happy gratitude day!
Everyone
routinely mistakes George Seaton's "Miracle on 34th St." (1947),
featuring a young Natalie Wood and John Payne (above) and Edmund Gwenn
(below), for a Christmas movie.
Nope.
It's actually a Thanksgiving movie. Well, almost.
So true!
ReplyDeleteGood point, Joe, but the film actually covers both holidays. Still, Thanksgiving movies are rare and it would be nice to include this one among them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brian, the film traverses two holidays. That said, I think the TV stations that air "Miracle" every year should start showing it on Thanksgiving day and not wait until Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI watch this every year with my family on Thanksgiving. I couldn't be with them this year, so we had a quote-off. My mom would text me a favorite line from the movie and I would text her back the next big one. Aka I've seen this film way too many times!
ReplyDeleteMiracle on 34th Street is, as your fans confirm, a holiday season movie, not a strictly Christmas movie. Of course, the entire premise of the movie questions — and sweetly answers — the actuality of Santa Claus. It has been part of my life for so many years, I cannot remember when I first saw it. But it is the primary reason I bought a VCR when they came on the market, long before DVRing. “Miracle” was often scheduled to air at an ungodly hour or at a time when it was impossible to see so I bought it in VHS and still screen it every year.
ReplyDeleteAs essential as “Miracle” is, it is not the first Christmas season movie I was. That honor belongs to another Christmas season spanning movie, an oldie and my wittiest and sweetest favorite: The Man Who Came to Dinner. As you noted, though, I screen them close to Thanksgiving. Both movies are essential to properly begin my parade of Christmas favorites, which I own and watch (in VHS) in this order, typically.
Christmas in Connecticut
A Christmas Story
The Santa Clause
Holiday Affair
Holiday Inn
The Holiday - obviously a recent addition
A Christmas Carol - the Alistair Sims version
The Bishop’s Wife - Loretta Young, Cary Grant, David Niven (and another charmer with Monty Wooley)
White Christmas - usually the concluding movie because of its sentimentality, memories of my father, and the song White Christmas.
Two other films are in my library and sometimes I watch them, but not always: Elf and It’s a Wonderful Life. Will Ferrell is cute in Elf, but I have to be in the mood for his brand of zaniness. Bob Newhart’s wonderfully dry, droll appearance helps a lot. Then there’s IAWL. Frank Capra’s saccharin opus is iconic yet I can’t say it genuinely entertains me. Mostly watch this one, if I do, because of some need to check off a mental list of Christmas films, staying on the Nice list, I suppose.