Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what I’ve seen over the past week either in film or television. On the film side, if I have written a full length review already, I will post a link to that review. Otherwise, I’ll give a brief snippet of my thoughts on the film with a full review to follow at some point later. For television shows, seasons and what not, I’ll post individual comments here about each of them as I see fit.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Miracle on 34th Street

George Seaton’s Christmas staple has every reason to hold that designation. It’s the kind of film that extols the virtues of kindness, charity and other emblems of the Christmas season that seem even more abandoned in this modern age. Even sixty-six years later, Miracle on 34th Street still resonates, even in the hearts of those who’ve long abandoned the overly-commercialized holiday.

Edmund Gwenn won a deserved Oscar as Kris Kringle, a man who takes on the role of a Macy’s Santa in order to teach those around him what the spirit of Christmas is really about. As doubt is cast on his identity, Kringle ends up in court where a judge must hear testimony to support or reject the idea that Kris isn’t who he says he is and should be committed to a sanitarium.

The cast is perfectly developed with an exceedingly young Natalie Wood shining as the young girl whose mother (Maureen O’Hara) has taught her practicality and to avoid the fanciful (and fictional) aspects of life. Doris Walker (O’Hara) believes that to fill a child’s head with delusions before releasing them into the world sets unrealistic expectations. I respect that goal, but her mind is changed as the lovable Kringle worms his way into hers and her daughter’s hearts. O’Hara does a fine job as does everyone else in the cast including John Payne as the lawyer she’s been dating and Gene Lockhart as the career-minded judge who presides over the trial.