Kris Kringle [Edmund Gwenn] exists and he works at Macy’s. Kris Kringle, better known as Santa Claus, is real and after chastising Mrs. Walker [Maureen O’Hara] for having a drunken Santa in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade is given the job. Soon enough we find out that he actually believes he is the one and true Santa Claus. He is eventually sent to a mental institution and put on trial as to if he is really Santa Claus.
In 1994 I saw this movie for the first time as a remake with Richard Attenborough (the guy from Jurassic Park) playing Kris Kringle and Mara Wilson (the little girl from Matilda) playing the role of Susan. This however, is my first time since then seeing this story and the first time me seeing the original which was made over 45 years prior to the remake. I found the story pretty much the same and while I doubt it would bother any best of lists I could make it definitely doesn’t stop it from being a solid all round movie about Christmas and believing in Christmas.
What can be said about this movie? It stands as a classic because it took one idea (that of Santa Claus) and made him a part of the real world. The story is that Santa generally he lives at the North Pole and he flies across the world every Christmas Eve giving out gifts to all the good children of the world. However, in the real world we have hundreds (if not thousands) of people dress up in the big red outfit jingling and jangling bells and giving out gifts to children that we all know are representations of Santa but not Santa. Well what if one of those guys claimed he actually was the real Santa? Of course you would call him insane. I would. This Santa however is particularly appealing because this one isn’t a bum looking for a job or a rush from being nice he is one of the few people you might meet in your lifetime that actually embody the spirit of Christmas in all aspects of his life, so you believe the warm hearted bastard. So when he’s put on trial for claiming this you are wondering what has gone wrong with the world?
The film touches your heart and you have to love it for the fact that it takes the Christmas spirit and make it feel all warm and cuddly again. I did feel a bit sold to during the movie with the setting mostly being New York’s Department Store behemoth, Macy’s. I can imagine that Macy’s provided a lot of funding (along with other department stores mentioned in the film) towards the production so as to help make them seem like the good-will store that they are made to be in the film so that when Christmas rolls around mom and dad are going to go and shop there for their gift giving needs.
IMDB says 8.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes says 97%
I say 7.0/10