jhumlong

Yes, I dare to compare this wonderful, obscure little movie to It's A Wonderful Life!They came out a year a part and both were initially lost in obscurity. A Wonder Life was made at a big time studio (RKO), with a hallmark cast and a director that had several Oscars to his name already. It arose from the RKO vaults in the early 70's and has been shown every Christmas since then. This film actually fell out of copyright in 1976 and then as public domain, was picked up by Republic and put out on VHS about the time that Ted Turner bought the RKO Film Library from General Tire. It Happened on 5th Avenue was made a year (1947)later by a poverty row studio, Monogram (Allied Artists) with a shoe string budget and a venerable director by the name of Roy Del Ruth, from the silent screen days and actors that for the most part ( besides Victor Moore and Charles Ruggles and Ann Harding) had just started acting within a 5-6 year period. The plot was far from ingenious and the storyline was almost comical. What came out was a film that tugged at your heart strings with emotion and sentiment.It has my vote for the all time favorite Christmas film. I am lucky enough to have an original 16mm film copy and a VHS tape of the film. There were few negatives struck of the film for cost reasons so not many positives are in circulation today. I got mine from a TV studio film package I purchased in the early 70's from a Tampa Florida TV station. The copyright was never renewed as in It's a Wonderful Life so any prints out there are public domain. I would love to put out a DVD and let a new generation enjoy this little gem as much as mine has. Remember the line, A man without friends is the most serious form of poverty. That line was a great quote in the film and stands truer today than ever.

This movie is a masterpiece of brilliant acting and timely patriotic sense of pride in America. The Nazi Saboteurs of the 40's are replaced by the Middle East Terrorists of today. The intent is the same, to terrorize, disrupt lives, destroy property, and kill Americans! We see a wrongly accused Barry (Bob Cummings) on the lamm, trying to uncover the real Nazi terrorists plot, meeting the beautiful Pat (Priscilla Lane) and together, they travel to New York chasing the devious and evil saboteur Fry, played expertly by Norman Lloyd. Along the way, they encounter the also very sinister Otto Kruger playing the leader of the Nazi saboteur ring but disguised as a distinguished model citizen, where Barry seeking saboteur Fry, takes him into his confidence, only to handed over to the local law enforcement. He escapes, meets a kindly blind gentleman and his niece, enter Priscilla Lane. From there, Barry and Pat travel to Soda City Cal., run into the West coast saboteur gang heading East. They trail ends up in the mansion of a unlikely New York Socialite. The going gets tough when the bad guys kidnap Pat from Barry and he goes after her with reckless abandon. The movie climax is the famous Statue of Liberty scene which is excerpted in many compilations. This is a true, blue patriotic flag-waving performance at it's best and what is wrong with that! See this movie if you don't see another Hitchcock film. You will be swept up in the patriotic furore and the love interest between Cummings and Lane will make you wish they had been paired in other movies. She is the beautiful, ideal girl next door, often underrated, her talent shows through in this film. See it and Go Bless America!

The movie starts out with Charlie and #2 Son on an ill fated plane trip to San Francisco and the mysterious death of a writer on board. This all leads to several twists in the sub-plot and the entrance of mind reader, the mysterious Dr. Zodiac and his fake spirt world trappings. It is a very good flick and if you enjoyed Warner Oland's Chan, Sidney Toller lives up to his acting especially in this film. The Treasure Island refers to the '39 Worlds Fair exhibit and is part of the plot and includes some very interesting, period photography The ending is very dramatic and I won't spoil it but you "will" like this movie so watch for it, only on Fox Movie Network or TCM, as it is not on VHS.