Miracle on 34th Street

First let me begin by saying that nothing exceeds the original black & white 1947 version of MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET. It is rare when a movie remake is better than the original. The 1973 version of this film by no means is better than the 47 version, for that matter nor is the 94 version. In my opinion the 94 version is the worst but I'll not comment on that here.

I feel that the 74 version does bring some good things to the table. I find the color here better than the Ted Turner coloring of the 47 version. I believe that movies filmed in black & white should stay in black & white. Turner does an injustice to movie making with his colorization process. I also like the selection of the actors for this film. Both Alexander and Hartman give good performances and come off across as ordinary looking and yet are an attractive couple. Davis did seem to overact a bit in the role of the lead child but she is tolerable.

When looking at a film I like to be able to identify what era it was made in. Both the 47 and 73 are identifiable by the autos, clothes, toys and parade floats & balloons. While not alive in 47 I was a kid in 73 and it's nice to watch a film and be reminded of images from my own youth.

So, while it is true that the 73 version does not do better than the 47 version it does not flop either.

It has been many years since I saw either of the most familiar versions of this movie in their entirety. I did see a few minutes of the Edmund Gwenn version while rewinding a tape on Thanksgiving, and a clip from that movie in a TV special, but that's as close as I've come to remembering how good that movie was.

There's not much point in comparing this movie to the others for that reason. I'm sure Edmund Gwenn's was better. But I saw this version because so many actors whose names I know appeared in it. Tom Bosley, David Doyle, Jim Backus, James Gregory, and Conrad Janis, to name a few. I enjoyed seeing these people and thought they all did a good job.

Sebastian Cabot is familiar to me from the original "Family Affair", but I would never have known him. Giles French was such a curmudgeon, though over the years he probably came to love children. I just don't have a clear memory of that. And yet he just seemed so natural as the Macy's Santa Claus. Could Edmund Gwenn have done any better? Probably. And yet without comparing the two, I can say Sebastian Cabot WAS Kris Kringle. Such a loving, caring man, everything Christmas is supposed to be about. A man who truly cares about children. Yes, he could get angry. But for all the right reasons.

The scenes involving the judge and the efforts to have Kris Kringle put away were really well-written. One would never know it was a kids' movie.

Suzanne Davidson was so cute. I won't say she did a consistently good job, but she had some really good scenes.

I can't remember his name now, but the other Santa Claus in the movie, the young store employee who was taught his craft by Kris, was really likable. Perhaps he could have been worthy of the job of Macy's Santa after some experience.

I am aware David Hartman was an actor before "Good Morning America". And yet he came across like the "Good Morning America" co-host deciding to try acting. Still, he had some really good scenes, mostly in the courtroom.

I genuinely despised Roddy McDowall's character. I can't even really say whether he did a good job, but the psychiatrist who wants Kris Kringle declared insane just didn't do anything for me, and I wonder if the character could have been written better.

It was a real feel-good movie. I'm glad I saw this version.

I worked on this made-for-TV-movie as a set dresser back in 1973. It was my first job as a returning Vietnam war era veteran. The art director was a woman named Jan Scott who offered me more work as Set dresser but I chose to attend college on the GI bill as an art major, with the eventual goal of teaching art, though I did continue to work on a few more film projects on occasion.

What is very noteworthy about this production was that the majority of the crew had just finished Martin Scorcese's "Mean Streets" and many of the locations used to film Mean Streets, most notably the Green Hotel in Pasedena, were used to film Miracle. In retrospect it's funny to think about how so many who had worked with Scorsese all thought that while he was a fairly good director, he was such a neurotic quirky sort that he probably wouldn't last long in the business and also no one seemed to think much of Mean Streets as a finished product. Most did, however, have a high opinion of De Niro's acting ability.

Fielder Cook the director, was an early Hollywood television pioneer having directed episodes of Playhouse 90 and many other early TV productions. He was also quite the colorful character and well-liked by the crew. The two other people who impressed me were actors Roddy McDowell and Sebastion Cabot. Cabot, for his acting ability and McDowell Because after the project was wrapped he personally and quite sincerely thanked every crew member for a job well done.

I was so impressed by Cabot's portrayal of Kris Kringle that as a college student, during Christmas vacation I got a job as a Department store Santa at a somewhat upscale large retail establishment in L.A. and played the "role" of Santa Claus much the way Cabot did and put on makeup for every "performance".

On one occasion where there was a crowd of people waiting to bring their children up to sit on my lap and be photographed by my attractive young female "elves" I noticed a distinguished looking and portly white-haired older gentleman standing in the back of the crowd watching who I swear to God, MUST have been the Real Santa.

I will underscore what has been said here on this 1974 remake of the 1947 Classic. The 1947 was such an original classic with wonderful performances by all the leads and supporting. Here Sebastian Cabot is probably the best choice to play the Santa but just cant compare to Edmund Gwenn's twinkle in the eyes..First the Miracle song in the Main title appears so "hokey" today but it does set the tone for the rest of the movie. The film in general does a credible job in updating the story for the 1970's but it has an impossible task to overcome as the world has changed and we have grown even more cynical of the Santa Claus story. I recommend it for curiosity only and I suppose there is a reason why this version hasn't really survived in the collective memory of repeated television broadcasts.

Personally, I have seen all three versions of this film, and while I understand why older generations and purists stand by the original as the best one, that doesn't mean that people can't still enjoy this version. For a made-for-TV version, it has a wonderful cast, with Sebastian Cabot being the highlight. I thought the way the court case was handled was better here than in the 1994 version, and having grown up with color all of my life (and having been born only 2 years before this version originally came out), I still claim this one as my favorite. That is not to say that the original or 1994 versions aren't good--I think they all have a place for those who enjoy them. I just think that this story--like many others--is a generational one, and everyone is going to have at least a little nostalgia for the one from their generation. My only wish, which so far has gone unfulfilled, is that someone will eventually put this version out on DVD and Blu-Ray so that those of us who enjoy it can watch it again. The 1947 and 1994 versions' fans have access to their movies--why can't we? I think the reviewer who offered the option of a box set including all versions of this movie has a wonderful idea--that way, everyone's happy, and each is different enough from the others that you can watch them all and enjoy them.