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Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
In director George Seaton's perennial Christmas classic
- a dramatic comedy-fantasy about the commercialization of Santa
Claus and Christmas itself:
- the marvelous character of the charming NYC Macy's
Santa 'Kris Kringle' (Edmund Gwenn), an older white-whiskered,
kindly gentleman who was given the job of the toy department's
Santa when the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade Santa Claus was
discovered to be intoxicated; Kringle
was hired by special-events parade organizer and divorced, workaholic
single mother Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara) to be the store's new
Saint Nick; the emergency in-house replacement - the new, grandfatherly
jolly fellow from the North Pole, proved to be a smash hit following
the parade
- the scene of toy department boss Mr. Julian Shellhammer
(Philip Tonge) urging Kris Kringle to memorize and push a list of
overstocked toys on undecided children: ("Before you go up on
the floor, I just want to give you a few tips on how to be a good
Santa Claus...Here's a list of toys that we have to push. You know,
things that we're overstocked on. Now, you'll find that a great many
children will be undecided as to what they want for Christmas. When
that happens, you immediately suggest one of these items. You understand?")
- Kringle responded with disgust at X-mas commercialization: ("Imagine
- making a child take something it doesn't want just because he bought
too many of the wrong toys. That's what I've been fighting against
for years, the way they commercialize Christmas")
- Macy's event director Doris Walker,
a single divorcee, urged Kris Kringle to tell her delightfully skeptical
young 2nd grade daughter Susan Walker (Natalie Wood) that Santa didn't
exist: ("Would you please tell
her that you're not really Santa Claus, that there actually is no
such person?"); Kringle insisted that he really was
Saint Nick: ("Well, I'm sorry to disagree with you, Mrs. Walker,
but not only is there such a person, but here I am to prove it");
Doris' skeptical 6 year-old daughter Susan didn't believe that the
actual, warm-hearted, white-haired Kris Kringle was real, and pulled
his beard to test him
Kringle with Skeptical Susan Walker
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- Doris made the shocking discovery that Santa was
recommending that shoppers go elsewhere if they couldn't find toys
that they wanted at Macy's; also Doris found out that Kris Kringle's
employment card revealed that his address was the Brooks' Memorial
Home for the Aged in Great Neck, Long Island, NY, an old folks
home; however, there were psychiatrists from Bellevue Hospital
who threatened to have Kringle committed and put away in a mental
institution, although Kringle's twinkly-eyed earnestness and wholesomeness
removed the doubts of even the skeptical Doris and Susan
- Kringle engaged in a concerned conversation with Doris
about the loss of the real meaning of Christmas: ("For the past
50 years or so, I've been getting more and more worried about Christmas.
Seems we're all so busy trying to beat the other fellow in making
things go faster, and look shinier, and cost less that Christmas
and I are sort of getting lost in the shuffle...Christmas isn't just
a day. It's a frame of mind. And that's what's been changing. That's
why I'm glad I'm here. Maybe I can do something about it")
- while children stood in line to see and speak to Santa,
Kringle kind-heartedly spoke to a non-English-speaking immigrant
Dutch girl/orphan (Ida McGuire) in her own native language (and performed
a duet of a traditional Dutch carole with her) while Susan watched
from the side and was impressed
- in the stirring finale set in the
NY Superior Court on Christmas Eve, a battle between lawyers was
to determine Kris' sanity or lunacy; Susan wrote a letter to Kris
Kringle to cheer him up while in court for his insanity hearing (with
her mother's added postscript: "I believe in you, too")
- in the courtroom scene, handsome bachelor
lawyer Fred Gailey (John Payne), Doris' love interest and next-door
neighbor, proposed to defend Kris in an 'insanity hearing'; as a
clever strategy, he asked questions of the District Attorney's young
son Tommy (Bobby Hyatt) on the witness stand:
"Do you believe in Santa Claus?" and "Why are you so
sure there's a Santa Claus?" - and the boy answered affirmatively
that his dad had told him so. It was a winning maneuver proving that
Santa Claus actually existed
- Gailey also made a dramatic display
of US mail evidence in the courtroom - 21 bags and stacks of thousands
of letters addressed to Santa Claus, brought into the court from
the 'dead letter' section of the PO, and proving that Kris was Santa
Claus ("Your
Honor: Every one of these letters is addressed to Santa Claus. The
Post Office has delivered them. Therefore, the Post Office Department,
a branch of the federal government, recognizes this man, Kris Kringle,
to be the one-and-only Santa Claus!"); NY superior court Judge
Henry Harper (Gene Lockhart) agreed and dismissed the case, and
Kringle was released
Arriving at Susan's Dream House
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Kringle's Cane
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Fred's Proposal to Doris
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- in the concluding scene,
Susan was in a car with Doris and Fred, repeatedly trying to persuade
herself to have faith that Santa existed: "I
believe" - and then she expressed overwhelming joy at driving up to the house
of her dreams - a house (with a "For Sale" sign) that
she had asked Santa to give to her; when Kris Kringle's red cane
was found inside, it confirmed her belief in Santa/Kringle; she
told Fred and Doris after wildly running through the house: ("But
this is my house, Mommy, the one I asked Mr. Kringle for. It is!
It is! I know it is! My room upstairs is just like I knew it would
be! Oh, you were right, Mommy. Mommy told me if things don't turn
out just the way you want them to the first time, you've still
got to believe. And I kept believing, and you were right, Mommy!
Mr. Kringle is Santa Claus!")
- in the ending, Fred kissed Doris and proposed to
her in their future home; Susan helped to persuade them to think
about purchasing the house - but Fred then expressed his doubts
about brilliantly winning the case: ("I must be a pretty good
lawyer. I take a little old man and legally prove to the world
that he's Santa Claus....Maybe I didn't do such a wonderful thing
after all")
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Kris Kringle with Toy Department Boss Mr. Shellhammer
Divorcee Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara) With Friend Fred
Gailey (John Payne)
Kris Kringle's Address
Kringle with Dutch Girl
Believers in Kris
'Insanity' Court Hearing
Bundles of Letters Addressed to Santa
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