The one that was THE Christmas film before the 1980s, George Seaton’s original 1947 Miracle On 34th Street.  Even after being recently remade and an older TV version suddenly surfacing again, nothing is like the classic version.  Fox has issued a new DVD set of the film with two versions, but none of this has to do with missing footage.

 

Instead, the old, tired, lame, sickening, shockingly ugly and bad colorized version is included as DVD 1, while the REAL version in its original black and white is one DVD 2 with far more extras.  The story of a man who comes to town, sees the decline of Christmas and claims he is Kris Kringle himself is an interesting idea enough.  To have authorities want him tried for being nuts and delusional and go to court over it seems as crazy as… the way the holiday is being miscelebrated.

 

In this is the positive corporate competition between Gimbels and Macys, the two top department stores around.  To their credit, both companies allowed their names to be used in the film, even if Macys is the only survivor 60 years later, as Gimbels folded a while ago.  Natalie Wood plays the young pessimist whose mother (the great Catherine O’Hara) is the Macy’s executive who hired “Kris” in the first place.  A trial ensues.

 

Unlike the Capra film where the sorry state of an S&L makes everyone behave against their own economic interest for what we could say is very shaky ideological reasons (with no simple explanation, no matter what airhead explanation you get), this a film where the U.S. is healthy economically, made things people wanted to buy, was educated, has heart and can even afford spirit.  No illicit appeals to pit or distraction here, which is another key point.  None of the emotions here are phony or formula, but earned.

 

John Payne is the lawyer who defends “Kris” and Edmund Gwenn won an Academy Award from playing the man who claims to be Santa Claus.  So why did the film get eclipsed by Capra’s film?  Politics and a sudden period (early 1980s to early 1990s) when the copyright “temporarily expired” since Capra “forgot” to renew it.  Fox always held fast to their classic and its message that in a free society, we have the right to our dreams and beliefs at any age is as powerful as ever.  Back in 1947, it struck a major chord, becoming a hit despite a June release!

 

Also at that time, the original Axis of Evil was conquered and The Cold War was on the rise against a Communism that was far, far worse than “Godless” was that no kind of belief (even in love or emotion, as if the latter was not human nature) was allowable.  Today, with Political Correctness the 21st Century rebirth of that scourge and the Extreme Right hijacking anything Christian or religious, this film has suddenly become more relevant that ever before.  No wonder it is getting a revived reputation; it is the film that knows best about the true meaning of Christmas, down to happiness, wealth, generosity of gifts and spirit.   Nice to see the original is making a comeback!

 

The 1.33 X 1 image on the black and white version is a little problematic in parts, but looks good, though it will need some work for a Blu-ray release.  The sound on this version is a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that spreads the sound out as much as can be expected for a film with limited fidelity.  Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is on both versions, but there is no different, with Cyril Mockridge’s music score a plus.  Of course, the colorized version looks like an older plastering job, where the terrific work of cinematographers Lloyd Ahern and Charles Clarke shot.  Between the work capturing the parade and the interesting ways the film shoots the department stores, it makes for a palpable film experience.

 

The colorization wears the detail down, plasters color that looks like talcum power colored in flat colors that remind one of death, then it is painted on the people, but makes them look more like zombies.  It is never consistent, good looking or right.  Depth is also cut down.  You can skip this disc or as a gag, hang it as a Christmas Tree ornament.

 

Extras include a partial commentary track with Maureen O’Hara with audio form another source, a look at the film from the AMC Network show Hollywood Backstory, Movietone News: Hollywood Spotlight, Promotional Short, The 20th Century Fox Hour of Stars from 1959: Miracle on 34th Street, the TV version and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Floating in History featurette.  A good set of extras for a film whose last word has yet been spoken.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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