Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Seventy-Eight: Christmas Comes Early

They say that Christmas comes but once a year, but Christmas films can come any time you see fit. As Miracle on 34th Street was nominated at the 1948 ceremony I'd decided I would watch It's a Wonderful Life. which I had to watch online, at the same time.

First up then is Miracle on 34th Street, a film I'm very familiar with but mainly due to the 1994 remake. For those who have no idea of the story its about a department store manager, Doris Walker, who hires a new store santa after she finds her current Santa drunk. The new Santa, Kris Kringle, believes himself to be Santa and after an altercation ends up in a mental asylum. Kringle then has to prove he is not insane and Fred Gailey, Doris' suitor, decides to defend him thanks to a batch of children's letters to Santa. Meanwhile Doris' daughter Susan is a very grown-up girl and doesn't believe in Santa but Kringle tries to change her mind. I do love this story its all about belief and love and the true meaning of Christmas. Kringle starts to tell parents where they can get presents cheaper even if it is not in Macy's, the store where he works. The incident that leaves Kringle in a mental insitution is after he is goaded by Sawyer, Macy's psychologist who believes Kringle is insane. Sawyer picks on a young Macy's employee who Kringle has befriended and once this happens Kringle strikes Sawyer with his cane and Sawyer exagarates the injury. I felt this incident was a bit contrived and preferred the old Santa trying to get revenge which happened in the remake. Apart from that though this film is full of old-school warmth and has some great performances. As Doris, Maureen O'Hara is able to show a woman who finds it hard to trust but melts after her encounters with Kris and Fred. Edmund Gwenn won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Kris and it is a lovely natural performance while Natalie Wood shows that not all child actors have to be annoying. This is a Christmas classic whether you watch this version or the 94 remake.

The other film in this double bill is It's a Wonderful Life a film that is always associated with Christmas however only the film's last half hour is set at Christmas time. For the three people who have never seen the film it concerns James Stewart's George Bailey who has basically helped out every member of the community in Bedford Falls but after a lot of money goes missing from his Savings and Loans business he tries to commit suicide. A kindly but dithering angel named Clarence is entrusted with helping Bailey out and showing him what he meant to everyone. However this comes at the end of the film and most of it is depicting George's life from a young boy to the present day. This is shown by Clarence's superiors in order to educate him about George. We see a man who helped his brother from drowning, his boyhood boss from poisioning most of the town and from taking over his father's business rather than going to college. It also shows him marry the love of his life Mary and have four children together and his many clashes with the greedy Mr. Potter. After Potter convinces Bailey that he isn't worth anything, George goes off and that's when Clarence shows him how much he helped people. This is all done on Christmas Eve accompanied by snow and renditions of various carols. And I think this is why this film has got so much of an assocation with Christmas and to be fair it is feel good entertainment up to a point. This is Frank Capra's last film to be nominated for an Oscar and his third collobaration with James Stewart after You Can't Take It With You and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the latter of those will be the next entry in this blog. By this point in his career Stewart showed that he was a more than competent leading man and gives a great turn as the extremely likeable and hard-working George ably supported by Donna Reed as the loving Mary. Stewart got the only acting nomination which is a shame as there are two other brilliant performances. The first is from Lionel Barrymore, who up to this point had mainly been seen playing kindly old men, playing the villianous and callous Potter. The second is from Henry Travers as Clarence who isn't on screen very long but steals the film most of the time he is. Stewart and the movie both lost out to The Best Years of Our Lives, but out of the five films nominated this year this has stood the test of time which can only be a good thing.