Miracle on 34th Street

Director George Seaton's much beloved classic has long been a home-video staple, telling the story of the arrival in New York of the real-life Santa Claus (English character actor Edmund Gwenn in his Oscar-winning role), who is hired and temporarily boarded by no-nonsense Macy's exec Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara), whose daughter (Natalie Wood) has been told there's no such thing as Santa Claus. Fox's two-disc edition doubles the holiday cheer by including both the original black-and-white and colorized versions, as well as a host of interesting extras. Film buffs will certainly enjoy a five-minute theatrical short—not a trailer—that includes Fox contractees Rex Harrison, Anne Baxter, Dick Haymes, and Peggy Ann Garner singing the film's praises for prospective audiences in 1947 (teenaged bobby-soxer Garner calls it “simply groovy”). Equally noteworthy is the 1955 remake for the TV series 20th Century-Fox's Hour of Stars, with Thomas Mitchell as Kris Kringle. O'Hara—sadly, the film's only surviving principal player—supplies a commentary culled from an interview conducted at her home in Ireland this past summer (sounding considerably younger than her 86 years, she relates some juicy anecdotes and offers touching appraisals of her costars). Also included are a Fox Movietone newsreel excerpt showing Gwenn's Academy Award acceptance speech (“Now I know there's a Santa Claus!”), an episode of AMC's Backstory documenting the film's production, and a 15-minute featurette on the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which features prominently in the movie. Oddly, Fox's packaging does not designate this new release as a “special edition,” but it certainly merits that label. Highly recommended. (E. Hulse)[Blu-ray Review—Oct. 27, 2009—Fox, 96 min., not rated, $34.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1947's Miracle on 34th Street sports a great transfer with DTS-HD 5.1 sound. Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by costar Maureen O'Hara, the AMC-aired Backstory episode on the film (22 min.), a featurette on “Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Floating in History” (16 min.), a vintage promotional short (5 min.), a brief Fox Movietone newsreel “Hollywood Spotlight” segment (2 min.), and a poster gallery. Bottom line: a holiday classic makes a welcome debut on Blu-ray.]