Miracle on 34th Street ***½ (1994, Richard Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott, Mara Wilson, J T Walsh, James Remar, Robert Prosky, Jane Leeves) – Classic Movie Review 509

A perfectly cast Richard Attenborough gives a really skilled and winning performance as Kris Kringle, a twinkly old man who claims that he’s the real Santa Claus, in director Les Mayfield’s 1994 plush and splendidly realised production of the classic Christmas fantasy film.

Young Mara Wilson is cute as Susan, the six-year-old girl who at first doubts that Kris Kringle is Santa as he says is and doesn’t believe in him.

Elizabeth Perkins plays her mother Doris Walker, the brisk and capable special events director of Macy’s Department Store in Manhattan, New York City, who hires Kris Kringle to take over as their new Santa Claus when she finds their usual one inebriated on the job on Thanksgiving Day.

Dylan McDermott is Bryan Bedford, the Walkers’ neighbour, a young lawyer who agrees to represent Kringle in court and argues that the old man really is Santa as he says. ‘Your Honor,’ he says, ‘a lot of people believe in Mr Kringle. Including millions of children. If you rule against him, you won’t destroy anyone’s belief but you will destroy the man they believe in.’

This third version of Miracle on 34th Street is a warm and welcome fantasy film, nicely remaking the fondly remembered 1947 movie with Edmund Gwenn, and destined to become a seasonal classic in its own right.

John (Home Alone) Hughes’s screenplay is based on the 1947 original which won Oscars for best original story and best screenplay for story writer Valentine Davies and scripter George Seaton too. It was also remade in 1973 for TV.

Also in the cast are J T Walsh, James Remar, Robert Prosky, Jane Leeves, Simon Jones, William Windom, Kathrine Narducci, Mary McCormack, Alvin Greenman, Greg Noonan and Allison Janney.

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© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 509

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