Miracle on 34th Street

Its very easy to see why this movie won the Oscar for Screenplay that year. Its very intelligent and has a lot to say about several topics - how to raise a child, how a person of questionable sanity gets treated, how greedy businessmen are, how politics play out in a courtroom..and what to do with all that damn mail addressed to Santa Claus!

Its also very mature in some ways - Doris (Maureen O'Hara) is divorced and the mother of Susie (Natalie Wood). Doris has raised Susie to be very practical and to think for herself, but she neglected to teach Susie one thing - how to be a child, when you ARE a child. Enter Mr. Gayley (John Payne), a struggling lawyer who befriends Susie as a way to get to know her Mom better.

Doris works at Macy's and is organizing their Thanksgiving Day Parade, when the Santa they've hired is intoxicated. In a pinch they hire the REAL Kris Kringle to appear in the parade. He ends up being such a big hit that he gets hired to work at Macy's also. He is not the traditional employee, however, and this comes to light when he sends a customer (the venerable Thelma Ritter) to ANOTHER STORE! Schoenfeld's, he says, has what she's looking for. Then he is overheard, by the store manager no less, sending another customer to GIMBELS!

Don't want to give away any more, but the movie is touching, dramatic and hysterical - Doris on the phone with her co-workers' wife, who has been given too much liquor, is worth a million bucks alone. Whenever I want to make my sister laugh, I do a pretty decent imitation of her saying "HELLO?" Also, I can sing the song Kris sings to the girl from Rotterdam..the girl who is so thrilled that Kris can communicate with her in her language. Susie overhearing this is beginning to think that Kris might be the real thing, and she's a pretty hard nut to crack, for a little kid.

See it, own it, memorize it..and pity the 31 souls in 'User Ratings' who gave this a '1', which is ridiculous but it takes all kinds I guess.