“サンタクロースを信じますか？ アカデミー賞3部門受賞の名作ドラマ。”
ニューヨークのデパートで、サンタクロースとして雇われた白ヒゲの老人クリス・クリングル。クリングルのサンタは評判を呼ぶが、彼は「自分は本物のサンタだ」と主張し、ついには裁判が開かれる――
製作費: $630,000 (1億円)
興行収入: $2,700,000 (4億円)
推定収支: $2,070,000 (3億円)
※製作費・興行収入はTMDBのデータを参照しています。収支は(興行収入 - 製作費)で算出したFindKey独自の推定値であり、広告宣伝費や諸経費は含まれません (1ドル=150円換算)。
監督: George Seaton
脚本: George Seaton / Valentine Davies
音楽: Cyril J. Mockridge / Edward B. Powell
制作: William Perlberg
撮影監督: Charles G. Clarke / Lloyd Ahern Sr.
制作会社: 20th Century Fox
This is one of the classic holiday pics I will watch every year if it is available to me (Oh no; he said “holiday” instead of Christmas. Blasphemy!) So I will neither pick it apart nor praise it to the heavens. The story writing is strong and the ensemble cast do a good job. The fact that it has been redone so many times speaks for itself. I won’t even try to compare it to the other versions. Instead, as I read in the Pearls Before Swine comic strip, “The floot-floot did a boom-boom on the jim-jam.” (Another way of saying “It is what it is.”)
I suppose if anyone was ever to play the definitive Santa Claus, then it would have had to be Edmund Gwenn. The glint in his eye, the smile and the avuncular look all lends itself so very well to this tale of the Christmas nay-sayers! Set in the toy department of the legendary Macy's toy store in New York, we meet this character who steps in to help out at the city's famous parade after their existing "Santa" gets a bit too inebriated. An instant success with the crowd, he is hired to run the shop's grotto and soon sales are going through the roof. It turns out that he is none too loyal though, and when news reaches his bosses that he is advising the parents where better deals on their gifts can be obtained, things look a bit precarious - or has he hit on the ultimate PR idea! Success never comes alone and resentful of his success certain people engineer an altercation in which our "Kris Kringle" ends up in court. Insisting before learned judge "Harper" (Gene Lockhart) that he is really from the North Pole, what now ensues is a comical, sprightly-written, court-room drama that requires the prosecutor "Mara" (Jerome Cowan) to prove, conclusively, that - well... It is interesting that the posters gave top billing to Maureen O'Hara and to John Payne as neither character are really necessary as the story builds up into the ultimate test of what we believe - or, what we choose to believe. Gwenn is in his element and this is just one of those films that I think it's impossible not to like - at least once a year.
