It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)

Christmas classic?

Nope.

The DVD package for It Happened on 5th Avenue suggested a Christmas film for the ages from director Roy Del Ruth (Why Must I Die?).

This family-friendly film is entertaining, but is nowhere near efforts such as It's a Wonderful Life that truly deserve the stamp of must-see viewing come the holidays.

The story is intriguing - old man Aloysius T. McKeever (Victor More) doesn't care much for work, so he squats in the homes of successful businessmen when they're living outside New York City. Me, even if I was incredibly wealthy, I think I'd wonder why my electricity bill was so high when I haven't lived at one of my estates for months. I'd also wonder why none of my neighbours didn't notice smoke from my fireplace when my place is boarded up for the winter.

McKeever, with only his pooch for regular company, begins to welcome others into the home of industrialist Michael O'Connor (Charles Ruggles).

Jim Bullock (Don DeFore) is a Second World War veteran who needs a place to live. He was tossed from his apartment because the building is being knocked down by O'Connor for another one of his mega-projects. O'Connor's daughter, Trudy (Gale Storm), shows up one day to grab some clothes from her room. McKeever and Bullock don't know she's the unhappy offspring of said businessman. She wants to stay there too. Next up are some army buddies of Bullock's, and their families, who also can't find a place to live in New York City's tight housing market.

Bullock has a plan to help servicemen who need a place of their own. He wants to buy an army base just outside the Big Apple and convert barracks into apartments for other veterans. Pops O'Connor has his own designs on the surplus government property. He gets wind of the idea when he agrees to live with McKeever and the rest of the trespassers in his own place. His former wife, Mary (Ann Harding), also enters the fray when Trudy's dad threatens to have the vagrants arrested.

Trudy, for reasons that eluded this viewer, falls heads over heels for Bullock. There's no chemistry between these characters. Future Gilligan's Island Skipper (Alan Hale, Jr.) and the other vets and their wives have little to do but fold laundry, care for the kids and make themselves at home in O'Connor's spacious digs.

There's some interesting use of physical comedy here and nice riffs on O'Connor being put to work as a labourer in his mansion. Trudy kept her true identity hidden from Bullock, but when was this matter dealt with? I don't know because there wasn't such a scene in this film. There's passing reference to tough times for veterans after the Second World War ended - including the lack of good paying jobs and places to live. But, unlike the tough times highlighted in It's a Wonderful World, there's nothing of real substance here. Everyone sure is happy though.

It Happened on Fifth Avenue is pleasant, but not essential viewing.

RATING: 6/10

FUN FACTS: Charles Lane (It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) and Vera Lewis (The Roaring Twenties) have brief scenes.

Don DeFore was Thorny in television's The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

Dinner at Eight (1933)

Wait a minute, haven't I seen this movie before?

Well, not quite. But Dinner at Eight (1933) could remind viewers of Grand Hotel in several ways.

First off, several actors from Grand Hotel are back for Dinner at Eight. John Barrymore's Larry Renault is a washed-up actor who hasn't succeeded making the transition from silent films to the talkies. His best asset, his looks, is on the downside.

In Grand Hotel, Barrymore was The Baron, a thief posing as a supposedly suave aristocrat to pinch Marlene Dietrich's pearls. Oh, he also needed money badly or risked being roughed up, if not killed, by his criminal colleagues.

Lionel Barrymore was Kringelein in Grand Hotel, a bookkeeper for a big businessman who is dying and wants to live out his last days blowing his estate in fine living. Here, he's Oliver Jordan, an owner of a shipping business who finds tough times running his empire during the Great Depression. Plus, someone is buying up his company's stock with the goal of pushing him out as owner. It doesn't help that out flame Carlotta Vance (Marie Dressler) wants to sell her shares in Jordan's company because she's starting to be squeezed for cash.

That brings us to Wallace Beery. He was Preysing in Grand Hotel, the businessman desperate to make a deal while finding time for some monkey business with Joan Crawford's stenographer. In Dinner at Eight, his character Dan Packard is a businessman eager to clinch deals and make connections in Washington. He's married a fine-looking, but tough talking, piece of eye candy in Kitty (Jean Harlow). She wants to play doctor with physician Wayne Talbot (Edmund Lowe).

So, three of Grand Hotel's principal cast are back for Dinner at Eight.

Well, how about the plot?

Grand Hotel was pretty much set at a swank German hotel.

Here, all the action is tied to a dinner party Jordan's wife Millicent (Billie Burke) wants to host to welcome a couple from England's high society.

Dinner at Eight runs nearly two hours, but all its attention centres on preparations leading up to the bash.

What can give viewers some indigestion is trying to figure out what type of movie Dinner at Eight is supposed to be. Its mood varies widely depending on the subplot. Larry Renault keeps pounding back booze with the knowledge the good times are long gone. No laughs there. The Packards start off looking like a couple fighting for laughs, but the unhappiness in their relationship gets fleshed out as the movie continues. This marriage is in rough shape. Even the maid sees a chance to cash in on their discord.

Millicent's efforts to organize her party are on the light side. There's problems in the kitchen. Her servants are at each other's throats. Meanwhile, hubby Oliver is dealing with a serious illness that could drop his anchor for good.

Karen Morley appears briefly as Talbot's wife, Lucy. She knows all about his dalliances with patients, but continues to stand by him. Again, the heaviness of wife confronting husband seems strange in a film that includes pratfalls on stairs.

Watch for some fine support work from Louise Closser Hale and Grant Mitchell. They're relatives of Millicent's who are pressed into service when some dinner party invitees can't attend. Mitchell's Ed Loomis wold rather be at the movies watching a Great Garbo film. There's another tie to Grand Hotel.

Great cast. Interesting storylines. But audiences might be confused about what type of movie they're watching. Comedy? Drama? Melodrama?


RATING: 8/10

MORBID AND FUN FACTS: Director George Cukor also helmed the very fine The Philadelphia Story .

Marie Dressler died in 1934. She was 65. Louise Closser Hale would only earn one more credit, Duck Soup , before her death in 1933 at age 60.