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[[File:MiracleOn34thStreet.jpg|frame]]
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The ''other'' famous heartwarming Christmas movie, after ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]''.
Revolves around an old man
The original film version was released in 1947, and starred Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle, [[Maureen O'Hara]] as Doris Walker, [[Natalie Wood]] as her daughter Susan, and John Payne as lawyer Fred Galley. It was a box office success, won three [[Academy Award|Oscars]] (one for Gwenn, two for the writers), and is shown on television every year.
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The story has been adapted several times for television and once for Broadway. There was a theatrically-released remake in 1994 written by [[John Hughes]]. [[Richard Attenborough]] was cast as Kris Kringle, Elizabeth Perkins as Dorey Walker, and [[Mara Wilson]] as Susan. The remake was a modest box office hit, earning $46,264,384 in the worldwide market. With $17,320,136 from the United States market alone, it was the 80th most successful film of its year.
The story involves an old man who gets hired to be the [[Mall Santa]] for a big New York City store. Thing is, he claims to be the ''actual'' Santa, and when customers ask, he tells them where to find the cheapest toys -- even if it means sending them to competing stores! However, this move endears the store to the customers (who think it was the management's idea) and actually boosts the store's sales. However the company's psychologist
An important subplot revolves around Susan's lifelong disbelief in Santa Claus (due to her [[Broken Bird|bitter divorced mother]] being against believing in fantasy) but meeting Kris causes her to start wondering. There's also a romantic subplot involving her mother, Doris, and Fred, who defends Kris in court.
While there is no apparent proof that Santa Claus is actually real in the movie, [[Twist Ending|the ending leaves the audience wondering...]]
The original version of ''Miracle on 34th Street'' was added to the [[National Film Registry]] in 2004.
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{{tropelist}}
=== The 1947 original provides examples of: ===
* [[Alcohol Hic]]: The Santa that was originally supposed to be in the parade. He got this way under the excuse that he was using it to "keep warm".
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* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: Kris's unsubtitled conversation with the Dutch orphan, for Dutch speakers. Included in full on the Heartwarming Moments page.
* [[Broken Bird]]: Doris raises Susan without fairy tales or fantasies of any kind due to her own heartbreak of her failed marriage.
* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: Played with in the character of Mr. Macy. He can be easily led to do the right thing...so long as there's a payoff. He winds up enthusiastically supporting the "goodwill campaign" Kris starts due to the commercial success it receives. He is later asked point blank in court whether he believes in Santa -- and after considering the negative press he'd get from saying "no", sticks up for Kris and fires the psychiatrist who started the whole mess.
* [[Courtroom Antic]]: Fred Gailey's work in the hearing such as arguing Kris is sane because he is the one and only Santa Claus, putting the prosecutor's son on the stand to make him concede a legal point and of course the bags of mail at the end. Justified in that the Judge was worried about the political fallout from this hearing if he was forced to rule against Kris and was more than willing to give Gailey as much chance to legitimately win as he can.
* [[Covers Always Lie]]: Early pressings of the Blu-Ray version had covers promising a new, colorized version inside. The disc actually contains only the original black-and-white version, as well as some extra features (20th Century Fox had previously sold colorized versions on VHS and DVD).
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* [[In Mysterious Ways]]: Santa's ways prove to be less mysterious than you'd think, if Kris is any indication.
* [[Jerkass]]: Mr. Sawyer, the supposed psychologist.
* [[Just in Time]]: Played with -- the Postal Service contacts Fred Gailey literally during the final arguments.
* [[Mall Santa]]: Played with, since Kris clearly believes himself to be Santa.
* [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane]]: The film never does conclusively tell us if Kris is really Santa. {{spoiler|But the scene at the end of the film where Kris' cane
* [[Minor Injury Overreaction]]: The psychiatrist that works for Macy's pretends to be unconscious from being rapped on the head with an umbrella.
* [[Napoleon Delusion]]: Kris is assumed by the other characters to be suffering this.
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* [[Romancing the Widow]]: The divorcee in Doris' case. Fred Gailey admits part of his reason for taking such an interest in Susan was to help him get closer to her mother.
* [[The Runt At the End]]: At the climactic moment of the film, a parade of burly bailiffs stream into the courtroom each toting two large bags of mail; the parade ends with a smaller bailiff carrying a single bag.
* [[The Scrounger]]: Kris knows where to find
* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: With a holiday twist. Besides Fred and Kris himself, all the characters in the film are simply looking out for themselves, which is especially clear with the postal workers who help exonerate him completely by accident. What's actually pretty brilliant is the fact that lots of cynical players and actors end up accidentally helping Kris out - the judge's desire to be reelected, the postal workers' desire to get rid of the Santa letters and the NYC newspapers' desire for a juicy story. Without all those people's cynical actions, Fred would have lost the case.
* [[Smoking Gun]]: Susan's mailed letter to Kris (as Santa Claus) draws the attention of the postal workers who sort it and come up with the scheme to clear out the dead letter office -- just in time to save Kris.
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: Very cleverly averted. Watch it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDC5H2MdtEw here].
** The trailer doesn't spoil much because the movie came out during the ''summer'' box office season, in hopes of making more money. The advertisers had to make sure not to include any out-of-season Christmas imagery.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:Danny Peary Cult Movies List]]
[[Category:Academy Award]]
[[Category:Films of the 1940s]]
[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]
▲[[Category:Films of the 1940s]]
[[Category:The Forties]]
[[Category:
[[Category:National Film Registry]]
[[Category:Trial film]]
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