Great Film overall

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Like everyone I fondly recall the 1947 version with Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle and can remember seeing it on TV and telling my father "He is Santa Claus Daddy!"and when my father me how I knew that in my childhood innocence i said "I just know that Daddy!"and of course at the end i said "See Daddy I was right!" and even now when ever I have the chance to watch it I still enjoy it and as for the 1955 version since it was less then an hour they did the best they could and it had a great cast with Thomas Mitchell as Kris Kringle ,Mcdonald Carey as Fred Gailey,Teresa Wright as Doris,Sandy Descher as Susan(who had a role as the little girl in Them!In 1954)along with a great supporting cast including Dick Foran,John Abbott,Hans Conried,Ray Collins Whit Bissell and others as well and this was a good version and while they had to cut some things the cast did a great job .And I must take exception to an earlier comment from another reviewer who said that it was a cast of unknowns !While I hate to say this he was wrong because the cast was composed of reliable character actors who all did a fantastic job in the little time they had to work with And I really enjoyed this

Miracle on 34th Street (1955) *** (out of 4) Made-for-TV remake of the 1947 classic has Thomas Mitchell playing Kris Kringle who gets a job at Macy's where he tries to convince a non-believing mother (Teresa Wright) and her daughter (Sandy Descher) that he is real and there's nothing wrong in believing. This film doesn't come close to the 1947 movie and I'd say it also falls well short of the 1994 version but there's still enough here to make it worth viewing. Clocking in less than an hour, there's no doubt that the film flies by and I think the story itself is just so charming that it would be nearly impossible to mess it up. As with the earlier version, the story itself is just so good that even the most jaded adult will find themselves wanting to believe in Santa and that's why the story itself is so priceless. Another strong thing this version has going for it are the performances. Mitchell, best remembered for IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, does a very good job in the role of Santa. He's certainly looks the part quite well, which shocked me but he's also got that certain charm that was just made for the role of Santa. It also doesn't hurt that he too has the charm to make you want to believe the character really is Santa. Wright is also very good in her role as the mother who doesn't want to believe and Descher is good as the daughter, although her crying scenes aren't that impressive. Macdonald Carey plays the love interest/lawyer and Dick Foran makes an appearance as well. Again, there's certainly nothing ground-breaking about this version and if you must watch only one then it's best to go with the original but if you're curious about all the different versions out there or if this one here is just within reach of you, it's certainly worth viewing.

Condensing one of my favorite film's--the 1947 version, into a 45-minute show had to be a mistake. Scenes that made the original great were omitted or condensed. One of everyone's favorite scenes in the original was when they hauled in all those bags of mail in the court room. This quickie version had just two men shown bringing in mailbags! The opening where Kris had applied and been hired for the job of Santa instead of filling in on an emergency basis definitely started this train going off the tracks and it became a total train wreck with the added scene described by other reviewers here.The original had a scene in Sawyer's office where Kris, frustrated, gave him a light tap with his cane. Most viewers could easily side with him at that point. This 1955 version has it played where Kris gives a full overhead swing clobbering Sawyer on his head from behind, in front of a room full of children and their parents.I cannot picture any type of Santa Claus viciously clubbing someone in front of a bunch of children. To me, this changed the whole tone of the show.Even without that scene, the rest of this show seemed speeded up. My DVR can play things where you hear everything but it runs faster than it took to record. I kept checking to make sure I wasn't doing this by accident.The scenes they took out were instrumental in making the original a great movie. I imagine most anyone seeing this version first would have no interest in watching any of the other fine versions that got the full treatment. As presented, the show is disturbing and lacks most of the charm of the original.

Thanks to the recent 'Special Edition' release of the 1947 classic "Miracle on 34th Street", this first 'remake' of the tale, included in the 'Special Features', is available for everyone to enjoy...and while it lacks the magic of the film, it is certainly entertaining in it's own right! There were, surprisingly, five versions of the Valentine Davies Christmas story produced over 47 years, each offering a different emotional 'spin' to the question, "Could Santa Exist in a Materialistic World?". The 1955 version, aired as an episode of "The 20th Century-Fox Hour", was certainly the closest in 'look' to the original (utilizing footage from the film, to help offset a tiny budget, and offering Herbert Heyes, reprising his role as Mr. Gimbel), and benefits from a first-rate cast of major stars (Teresa Wright and MacDonald Carey, who had worked together in Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt", John Ford 'stock company' stars Thomas Mitchell and Dick Foran, Orson Welles' Mercury Theater alum Ray Collins, and veteran character actors Hans Conried and Whit Bissell). While 10-year-old Sandy Descher lacked the skeptical sweetness of Natalie Wood in the key role of young Susan, veteran director Robert Stevenson, juggling a large cast and short running time, kept things moving so quickly that her shortcomings were easily overlooked.I'm a great fan of Oscar-winner Thomas Mitchell, and his portrayal of Kris Kringle is a gem, but he seems more a bearded leprechaun than Santa Claus, with a 'snap salute' greeting, and Irish mischief concealed behind those twinkling eyes! In a major divergence from the film, he actually DOES strike Sawyer (John Abbott), in front of a roomful of children, for attacking his claim of being Santa Claus (which, in the original, was a trumped-up charge to get Kris committed). Edmund Gwenn's portrayal was, and still is, the yardstick by which all "Santa Clauses" are measured...and, truthfully, no one else has ever come close.The major problem in the 1955 production isn't in the casting, however; it is in the brevity. A magical story of renewing one's sense of wonder and innocence, of rediscovering love and why we need Santa Claus, requires time to unfold, and less than an hour simply isn't long enough! Despite all of the talent involved, this version never comes across as more than an 'abridged' copy of the original, and would be easily 'passed over' without it's classic ancestor's name attached to it. But it is still fun, and worth viewing!