History Film / MiracleOnThirtyFourthStreet

The story has been adapted several times for television and once for Broadway. There was a theatrically-released remake in 1994 written by JohnHughes. RichardAttenborough was cast as Kris Kringle, Elizabeth Perkins as Dorey Walker, and MaraWilson as Susan. The remake was a modest box office hit, earning $46,264,384 in the worldwide market. With $17,320,136 from the United States market alone, it was the 80th most successful film of its year.

The story has been adapted several times for television and once for Broadway. There was a theatrically-released remake in 1994 written by JohnHughes. Richard Attenborough was cast as Kris Kringle, Elizabeth Perkins as Dorey Walker, and Mara Wilson as Susan. The remake was a modest box office hit, earning $46,264,384 in the worldwide market. With $17,320,136 from the United States market alone, it was the 80th most successful film of its year.

[[caption-width-right:299:"I believe. I believe. It's silly, but I believe."]]

* BilingualBonus: Kris's unsubtitled conversation with the Dutch orphan, for Dutch speakers. Included in full on the quotes page.

** Then played straight(ish) when the trailer includes the very last shot of the film, complete with "THE END" card!

An important subplot revolves around a little girl who never believed in Santa Claus (due to her [[BrokenBird bitter divorced mother]] being against believing in fantasy) but meeting Kris causes her to start wondering. There's also a romantic subplot involving her mother and the lawyer who defends Kris in court.

[[caption-width-right:299:"I believe. It's silly, but I believe."]]

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: With a holiday twist.
** Though it's not quite as clear-cut as you'd think. Besides Fred and Kris himself, all the characters in the film are simply looking out for themselves, which is especially clear with the postal workers who help exonerate him completely by accident. What's actually pretty brilliant is the fact that lots of cynical players and actors end up accidentally helping Kris out - the judge's desire to be reelected, the postal workers' desire to get rid of the Santa letters and the NYC newspapers' desire for a juicy story. Without all those people cynical actions, Fred would have lost the case.

** The justice's decision, based on the US Government's acknowledgement that God exists, is basically "Because the government can believe in mythical figures like God, I can say Santa Claus is real." Which doesn't actually prove that Kris himself is Santa, thus not resolving the actual question of his sanity. The 1947 version showed that the trial hinged on proving both that Santa was real AND that the US Government recognized that Kris himself was Santa and thus not crazy. The reality of how weak the decision is comes up in the film, but nobody wants to pursue it due to the negative publicity of further harassing Kris.
*** Well, actually, the judge says that if the United States government can believe in God, then people can believe in Santa '''and''' Kris Kringle (and others) is entitled to believe that ''he himself'' is Santa. So, its not that he is or isn't crazy; its just that they aren't going to lock him up for it. Its basically what the original point in this entry was, but in this case an example of RightForTheWrongReason.

The original film version was released in 1947, and starred Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle, [[MaureenOHara Maureen O'Hara]] as Doris Walker, NatalieWood as her daughter Susan, and John Payne as lawyer Fred Galley. It was a box office success, won three [[AcademyAward Oscars]] (one for Gwenn, two for the writers), and is shown on television every year.

The original film version was released in 1947, and starred Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle, [[MaureenOHara Maureen O'Hara]] as Doris Walker, Natalie Wood as her daughter Susan, and John Payne as lawyer Fred Galley. It was a box office success, won three [[AcademyAward Oscars]] (one for Gwenn, two for the writers), and is shown on television every year.

* ExecutiveMeddling: The film was originally released in ''May'' despite being a Christmas film, due to an executive that believed people were more willing to see movies in May instead. This famously led to a marketing campaign that hid the Christmas themes of the film, including a trailer that instead of showing the film showed a fictional producer trying to figure out how to sell it while other contemporary stars raved about it. Fortunately, the film turned out to be a massive success anyway and actually ran long enough that it was still in theaters when Christmas ''actually'' rolled around.

* HotMom: Maureen O'Hara!

* PsychoPsychologist: Mr. Sawyer is a rather mild case compared to others in this category. He's simply employed by Macy's to give employment tests, but envisions himself as a great psychiatrist and enjoys using that status to bully others. He quickly comes to hate Kris due to his passing the psychiatric exam and then turning it around on him, and later tries to have Kris committed both as revenge on him and also to prevent him from telling Mr. Macy about Sawyer's practicing psychiatry without a license on the premises. He gets his come-uppance when Macy just fires anyway during the trial.
** [[LaserGuidedKarma Karma twists this around on him, as he's fired by Mr. Macy after he is put on the stand.]]

* AmoralAttorney: Averted with the prosecutor on Kris's case, who doesn't exactly want to lock up a sweet old man, but it happens to be his job. He concedes the existence of Santa Claus (knowingly giving the defense a huge step toward winning) just because he didn't want to declare otherwise when his son was watching.

** Though it's not quite as clear-cut as you'd think. Besides Kris himself, all the characters in the film are simply looking out for themselves, which is especially clear with the postal workers who help exonerate him completely by accident. What's actually pretty brilliant is the fact that lots of cynical players and actors end up accidentally helping Kris out - the judge's desire to be reelected, the postal workers' desire to get rid of the Santa letters and the NYC newspapers' desire for a juicy story. Without all those people cynical actions, Fred would have lost the case.

* PsychoPsycologist: Mr. Sawyer is a rather mild case compared to others in this category. He's simply employed by Macy's to give employment tests, but envisions himself as a great psychiatrist and enjoys using that status to bully others. He quickly comes to hate Kris due to his passing the psychiatric exam and then turning it around on him, and later tries to have Kris committed both as revenge on him and also to prevent him from telling Mr. Macy about Sawyer's practicing psychiatry without a license on the premises. He gets his come-uppance when Macy just fires anyway during the trial.

* PsychoPsychiatrist: Mr. Sawyer is a rather mild case compared to others in this category. He's simply employed by Macy's to give employment tests, but envisions himself as a great psychiatrist and enjoys using that status to bully others. He quickly comes to hate Kris due to his passing the psychiatric exam and then turning it around on him, and later tries to have Kris committed both as revenge on him and also to prevent him from telling Mr. Macy about Sawyer's practicing psychiatry without a license on the premises. He gets his come-uppance when Macy just fires anyway during the trial.

The original film version was released in 1947, and starred Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle, [[MaureenOHara Maureen O'Hara]] as Doris Walker, Natalie Wood as her daughter Susan, and John Payne as lawyer Fred Galley. It won three [[AcademyAward Oscars]] (one for Gwenn, two for the writers), and is shown on television every year.

* BilingualBonus: Kris's conversation with a little girl in unsubtitled Dutch:
-->'''Kris:''' ''Hallo! ik ben blij dat je gekomen bent!'' (Hello! I’m glad you came!)
-->'''Girl:''' ''O, u ''bent'' Sinterklaas!'' (Oh, you ''are'' Santa Claus!)
-->'''Kris:''' ''Jazeker!'' (Yes, surely!)
-->'''Girl:''' ''Ik wist dat u het zou begrijpen!'' (I knew you would understand!)
-->'''Kris Kringle:''' ''Natuurlijk! Zeg maar wat je zou willen hebben.'' (Naturally! Tell me what you’d like to have.)
-->'''Girl:''' ''Niets; ik heb van alles. Ik wil alléén maar bij deze lieve dame zijn.'' (Nothing; I have everything. I just want to be with this nice lady.)
-->'''Kris Kringle:''' ''Wil je een liedje voor me zingen?'' (Would you like to sing me a little song?)
-->'''Both (singing):''' ''Sinterklaas kapoentje,'' (Santa Claus, you rascal,)
-->''Geef wat in mijn schoentje,'' (Give me something in my shoe,
-->''Geef wat in mijn laarsje,'' (Give me something in my boot,
-->''Dank u, Sinterklaasje!'' (Thank you, Santa Claus!)
** And thank ''you'' for the translation!

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The psychiatrist in the Macy's department store causes Kris to get put on trial because Kris manages to not only pass the psyche exam, but ''turn it around on him''. When he uses his feeble understanding of psychology to bully one of Kris's friends, Kris smacks him on the head with an umbrella in retaliation -- leading him falsely to accuse Kris of making a violent attack on him.
** [[LaserGuidedKarma Karma twists this around on him, as he's fired by Mr. Macy after he is put on the stand.]]
** Averted ''strongly'' with Mr. Macy himself. Apart from him supporting Kris directing customers to other stores, he also declares that he believes Kris is Santa Claus in court.

* EthnicMenialLabor

* InMysteriousWays
* JustInTime: Played with.
* MallSanta
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The film never does conclusively tell us if Kris is really Santa.

* RomancingTheWidow
* TheRuntAtTheEnd

** Though it's not quite as clear-cut as you'd think. Besides Kris himself, all the characters in the film are simply looking out for themselves, which is especially clear with the postal workers who help exonerate him completely by accident.
*** What's actually pretty brilliant is the fact that lots of cynical players and actors end up accidently helping Kris out - the judge's desire to be reelected, the postal workers' desire to get rid of the Santa and the NYC newspapers' desire for a juicy story. Without all those people cynical actions, Fred would have lost the case.
* SmokingGun
* YesVirginia

* BrandX: Macy's refused to allow the company's name to be attached to the sequel, so the store is called "Cole's." Likewise, because Gimbels closed their store in 1987, the rival department store was also fictional.

* BrandX: Macy's was likely too big at the time to use, so the store is called "Cole's." Likewise, because Gimbels closed their store in 1987, the rival department store was also fictional.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MiracleOn34thStreet.JPG

* TheRuntAtTheEnd