A Miraculous Movie (Miracle On 34th Street)
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It was originally called The Big Heart. Daryl Zanuck the shrewd head
of Twentieth Century Fox couldn't buy the image of Santa Claus in a
court room. But like so many ventures Miracle On 34th Street (1947)
came about because of passion, in this case that of Director George
Seaton who had gone to New York on his own and made arrangements with
management from the real Macys and Gimbels to film in their
department stores. Impressed by Seaton's commitment Zanuck gave the
show a green light.
The toughest casting choice for Miracle On 34th Street was who would
play the little girl who didn't believe in Santa Claus? Seaton
agonized over it, until the assistant director remembered an amazing
child prodigy from Santa Rosa, California who could cry on cue. Her
name was Natasha Nikolaevna Gurdin renamed Natalie Wood after
director Sam Wood . The same Natalie Wood who would later go out on a
hotel room ledge and threaten to jump when her boyfriend Elvis
Presley ignored her to play poker with Memphis Mafia. The same girl
who would infuriate fellow cast members of West Side Story (1961)
with her tardiness, her refusal to learn simple dance steps and her
insistence on long lunch breaks to visit with her analyst. But the
seven-year-old Natalie had none of the typical child star precocious
behavior, she gained the respect of her co-stars on the Miracle set
with her professional demeanor, earning the nickname One-Take-
Natalie.
Like all filmed on location movies there were logistical problems.
The sequence where Santa was taken to Bellevue was done without
permission. The famous hospital would not cooperate with Hollywood
because they had been portrayed badly in earlier films, they were not
swayed by the sight of a sickly, freezing cold Santa Claus (Edmund
Gwenn) bundled up under blankets in a car, waiting to shoot his
scenes. The filmmakers were forced to shoot only the car approaching
the building's entrance and edit the rest later. Another difficulty
was getting permission to shoot the Macy's parade from the apartment
dwellers on 34th street which had to be done right the first time,
there could be no retakes. The film crew paid the ladies of the house
to place the cameras in their windows. Then their husbands came home,
complained about the inconvenience and demanded their own equal
share. Most difficult to film was the sickly but determined Edmund
Gwenn who would win an Oscar for playing Kris Kringle. He suffered
from a bladder control problem but couldn't stand the thought of
someone taking his place in the parade. The children who stood on the
sidewalk waving at Santa never saw the long tube under his cloak.
Overcoming his initial reluctance Daryl Zanuck who was famous for his
memos, made suggestions to improve the film's story. The mother
Doris, played by Maureen O'Hara was too cold, she would scare a man
like Fred (John Payne) off, she had to be made warmer to the audience
by explaining that she had been burned by an earlier relationship and
that's why she didn't want her daughter believing in Santa Claus.
Zanuck also felt that they shouldn't overdo the scenes where Macy's
employees recommend that their customers go shopping at Gimbels, just
some simple dialogue was enough to get the point across. But despite
the loud cheering by preview audiences when Santa Claus was declared
sane in the courtroom scene, Zanuck never had full confidence in the
film. He put it in theaters in July, the busiest time of year for
moviegoers, and told his marketing staff to hide from the public that
the film was about Christmas.
One reference in the Miracle script that's now dated was when Kris
Kringle's psychiatrist mentioned a man in Hollywood who passed
himself off as Russian Prince and owned a restaurant. It was a dig at
Mike Romanoff, a colorful fraud whose Rodeo Drive eatery was a fun
sanctuary for Hollywood's most notorious figures. One night FBI head
J. Edgar Hoover was dining at Romanoffs when he was approached by an
actual jewel thief named Swifty Morgan. "Like to buy these gold cuff
links?" Amused, Hoover offered $200. "Oh come on John the reward is
more than that!"
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Cute Baby Clothes
Edmund Gwenn in Miracle on 34th Street (1947) In Miracle on 34th Street, the question isn just Ò the question may also be, Òoes Santa Claus need years of therapy Although Miracle esque uplift and heartwarming messages about believing in "he imagination of the child I for one always fouond the picture a tad subversive. The wonderful Edmund Gwenn plays "Kris Kringle" and eventually wins over her progressive workaholic mother played by Maureen O fara. But is the guy really Santa And if he believes he is, isn he totally nuts This question causes the (POLICE ) to nearly drag poor Kris to an insane asylum which is funny, sad and creepy all at the same time.
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