Miracle on 34th Street (1973)

Better Late Then Never

An Exercise In Nonsense

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I had the opportunity to watch this version on You tube The only thing I can say about the movie that is good is that it is closer to the original than the Richard Attenborough one It was very bland No emotions No suspense No drama Even the court case was dead No public While it has its merits I still prefer the original It might have been made in black and white but the best sumation of the 1947 version is the comments made at the end of that movie with the director talking to some of the actors to get a review about the movie That movie had it all Romance Love Tenderness Drama Suspense This version AND the Attenborough version don't come a patch up to the original In fact I would even downgrade my rating of this movie from a 4 to a 2 The Attenborough one to a 1

My dad Marvin "Corky" Corcoran Sr. worked at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. and was the Head Pilot for these Balloons when this movie came out. We still have the movie today. My dad and Sabaston Cabot didn't get along at all in fact. Sabaston Cabot kept poking those balloons with his umbrella. My dad politely asked him not to do that cause he would punch a hole right through them!!! Well needles to say he did it again and him and my dad got into a really big argument and He never poked another balloon again!! The NYPD told him that if he did he was going straight to jail!!! I never cared for him before this happened but sure didn't care for him when my dad got home and told us how ignorant he was!!!!

That old rivalry between Macy's and Gimbel's rages on! Allegedly a Christmas fantasy with comic and romantic trimmings, this TV-made remake of the 1947 holiday perennial turns sour mighty quickly, probing into the psychological ramifications of a department store Santa Claus who believes he is, in fact, Kris Kringle. Sebastian Cabot would appear to be a great choice to replace Edmund Gwenn in the leading role, but director Fielder Cook never allows Cabot a magical moment, keeping the camera at a distance from him--and worse, keeping Kris in a perpetually combative mood. The romance initiated between hard-working single mom Jane Alexander and attorney David Hartman by Alexander's brainy daughter doesn't work, either; young Suzanne Davidson, playing a walking encyclopedia, is full of forced cuteness and unnatural sparkle. When Davidson spies Santa Cabot speaking Spanish to a little girl, she reacts as if she's seen a miracle, dropping her mouth open mechanically. In updating Valentine Davies' original story, I guess having Santa speak any other foreign language but Spanish was considered too outlandish. Yet, that's precisely the problem with this woebegone version: it hasn't an ounce of genuine wonderment or Christmas spirit.

Except for his interaction with the staff psychologist, Sebastian Cabot seemed an affable enough Santa Claus, but the writers removed any hint of magic from his portrayal of Kris Kringle. Speaking Spanish wasn't nearly as surprising as speaking Dutch, and the possibly divinely-inspired intervention by the post office was changed into a ruse by Bill, his lawyer (David Hartman). Given Kringle's condescension towards Dr Sawyer (Roddy McDowall), I almost didn't blame Sawyer for taunting the old man.The little girl was cute, but not a great actress. Jane Alexander must have had a no touching clause in her contract because Karen's romance with Bill was hard to discern. At the end when he proposed, she sort of nodded while they were standing at least three feet apart - which made for a clumsy ending.Of the supporting cast, Jim Backus was almost invisible, McDowell was fun to watch as always, the actor playing Alfred seemed more like Quasimodo at first, David Doyle played Mr Macy like Scrooge, and Tom Bosley was fairly humorous as the harried judge. The DA and the old pol were very minor characters in this version.