Miracle on 34th Street

UPC: 024543381723

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Summary: Edmund Gwenn plays Kris Kringle, a bearded old gent who is the living image of Santa Claus. Serving as a last-minute replacement for the drunken Santa who was to have led Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, Kringle is offered a job as a Macy's toy-department Santa. Supervisor Maureen O'Hara soon begins having second thoughts about hiring Kris: it's bad enough that he is laboring under the delusion that he's the genuine Saint Nick; but when he begins advising customers to shop elsewhere for toys that they can't find at Macy's, he's gone too far! Amazingly, Mr. Macy (Harry Antrim) considers Kris' shopping tips to be an excellent customer-service "gimmick," and insists that the old fellow keep his job. A resident of a Long Island retirement home, Kris agrees to take a room with lawyer John Payne during the Christmas season. It happens that Payne is sweet on O'Hara, and Kris subliminally hopes he can bring the two together. Kris is also desirous of winning over the divorced O'Hara's little daughter Natalie Wood, who in her few years on earth has lost a lot of the Christmas spirit. Complications ensue when Porter Hall, Macy's nasty in-house psychologist, arranges to have Kris locked up in Bellevue as a lunatic. Payne represents Kris at his sanity hearing, rocking the New York judicial system to its foundations by endeavoring to prove in court that Kris is, indeed, the real Santa Claus! We won't tell you how he does it: suffice to say that there's a joyous ending for Payne and O'Hara, as well as a wonderful faith-affirming denouement for little Natalie Wood. 72-year-old Edmund Gwenn won an Oscar for his portrayal of the "jolly old elf" Kringle; the rest of the cast is populated by such never-fail pros as Gene Lockhart (as the beleaguered sanity-hearing judge), William Frawley (as a crafty political boss), and an unbilled Thelma Ritter and Jack Albertson. Based on the novel by Valentine Davies, Miracle on 34th Street was remade twice: once for TV in 1973, and a second time for a 1994 theatrical release, with Richard Attenborough as Kris Kringle. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Children's/Family

Awards: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – null Best Screenplay – null Best Original Story – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Hollywood Foreign Press Association 10 Best Films – New York Times 10 Best Films – Film Daily

Features: All-new colorized version, original version in black & white
Feature audio commentary by Maureen O'Hara
AMC Backstory?: Miracle on 34th Street
Fox Movietone News footage: Hollywood Spotlight
Miracle on 34th Street TV version
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Floating in History featurette
Promotional short
Poster gallery

Miracle on 34th Street

Format: DVD

Release Date: 11/21/2006

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Pre-1954 Standard

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 96 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Language(s) English

Subtitles: English,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Miracle on 34th Street [Colorized]
1. Main Titles [1:28]
2. A Mistake With the Reindeer [1:27]
3. Replacement Santa [3:29]
4. Macy's Thanksgiving Parade [1:32]
5. The 50-Yard Line [5:44]
6. Christmas Commercialism [2:35]
7. A New Sales Tactic [3:16]
8. Susan Meets Kris Kringle [6:41]
9. A Store With a Heart [5:36]
10. Mental Examination [6:05]
11. A Lesson in Pretending [5:06]
12. Susan's Christmas Wish [3:42]
13. The Christmas Spirit Grows [4:02]
14. Alfred's Guilt Complex [2:33]
15. Sawyer's Bump [2:36]
16. Kris Gets Committed [5:49]
17. Anything but Routine [4:41]
18. Kringle's Kourt Kase [3:57]
19. Differences of Opinion [3:35]
20. Is There or Is There Not a Santa Claus? [8:14]
21. Susan's Letter [3:49]
22. Many Pieces of Evidence [4:58]
23. Christmas Morning [2:37]
24. Believe and Receive [2:32]
Disc #2 -- Miracle on 34th Street
1. Main Titles [1:28]
2. A Mistake With the Reindeer [1:27]
3. Replacement Santa [3:29]
4. Macy's Thanksgiving Parade [1:32]
5. The 50-Yard Line [5:44]
6. Christmas Commercialism [2:35]
7. A New Sales Tactic [3:16]
8. Susan Meets Kris Kringle [6:41]
9. A Store With a Heart [5:36]
10. Mental Examination [6:05]
11. A Lesson in Pretending [5:06]
12. Susan's Christmas Wish [3:42]
13. The Christmas Spirit Grows [4:02]
14. Alfred's Guilt Complex [2:33]
15. Sawyer's Bump [2:36]
16. Kris Gets Committed [5:49]
17. Anything but Routine [4:41]
18. Kringle's Kourt Kase [3:57]
19. Differences of Opinion [3:35]
20. Is There or Is There Not a Santa Claus? [8:14]
21. Susan's Letter [3:49]
22. Many Pieces of Evidence [4:58]
23. Christmas Morning [2:37]
24. Believe and Receive [2:32]

Bruce Eder

Miracle on 34th Street has been a favorite holiday movie since its release in 1947, and sharp-eyed observers may or may not have noticed that the film essentially retells the New Testament's story of the life of Jesus Christ. The movie was set in New York City in 1947 and utilized a large amount of location shooting (courtesy of Fox's Movietone News Studios, located in Manhattan) to give it a realistic texture; while screenwriter Valentine Davies' original story seems, superficially, to be the height of whimsy, about Santa Claus's appearance in the midst of that realistic setting, it becomes clear on closer examination that Davies borrowed liberally from the New Testament. Edmund Gwenn's Kris Kringle is almost more a substitute for Jesus than a screen-bound Santa. He enters a big city with his message of generosity and foresaking commercialism; he meets some doubters and some interested onlookers, and soon they're listening to him and starting to believe in him. Then he's betrayed and put on trial, not for his life but for his identity: he must prove he is who he says he is, or be imprisoned and labeled a madman and a pretender. The New York locations and use of New York "types," including Thelma Ritter's portrayal of a harried mother, Jack Albertson's postal worker, and Alvin Greenman as the simple, trusting Alfred (Greenman also appeared in the 1994 remake), only heightened the realism of this modified retelling of the trial of Jesus. And all of it was done so subtly--as opposed to, say, Frank Capra's more obvious retelling in Meet John Doe--that it was scarcely noticed by most viewers. However, the film adds a happy ending, reflecting a postwar feeling of confidence and helping to ensure its endurance across the decades. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Teddy Driver  Actor 
Thelma Ritter  Actor 
Mary Field  Actor 
Jeff Corey  Actor 
Alvin Hammer  Actor 
Basil Walker  Actor 
William Frawley  Actor 
Robert Karnes  Actor 
James Seay  Actor 
Richard Irving  Actor 
Guy Thomajan  Actor 
Robert Hyatt  Actor 
Percy Helton  Actor 
Steve Roberts  Actor 
Robert Gist  Actor 
Jack Albertson  Actor 
Alvin Greenman  Actor 
Anthony Sydes  Actor 
Jane Green  Actor 
Lela Bliss  Actor 
Porter Hall  Actor 
Anne O'Neal  Actor 
Philip Tonge  Actor 
Robert Lynn  Actor 
Theresa Harris  Actor 
Harry "Snub" Pollard  Actor 
Cyril Mockridge  Composer (Music Score) 
William Perlberg  Producer 
George Seaton  Director 
George Seaton  Screenwriter 
Maureen O'Hara  Actor 
John Payne  Actor 
Edmund Gwenn  Actor 
Natalie Wood  Actor 
Harry Antrim  Actor 
Jerome Cowan  Actor 
William Forrest  Actor 
Herbert Heyes  Actor 
Gene Lockhart  Actor 

Country: USA