The Miracle on 34th Street was a TV special in 1955

 

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The 1947 Miracle on 34th Street is iconic, a holiday classic. And deservedly so. It's witty, heartwarming, with superb performances by Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle, with supporting actors that include Natalie Wood, Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Gene Lockhart, William Frawley, and Jack Albertson.

But there are others, and I want to discuss a 1955 TV version titled The Miracle on 34th Street. It's obscure but easily available. It's worth a viewing. It stars Thomas Mitchell as Kris Kringle and the cast includes Teresa Wright, Macdonald Carey, Sandy Descher, Hans Conreid, John Abbott, Whit Bissell and Dick Foran.

The Miracle on 34th Street would likely be forgotten today if not the archive of YouTube and other streaming websites. It's a brisk, lean 46-minute show, over before you know it. But it's a enjoyable near hour, a sort of homage cum remake of the 1947 classic.

Here are some key changes: Kris Kingle, played by Thomas Mitchell, does not get hired for the Macy's Parade because the other Santa is drunk. He's already the Macy's Santa. There is no character of Alfred, the teen janitor who Kris becomes a mentor to in the '47 film. Also, the very touching '47 film scene of Kris speaking Dutch to a young European orphan girl is omitted. However, Kris does advise shoppers to go to other stores, including Gimbels, if the deal is better there. And he has Descher's young Susan pull at his beard.

The omission of Alfred leads the plot with Mr. Sawyer, the unhappy Macy's psychologist, and his clash with Kris, in a different direction. Sawyer does interview Kris as part of his job, hates him and wants him fired. However, the episode where Kris knocks Sawyer over the head with his cane occurs at an assembly at Susan's' school, where Sawyer congratulates the students for not buying into supersition. During this scene, Kris, dressed in Santa garb, is -- unbeknownst to Sawyer -- behind him on the stage, mocking him.

The children can't help laughing and it's amusing for a while. Then, a flustered Sawyer berates adults who dress up as Santa. At this point, the scene takes a turn that today would seem very dark. Kris Kringle lifts his cane high and savagely brings it down on the unsuspecting Sawyer. This is a very harsh contrast to the '47 version, where a frustrated Kris sort of "pops" Sawyer on the head with his cane in his office. In the '47 version, it's clear Sawyer is maliciously feigning injury afterward.

However, this Kris Kringle really hits him hard, and frankly I think a month or two in the jail for assault might have been merited. This leads to a second point: Although Thomas Mitchell is not a bad Kris Kringle, unlike the more gentle Edmund Gwenn in the '47 version, the '54 version Kris Kingle is a bit of a looney. Mitchell's Kris Kringle occasionally has a mad look in his eyes, and he really gets angry. When Teresa Wright's Doris rushes after him to say he's not fired earlier in the film, the audience can see the deranged anger in Mitchell's eyes.

Neverthless, and happily I guess, Kris Kringle is of course exonorated by the judge. In another change from the '47 film, Doris calls the U.S. Post Office, suggesting they forward letters to Santa Claus to the court where Kris is being tried for his sanity.

One other little twist is a scene where MacDonald Carey's Fred Gailey has brought venison to a dinner with Kris, Doris, and little Susan. Doris suggests to Susan if she doesn't like venison, she'll make her eggs. Kris interjects, with a long face, that he would prefer eggs too, because well, venison being deer, he just couldn't eat that. It's a mildly amusing scene, worth a smile. 

The Miracle on 34th Street was an episode of The 20th Century Fox Hour. It's' not the only other version of Miracle on 34th Street. There was a radio version, another TV version in 1959, and two mediocre conventional movie remakes. One, a TV film, is from 1974 with Sebastian Cablot as Kris Kingle. A theatrical version in 1994 had Sir Richard Attenborough as Kris.

But none approach the classic 1947 version, which remains the version to see first and often. However, I think this 1955 TV show version is the second-best offering. And it fits within an hour, for quick viewing with the family. You can watch it here. The two clippings from The Los Angeles Times were unearthed by my friend, David Grudt.

-- Doug Gibson

Two anthologies that provide a history of classic Christmas stories

 

Reviews by Doug Gibson

Readers of our blog know the name of author Andi Brooks. This year he has edited and compiled two fantastic anthologies of classic Christmas Tales. One is A Treasury of Christmas Stories: Classic Tales for the Festive Season. The other anthology is Ghost Stories for Christmas: Volume Two. 

They provide superb reads, preferably on a comfortable relaxing weekend afternoon, or around the late hours passing through midnight into the early mornings. Brooks has also included in some of the two books' stories original drawings. Both books provide the provenance of the stories, with date, name of author, and the periodical that published the tale.

Here is a Plan9Crunch link to blogs that are about and/or mention Brooks.

You can purchase these books, and other books from Brooks, via Amazon here.

Let me briefly delve into a Treasury of Christmas Stories. I've read about three-quarters of the stories. I am saving the rest for the long Christmas weekend this year. I had not read, or heard of, "The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree, by Dostoevsky, before this year, but its imprinted in my heart. It tells the story of a boy, 6, on Christmas Eve, desperately searching for food. He's starving, and it's freezing cold. Unable to satisfy his hunger, he curls up in a virtually alley, by a woodstack. He suddenly encounters a wonderful Christmas Tree, with warmth, food and love. His recently dead mother, resurrected, is there with him. It's Christ's Christmas Tree, provided to children who perish due to humanity's neglect. 

One can't resist tears when Dostoevsky writes, "And down below in the morning the porter found the little dead body of the frozen child on the woodstack ..."

Another story compiled by Brooks is an abridged A Christmas Carol, the (not much) shorter version that Charles Dickens provided live to audiences with his eloquent voice. Dickens earned well for this, and continued the recitations until his death at 58. The plot and spirit of the hallowed story is not harmed by this shorter version. All the important points are retained. Passages excluded include the Lord High Mayor dinner in Stave 1, the discussion between the Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present on Sunday closure laws, and the scene in the Final Stave where Scrooge manages to make a donation to the portly businessmen on a charitable mission.

Other stories that stood out to me included Babouscka, a tale of a Russian woman, who with sad countenance, visits homes on Christmas Eve. She loves the babies, and caresses them. Her visits are tinged with regret, a sort of atonement. You see, she failed to accompany the Three Kings when they requested she join them on their visit to the new-born Christ. 

A poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, Christmas at Sea, draws a beautiful contrast between Christmas day on a ship, with warm homes visible on land.

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Ghost Stories for Christmas: Volume Two is -- like Volume One -- a gem. Because I'm a former full-time journalist, I enjoyed "The Wicked Editor's Christmas Dream," 1893, by Alice Mary Vince. The tale -- sort of a very short A Christmas Carol take -- involves a spirit showing a loosly ethical journalists the consequences of preferring tabloid reporting over more virtuous stories.

The Ghost Summons, 1868, by Ada Buisson, is a deliciously creepy tale of a young doctor provided $1,000 pounds to be with a patient convinced he will die that night. The doctor considers the patient delusional, but learns otherwise.

I particularly enjoyed the story Bone to Bone, 1912, by E.G. Swain, in which the spirit of a man who died 150 years ago in a vicarage subtly provides clues to the current owner on how to locate and return his now scattered bones to their proper resting place.

Long or short, these stories are well edited  by Brooks, and satisfying. Readers do not have to be like me, and read most of them in a month. Read a few to several this Christmas season, and repeat every next Christmas season. The reading pleasure will last through the years, and longer as you re-read the tales

The Afterlife Wanderer, 1915, is cinema's first vampire film

(Both photos from The Afterlife Wanderer are courtesy of Daydreams Database: Cinema of the Russian Empire and Beyond, edited by Anna Kovalova and developed by Alexander Grebenkov.)

It seems the very first vampire film has been discovered. It's from 1915, titled The Afterlife Wanderer. (See stills from the film above). More below:

Film scholar Gary D. Rhodes is found in many of the pages of Plan9Crunch blog. He's written extensively about Bela Lugosi, and recently -- along with co-author Bill Kaffenberger, unearthed new information about Bela Lugosi's pre-Dracula years in the two-part Becoming Dracula series. 

A few years ago he also unearthed information on the lost Hungarian silent film, Drakula Halala, regarded as the first film to use Bram Stoker's tale as provenance, albeit loosely. However, as Rhodes notes, there's really no vampire in Drakula Halala. Just like there's no real vampire in Tod Browning's lost 1927 silent film, London After Midnight (see star Lon Chaney in a still from the film below).

Often the 1922 classic Nosferatu is regarded as the first vampire -- of the blood-sucking variety -- film (see star Max Schreck, who really resembles a rat, in a still below). But Rhodes has unearthed a 1915 Russian film, unfortunately lost, as likely the first film to feature a blood-seeking vampire.

As mentioned, it's called The Afterlife Wanderer, and it stars a young Olga Baclanova, who would later see her career surge in Hollywood. She's in a lot of films, but is perhaps best known for playing the evil, ill-fated circus vamp in Browning's "Freaks." 

On the Medium website, Rhodes writes in detail about the film, its history and how it earns the distinction of being cinema's first vampire film. Here is one paragraph from Rhodes' article:

"One review described The Afterlife Wanderer's title character as 'vampire who sucks the blood of the living people at night.' Another called her a 'vampire woman sucking blood from loved ones.' No doubt about it: she was a real vampire and a reel vampire."

According to Rhodes, reviews were mixed -- to be kind -- for The Afterlife Wanderer. It was banned by the mayor in one city. Baclanova's performance was subtly mocked by one reviewer. The Afterlife Wanderer will be discussed in detail in a book by Rhodes slated for publication next year, Vampires in Silent Cinema.

But there's lots of information on The Afterlife Wanderer, and other similar silent films, in the Medium piece. It can be read in its entirety at the Medium website. Rhodes forthcoming book, available next year, Vampires in Silent Cinema, can be pre-ordered here.

'40 Cult Movies' offers a perceptive, interesting new look at the genre

Review by Doug Gibson

Jon Towlson is pretty well known and respected as a genre writer. On the Plan9Crunch blog, we have read and enjoyed his book on pre-code horror films, “The Turn to Gruesomeness in American Horror Films: 1931 to 1936.” But he’s written several books and many articles. The guy’s a legit expert on films.

 

In “40 Cult Movies: 40 Cult Movies from Alice, Sweet Alice to Zombies of Mora Tau” (2023), he reviews and comments on a wide variety of films, from Freaks to Shivers, from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Upgrade, to The Legend of Hell House to Drag Me to Hell.

 

It's a very diverse selection. Some of the films are familiar to all, some familiar to genre fans, and some are obscurities that Towlson notes have small cults. A Serial Killer's Guide to Life and Redeemer: Son of Satan are examples of films with a following in search of a sustained cult. I love that The Legend of Hell House is included. It’s a fantastic horror film overshadowed by another great film, The Haunting. Towlson aptly notes how the haunted house is perfect match for the plot and mood of ... Hell House.

 

One strength of Towlson’s writing is he can thoroughly discuss a film, its plot, cultural impact, its director's history, its relation to other films, and leave the reader satisfied with what has been read. That is a rare quality in writing.

 

In his introduction, Towlson makes it clear that if you don’t agree with everything, “that’s OK.” I love that in a writer. Towlson describes how many of his films underscore political or cultural themes. I agree with him in many cases, notably films from Penelope Spheeris, David Cronenberg, and George A. Romero, all with multiple films discussed in this book.

 

I had a harder time accepting that Invasion of the Body Snatchers represents 1950s conformity and even the McCarthy era. I know director Don Spiegel thought so but to me it’s solely a damn good science fiction piece. But Towlson presents excellent arguments for his takes and I’d likely have a tough time debating him.

 

The book is full of these types of interesting discussions on how films provoke the culture wars. Cronenberg’s Shivers is an example. Is this tale of a parasite infecting residents with sexual mania actually positive? Is it preferable to a stultified, consumerist life that decreases sexual interest? These, and other reviews of  films such as Martin, Alice Sweet Alice, and others will keep us reading through the night.

 

Also in his introduction, Towlson hopes that the book prompts readers to seek out the films he has covered. I have already started. In the past two weeks I have watched, for the first time, Horror Hospital, Alice Sweet Alice, Audrey Rose, and Shivers. I also re-watched, Redeemer: Son of Satan, a film I saw a long time ago as Class Reunion Massacre. All have been rewarding views.

 

This is the best book on cult films since Danny Peary's 1980s series of books. I hope Towlson will do this again with 40 more cult movies. He’s the writer to give us genre in-depth looks at these unique films. I hope we have three or four volumes. 40 Cult Movies would be a great companion buy with "TCM: Undergound: 50 Must-See Films", which we also reviewed on Plan9Crunch.

 

In his acknowledgments, Towlson writes, “I dedicate this book to anyone who has ever had a tape snarl up in his VCR.” Oh, that is apt. Reading about these films, many I watched for the first time on VHS (I even saw a few in Beta) brings so many great memories of heading to the VCR store and looking for a garishly decorated clamshell VHS. In those days they sold the sizzle more than the steak. I discovered that in films like Dr. Butcher M.D. …, Criminally Insane, Pranks, Bloody Birthday, etc. But there was steak amidst the sizzle, such as Martin, Evil Dead, and Torture  Dungeon, Andy Milligan’s take on Shakespeare that I’d love to see explored in a future volume of Cult Movies ...