Miracle on 34th Street (1947) — Might be more aptly titled Santa on Trial.
+ Feature film, bw, 1h 36m❗🔜 ⭐
A ^
Family Suitability
+ ✅3️⃣ OK for older kids. (Grades 4+) | Approved
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎1️⃣ Fair/Slightly Favorable
+ 1️⃣/? works in Miracle on 34th Street multiverse ⭐
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Grade: A ^ (12.0) / HOF: 30
EQ 👍A | 📖A- 👫A+ 📽️A+ 🎼B+
DW 🚫4.7 | 🌚4 🌝9
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R ☮️n/a ◀️n/a ▶️n/a 🛐n/a
Several of the Christmas movies I’ve watched and reviewed in this 2024 holiday season were very good films with endings that weren’t quite as good as the bulk of the picture. So it was a pleasure to enjoy Miracle on 34th Street with some of my family in the evening of Christmas Day, and discover that the best scenes of the film are near the end.
In fact, I first watched this film as a kid, probably fifty years ago, and the only scene I still remembered was one of those in the strong ending.
I also remember that in those days, the film was often shown on Thanksgiving immediately after the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Appropriate, since the film begins with that very parade. And a holiday afternoon was a great time for kids to watch TV, as long as adults weren’t watching football.
The film remains acceptable for kids to this day, although there’s a bit of smoking and drunkenness that today’s parents might not be comfortable with. There’s a lot of drama that adults will enjoy and children won’t follow, but the central story is something most kids will resonate with, and the black and white cinematography is so exceptionally good that it’s very watchable even for modern viewers of any age. If you just can’t manage, there’s a colorized version available too.
Miracle on 34th Street is a story of the real Santa Claus visiting New York City and taking a job as a department store Santa. At least he claims to be the real Santa. Eventually he wins over a skeptical little girl he crosses paths with, but his real test is when he must establish in a courtroom that he’s not just a crazy old man.
Edmund Gwenn plays Kris Kringle so well that he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Another noteworthy performance is by an 8-year-old Natalie Wood, as the little skeptic. Wood is one of the few child actors in Hollywood ever to successfully transition to adult roles later in their career.
The story has more drama than comedy for quite a while, but is very engaging, with great character conflicts. Then just when the biggest conflict of the film comes to a head in the courtroom scenes, the laughs become frequent and the movie goes from good to great.
There are no religious Christmas references in this “Miracle”, excepting for that particular word, but faith is a central theme here. Faith is contrasted with unbelief and encouraged as the better choice. While I appreciate that encouragement as a Christian, I was uncomfortable with the filmmakers’ characterization of faith as “believing in something when common sense tells you not to.”
That’s a quote from a main character which actually flies in the face of the character arcs of the movie. Most of the characters that grow to believe Kris is really Santa gain their faith because their common sense tells them to believe all the evidence they see with their own eyes. My take is that faith is believing in something when common sense tells you to believe, but other people tell you to not believe. The film portrayed this right, but said it wrong.
There are some bumps and slow spots along the way, including a background romance that isn’t all that romantic. For adult viewers, there’s not much depth here—seeing it once might be enough—but do see it that once. Overall, the film finishes as a winner. In the end, the strong message of good will makes Miracle on 34th Street a movie greater than the sum of its parts.
Onwards!
+ last viewed (3) 2025-12-08, HDX7, 1.37, 1M
+ first viewed 1970s?, sd2, 1.37v, 1
+ 👨👩👧👦🎈🦃🎄🎅⚖️🦄🧙😏😥🥸
Family Suitability Detail
+ ✅3️⃣ OK for older kids. (Grades 4+) | Approved
+ 😡+3 😵💫+2^ 🤬+4 🤭+2^ 🫣+4
Judeo-Christian Values Detail
+ ❎1️⃣ Fair/Slightly Favorable
+ ✝️ +1 ➕❤️❤️❤️🩸🥴 ➖😍😍😍
+ ✡️ +2 ➕🌗🌗🌗💎🤍🤍🤍 ➖😍😍😍
+ 🗽 +1 ➕🗽📜🏦⬜⬜🏛️ ➖💻😍😍😍
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Originally posted to text group 2024-12-27
Re-reviewed and updated 2025-12-08
Note from Rick Retro: This review was originally posted December 27, 2024 to a select group of friends and family via a text group. We have roughly five times as many subscribers in our community now, so I am working on formatting and uploading all those old reviews to Substack for all of you and future subscribers as well.
At that time, I had not completely developed my full review format, so I am also re-reviewing most of these works to match the format of my newer reviews. Since these posts were almost entirely holiday themed from a 2024 Christmas Tour, I am now uploading these reviews as part of a 2025 Christmas Tour, all intended to get my archives completed while giving new subscribers a chance to experience older reviews on a measured basis.
But if you'd rather just start from the original beginning, visit this post and follow the “Next (all sections) ➡️” links at the end of each post, until you arrive at this one, where that link will be dead, until I upload the next post from our text group archives 😉. When the next post is not yet available, there will be a link to the post that is “Next Available, skipping over text group posts not yet uploaded ➡️”
The first post to Substack after the current “Text Group Gaps” of posts I have not yet uploaded can be found here. From this post, following the “Next (all sections) ➡️” links will bring you all the way to the most current post.
This note will disappear when the next text group post is added, and this review takes its rightful spot in our archives. For now, I hope you enjoy this look into Christmas past!