Last night I treated myself with this classic, old Christmas movie - I have probably seen it before because some characters appear vaguely familiar but who knows, I might have also seen just a few scenes previously - in any case I was completely on my own on Saturday night, the city streets were deserted and just as during he last Spring, people appear to be all hidden behind their walls. Everybody is terribly busy with their projects so I felt a bit crestfallen since I don't have any important things to do, everything is closed and without a genuine, human contact its getting a bit depressing - one thing is taking a breath from the crowd and enjoying one's own space but living in a Apocalyptic city with absolutely no one around is completely different story.
Well, one way or the other, I ended up on "Miracle on 34th Street" which was just a perfect movie for that evening. It pulled me in, it cheered me and made me giggle, made me forget about reality. Sure its classic old Hollywood and I see nothing wrong with it - elegant people who are dressed nicely and living in a lovely homes, living some fantasy lives and having cooks & nannies conveniently hidden in the kitchen. Its kind of 1950s Doris Day movie except this one was done just a little bit earlier. Maureen O'Hara and John Payne are neighbours and he is trying to win her over by being nice and charming with her precocious little daughter (no other than Natalie Wood). Payne easily finds out that O'Hara is single mother who tries to bring her child firmly realistic and not believing in fairy tales that later just "bring disappointments and break hearts" so he wants to introduce her to playfulness and lighthearted fun - one of the things he does is to introduce her to costumed Santa Claus who traditionally sits in the department stores and entertain little kids. And here we come to the real heart of the movie because white bearded Edmund Gwenn is so perfect as Santa, that after initial amusement and gentle suspicion, we actually start believing that perhaps he IS Santa Claus. The movie cleverly never pushes this subject too far and it leaves to the audience to make their own conclusion but we understand that this is not about Gwenn, its about Christmas itself and what it means to people, specially little children who needs magic in their lives. When Santa eventually ends up in a court, the judge Gene Lockhart understand that his decision might costs thousand people their jobs, not to mention all the kids who would be broken hearted. So we come to the very lovely, old school Hollywood magic ending and I loved all of it. Perhaps little Natalie Wood gets a little bit annoying towards the end, but she was only 9 and was following director's instructions so I am not taking this against her.
What this beautiful old classic did for me was that it reminded me on the magic of old movies that I always loved and it served as a beautiful escape from this sad reality around us. I loved it so much that I might just enjoy some more of it, specially as its all available online now.
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