Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Thanks, Santa, for this wonderful Christmas treat.

Reel Popcorn Junkie has endured some less-than-stellar Christmas films in recent weeks. But Miracle on 34th Street is a pleasant cinematic present for viewers. Here's a movie that definitely deserves a viewing during the Christmas holidays.

Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) lashes out at a Santa who's had too much to drink before the start of Macy's annual Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City. "You're a disgrace," he admonishes the higher-than-a-kite Claus. Event organizer Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara) recruits Kringle to fill in for his drunken predecessor. Hey, this guy looks like Santa Claus without the accessories. He's portly and sports a fine, long grey beard. Kringle's personality is warm and jovial. Talk about a people person.

Kringle is a hit with the kids along the parade route. The department store hires him to chat one-on-one with youngsters to learn their hopes for Christmas.

Kringle turns a few heads in management when he starts recommending competing merchants who have better products mothers and fathers should buy.

Macy's brass turns this into a marketing opportunity with vows to send shoppers to other retailers if they have the better buy. The plan is to develop a warm rapport with customers and make even more money because they'll be impressed with how they're treated.

Kringle doesn't find many doubters among his young fans at Macy's. But Walker's daughter, Susan (Natalie Wood), isn't a believer. Mom has taught her daughter not to believe in fantasy figures like Santa. Poor Susan has to even be coaxed by Kringle into imagining she's a monkey. She demands a gift far bigger, and difficult to obtain, than all others to see if Kringle is the real deal.

If that's not challenge enough, Macy's shrink Granville Sawyer (Peter Hall) suggests Kringle is prone to violent outbursts. This snowballs into Kringle being considered mentally unwell and committed to an institution. Yikes. It's up to Walker's neighbour, lawyer Fred Gailey (John Payne) to prove conclusively that Kris Kringle is Santa Claus.

Some of the film's best fun comes from the politics associated with Kringle's appearance. Judge Henry Harper (Gene Lockhart) is warned by his rainmaker Charlie Halloran (William Frawley), that he'll lose votes come re-election if he rules Kringle is not Santa Claus. It's not often trade unions and Santa get mentioned in the same breath, but Frowley does it here with great effect. Merchants trying to market their businesses based on Kringle's generous attitude is also a hoot - especially when two retail titans bicker over buying an X-ray machine for a doctor Kringle knows.

Younger viewers will cheer on Kringle as he tries to clear his name. Adults can enjoy the behind-the-scenes scheming Kringle's presence helps create.

Finally, a Christmas film worth putting under the tree.

RATING: 8/10

FUN FACTS: Edmund Gwenn (The Trouble with Harry , Foreign Correspondent ) won an Oscar for best supporting actor for his work in Miracle on 34th Street.

William Frawley was Fred Mertz in I Love Lucy.

Alvin Greenman appears as Macy's custodian in Miracle on 34th Street. He's the only actor from the first film version to return, as a doorman, in the 1994 remake, IMDB reports.

Director George Seaton won Oscars for his screenplays for Miracle on 34th Street and The Country Girl. He was also a contributing writer to The Wizard of Oz.

The Petrified Forest (1936)

RATING: 8/10

The Petrified Forest breathed life into the-then sagging careers of Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis.

The mid-1930s was hardly a highpoint for either legendary performer, as the film's accompanying documentary, The Petrified Forest: Menace in the Desert, explains.

BOGART AND DAVIS NEEDED A BOOST

Bogart, 36, was running out of chances on the big screen after about a dozen roles, inluding appearances in Three on a Match and Midnight, did little to help his chances. Davis was also making little headway five years into a career that began with The Bad Sister in 1931.

Bogart appeared in the stage version of The Petrified Forest. Leading man Leslie Howard (Alan Squier) was adamant Bogie be cast in the film directed by Archie Mayo (Black Legion, A Night in Casablanca).

Howard's stubborness ignited Bogart's career. He'd go on to star in a string of classics including Key Largo, Casablanca and High Sierra. Midler's career would stretch for another 50-plus years ending with her final screen appearance in 1989.

Bogart's a treat to watch in this screen adaptation of Robert Sherwood's play. He's Duke Mantee, a feared gangster with a very bloody past. He's on the run from the law, and bound for Mexico, when he turns up at a restaurant and gas station in the desert.

I SERVED MY COUNTRY SAFELY

The desolate business is owned by Jason Maple (Porter Hall), a First World War veteran who's chided by his father, Gramp Maple (Charley Grapewin), for serving behind the lines as a mechanic.

There's a lot of that disillusion in this 1936 drama. Squier is the intellectual who was supposed to be a great writer. He wrote one book and it sold dismally. His wife left him. Squier discovers the restaurant as he hitch-hikes across the United States.

Jason's daughter, Gabrielle, is itching to get back to France where she was born and her mother still lives. She wants to paint. While gas jockey Boze Hertzlinger (Dick Foran) tries to woo Gabrielle, she's more interested in Squier. A former college football star, Boze is far from the glory he enjoyed on the grid iron.

Mantee and his gang hijack a vehicle occupied by banker Mr. Chisholm (Paul Harvey) and his long-suffering wife (Genevieve Tobin). The gangster and his crew end up at Maple's restaurant during a sandstorm. Mr. Chisholm is more interested in business succession than his wife when the bullets eventually start flying.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

Will they make it to Mexico ahead of the law? Will Boze and Alan square off over their affections for Gabrielle? Will she see her dream of a life in Europe come true?

The Petrified Forest offers viewers a strong cast and an early look at just how good Bogart and Davis are on the screen. Bogart is a menacing bad guy, speaking slowly and delivering most of his lines seated in a chair. He doesn't make his first appearance until about 30 minutes into the film, but he's riveting for The Petrified Forest's final hour.

More gangster roles would follow for Bogart, including The Roarding Twenties. This is where he started.

FUN FACTS: Director Mayo and Bogart teamed up for Black Legion in 1937. Foran was in that film too.

Genevieve Tobin's last film credit was No Time for Comedy in 1940. She married director William Keighley in 1938. They'd stay together until his death in 1984. Tobin died in 1995 at age 95.

Charley Grapewin was Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz and Grandpa in The Grapes of Wrath.