It Happened on Fifth Avenue

Of all the Christmas movies produced over the last 50-60 years I vote it in the top 5. It's heart-warming, funny, and thought provoking. Hey, I'm a man and I like to cry during a movie every once in a while, and this movie is one that will surely leave a lump in your chest and a tear or two on your cheek. I can't remember the last time I saw this movie. It's one of my favorite classics and I hope that it will make it to the video/laser/DVD format before it becomes too late. Ted Turner, is this one in your TCM library?

This is a very enjoyable holiday film that gets no press. I learned about it because it was included in a set of holiday films.

If you are familiar with and enjoyed the 18th century play, "She Stoops to Conquer," the same social commentary about relations between the upper and lower classes appears here with a Dreppression era - post World War II twist. It requires you to suspend your sense of logic, but if you can do that, you will have a lot of fun. It's a holiday film that you will enjoy viewing year after year.

The professional critics big knock on this film is that it is too long. That is valid criticism for the ending. A scene or two could have been cut or shortened without damaging the plot. That weakness is more that offset by a great many laughs and chuckles and honest warmth which make the first 90 minutes fly by.

Watch for Gail Storm as the run-away college student who was a very popular TV personality in the early 1950s and Alan Hale, Jr., as one of World War II veterans, who was the captain on "Gilligan's Island."

This is one of the most humorous, holiday movies aver made, it looks at the life of one homeless individual during the great depression, and how he survived and helped others to understand morality and honesty. He brought together, through his own philosophy, all these attributes, and inspired the others to understand and to act on them in their own lives.

He showed the rich and the poor what friendship and love was really about.

If their are any videos available on this title, please let me know.

Victor Moore is fantastic as a homeless man who journeys between a wealthy, self made man's (Charlie Ruggles) winter and summer homes when the wealthy man is at his other home. The last words by Charlie Ruggles will make you cry for joy. "Remind me to board up that fence next year. He's coming in the front door." A unique, wonderful story. I wish everyone could see it, especially around Christmas time when it would be most appropriate.

This is one of those cute, kind of fantasy, holiday movies of the 1940s with acting veterans, Victor Moore and Charles Ruggles leading the show. It's a decent NYC-set film, albeit far fetched most of the way through. Don Defore and Gale Storm add to the fun. Also, look for a very young Alan Hale Jr long before his Skipper role in the tv show, 'Gilligan's Island'. 'It Happened on Fifth Avenue' despite its many flaws, is a lot of fun and worth watching.