Saturday, December 5, 2015

Michael's Christmas Movie Guide: It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)

 





Very charming and quite funny Christmas themed comedy.

It Happened on 5th Avenue started life as an idea for a film for Frank Capra's production company, Liberty Films. It was going to be directed by Capra himself, but Capra found a Christmas themed movie he liked a bit better, called It's a Wonderful Life, a film he wanted to make much more. So the film was given to producer/director Roy Del Ruth. It also became the first film made for the Allied Artist company.

This film is a very charming Christmas classic that deserves to be better known. It is very funny, the characters are quite likable, the story is good and most of all it just has a great charm to it. It is a very happy feel good movie that just feels so naturally happy and never forced. On top of that is is just perfectly cast.  Victor Moore, Don DeFore, Ann Harding, Charles Ruggles and Gale Storm were all just perfect, and really don't feel like actors, but rather the characters they are playing. Also very charming in a brief role is Edward Brophy, who my fellow Disney fans may recognize as the voice of Timothy Mouse in Dumbo. This is just a Christmas classic that deserves to be much better known.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/274279%7C0/It-Happened-On-th-Avenue.html

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