Have a Merry Christmas with Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Today, being Christmas Eve, seemed like the perfect day to remedy my error a few days ago. I had mistakenly watched the remake of the 1947 Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street, when I had meant to watch the original. I don't think I'm the only one who might make that mistake though. Even talking to a friend the other day that I was going to watch this film, he assumed I meant the 1994 remake, and advised me against it. When I clarified that I'd be watching the original, he gave me permission to go ahead, haha. So did this Christmas classic set the perfect tone for the big day tomorrow? Hit the jump to find out!


For the sake of completeness, I'll just run through a story synopsis, even though I already covered it when I watched the remake. Then again, I shouldn't assume everything I write is read, that would be foolish. Also, the plot in the original is ever so slightly different than the remake, so I'd like to cover it more thoroughly.

The story in Miracle on 34th Street starts off with a man who believes himself to be Santa being hired to fill in for a drunk Santa in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. He impresses everyone so much, that he is immediately hired as the in-store Santa for children to visit. Upon realizing that he truly believes himself to be Santa, he is given a psychological examination which he passes with flying colours. However, in the process of the test, he angers the already agitated tester, Sawyer, who fancies himself as a professional psychiatrist when he has no degree of any sort.

Kris Kringle at the Macy's Parade in front of a massive & impressive crowd

Later when Kris Kringle finds out that Sawyer is giving psychological tests to a young boy, and telling him that he has guilt complexes and hates his father just because he enjoys being Santa at Christmas and handing out gifts, Kris goes to have a word with him. In the ensuing argument Kris knocks Sawyer on the head with his cane (but not brutally) and storms out. Sawyer then makes up lies as to exactly what happened to avoid being fired for giving false psychological tests, and has Kris committed to an insane asylum. Kris, disillusioned by the events that have taken place, purposefully fails his psychological exam so he doesn't have to put up with the cruel world outside. However, friend and lawyer Fred Gailey won't have it, and pledges to get him out of the asylum by going to court for him. The only way to get him out, however, is to prove he's not insane for thinking that he's Santa, because he really is the real, one and only, Santa Claus.

Ok, so I went a little over board on the story description, but I really wanted to get into the reason and method of how he gets put in the asylum, because that's one of the biggest differences between the remake and the original. In the remake, he is goaded into getting angry by the drunken Santa from the start of the movie, and the assault is all faked. In the original, however, he really does whack a guy in the head. However, it's not super hard, and while it does give the man a bump on the head, the hit more surprises him than does any real harm. The main thing is that this Sawyer guy covers up what the fight was really about, because he could get into real trouble, and even fired if the truth came out. I really liked this original take on the story, and it is really just one example of many dualities that run through the film that seem to be largely lost or glazed over in the remake.

Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) is hired by Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara) to be the Macy's Santa

One of the things I didn't like about the 1994 remake was how the boyfriend character suddenly shows up as a lawyer with nothing ever being said about it previously besides showing him in what looked kind of like a library. In the original, it is made quite clear, and casually, that Fred Gailey (John Payne) is a lawyer in a few side conversations between him and Doris. They're natural conversations of the "how was your day today" sort. Also, the friendship built between himself and Kris is more clear, and thus obvious why Fred would want to help him out, instead of just a favor from the bitchy woman he likes for no good reason, which is how it plays out in the remake. The way Doris Walker acts in the original is much more reasonable, but she also has a sense of duality to her as well, as many of the characters do.

Natalie Wood plays the "too serious for her age" Susan Walker

So what is this "duality" I keep speaking of? Well, most of the characters and themes of the movie are all about appearance vs. reality. Doris wants to raise her daughter in a serious fashion so that she doesn't grow up believing falsehoods and lies, while all the while she really just wants to believe in white knights and Santa Claus just as much herself. Then there is Sawyer who wants to believe himself to be, and appear as a professional psychologist, meanwhile the reality is that not only is he unqualified, but he can't even lead a healthy home life. Mr. Macy changes the store's policy to appear happy, helpful and friendly, and not at all a company that cares about profit, when in reality that will draw people to the story, netting them more profit than ever! Even the judge of the court case is, in reality, more concerned about how this ruling will affect his future political career with votes, while trying to seem like a caring and concerned judge on the outside. The dualities are everywhere, and that made this movie far more enjoyable than the original.

I take it back, Edmund Gwenn is the best Santa I've ever seen!

I've already gone on so long about this film, but I still want to talk about the actors. When I saw the remake of Miracle on 34th Street, I said that I thought Richard Attenborough was the perfect Santa. While he was extremely good, I think Edmund Gwenn was the best Santa I've ever seen in a movie, if only for his awesome and huge white beard! He was everything a Santa needed to be, and he even spoke Dutch to a little girl, which I thought was far more impressive than slowly doing sign language. Another good performance, if simply because it was often quite cute, was that of Natalie Wood as little Susan. Here's an interesting connection: I just saw Natalie Wood as a teenager in Rebel Without A Cause. I have to say I preferred her in this. She was often almost suspicious of Kris, and the way she would logically describe things, or always say "I thought so" was very cute. The remake really focused most of its time on the character of Susan, but the original shares it's time more evenly with all the characters, which I felt was much better. Briefly, I'd just like to say I much preferred the characters of Doris and Fred in this to the versions of them in the remake. Maureen O'Hara and John Payne were very good.

Happy Holidays to all!

Overall, the original Miracle on 34th Street was much better, but what's interesting is that they didn't do as much of the actual miracle type stuff as they did in the remake. In the remake Kris Kringle makes far more mention of magic and the "miracle" at the end is much more magical seeming than in this movie, but the lame characters and loss of all the themes of the original film make the remake disappointing in the end. It was also nice to see them find a way to prove Santa is real while keeping religion out of it, unlike the remake.

I'd definitely recommend the 1947 Miracle on 34th Street for your holiday viewing. Tomorrow is another big Christmas movie, so I'm interested to see which is the better holiday film. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays!