Miricle In 34th Street

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mimory Cole On thirty Fourth Street was released in nineteen
ninety four and is a remake of the nineteen forty
seven black and white classic, and in many ways it
is the same movie with slight alterations as it's brought
into the more modern time or the more modern time
of nineteen ninety four. And this movie stars Richard Attenborough, who,
in my opinion, plays one of the best Santa Claus
ever put the screen. Dorry Walker, in event direct for

(00:22):
the Department Store Calls, is forced to fire at Santa
Claus directly before the parade due to him being drunk. Luckily,
an elderly gentleman named Chris Kringle, who was giving the
drunk Santa a good telling off, agrees to be called
Santa and appear in the parade. After he does such
a good job, he's asked by Dory to be the
full time Santa Claus, and he agrees, but only if
he can wear his own Santa suit, Because you see,

(00:42):
Chris Kringle claims to be the real Santa Claus. He
thinks for Santa Claus. Chris is a massive hit for Calls,
despite sending customers elsewhere to find toys at a chief
of price. Meanwhile, Dora's young daughter Susan is taken to
see Santra Calls by a returning neighbor and love and

(01:03):
trust Brian. Only she has been told by her mother
that Santa does not exist, creating a challenge for Chris
Kringle to make her mother and daughter believe. Unfortunately, Chris
has some more problems ahead of him as he is
set up by rival department store who have discovered that
he truly believes he is the one and only Santa.
Chris is then provoked by the drunk Santa from the
beginning of the movie, who fakes an injury, claiming Chris

(01:25):
struck him with his cane. Now, with the help of Brian, Dorry,
and Susan, as well as Cole's department store, Christmas prove
his innocence and that is indeed Santa Claus and not
just a crazy old man like I said before. Comput
to the original movie, this movie did have some alterations,
the biggest one being that in this movie, Mace's wouldn't

(01:48):
allow their name to be used because they felt that
the black and white original, which they featured in, was
more of a Christmas classic and could never be outdone,
but I think this remake proved them wrong. So instead
using Maces as a department store, they made up a
fictitious one called Coles, which I must I always thought
was a real department store in America. It just seems

(02:08):
so convincing to me, and still to this day, I
find it her to believe that the Coles does not exist.
But it doesn't. And like I said before, Richard Attenborough
absolutely plays this part to perfection. He is most definitely
a Santa Claus that I would want to believe in.
He is the embodiment of everything that is good, which
nowadays is a real thing. When you see someone playing
Santa Claus, they always have to have an edge. They

(02:30):
always have to make Santa seem a little bit darker
and a little bit funnier. But Richard Attenborough's version is
the Santa Claus that I would want to believe in.
And of course we had the amazing performance of Marra
Wilson who plays a little Susan, who at this point
was probably best known for starring in Missus Doubtfire, and
she would become a more recognizable face through it the nineties.
I would say the movie that people recognize her from

(02:52):
the most is Matilda. But for me, it's this movie
Miracle on thirty fourth Street, and I truly believe this.
If it was any other child that in this role,
I still think the movie would be good, but I
don't think it would hit the same Marrel Wilson as
a young actress was absolutely utterly charming, and I think
if I can give you one reason why I like

(03:12):
this movie so much, it's because you have to have
faith that Santa Claus exists. The movie does not tell
you directly that Santa Claus exists. It's up to you
to choose whether he does or whether he doesn't. And
in this movie, you will not see Santa do Santa things.
You will not see him climbing down chimneys, you won't
see him riding his slay pull by reindeer, you won't
see him using any kind of Christmas magic. This movie

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keeps you getting up until the end whether this man
actually is Santa Orever. He is just a crazy, delusional
old man who believes he is Santa, And I think
that makes it so much better. But that's the whole
point of this movie. It's built around faith that Chris
is in fact Santa Claus. And I think although we
do know that he is the real deal, we do

(03:54):
know that he is Santa Claus. The movie never makes
it abundantly clear, and I love it for that. But
what Chris this does bring to the table is his
very on Santa suit, which is apparently the real deal.
He can speak many different languages to many different children,
and there's also a scene in the movie where he
talks to a deaf girl by using sign language, and
it's absolutely heartwarming. It's probably the best scene in the

(04:15):
entire movie. You are very beautiful, Yan Lady. And some
of my other favorite scenes are actually at the end
of the movie when we get the court case, when
they're trying to prove that Chris Kringle is in fact
Santa Claus. It's some really good movie magic, just laid

(04:37):
right there on the screen. I love court case movies.
I love The Time to Kill, I love my cousin Vinnie.
So to see actually Santa Claus on trial and they're
trying to prove that he is a real deal is
it's quite exciting actually for me. And there are some
really funny scenes where Chris has asked about his workshops
and he insists that they exist, but they can't be
seen because they're in the dream world, not in the

(04:57):
physical world. They also ask him to make the reindeer
fly in court, and he says that he can't because
they only fly on Christmas Eve. But of course, in
the end they win the case in the best possible
way when Susan presents a judge with a Christmas card
with a one dollar bill inside, which reads upon the bill,
in God we Trust, and by reading this he realizes

(05:18):
if people have blind faith that God exists, then they
must also have blind faith that Santa Claus exists. And
he exists in the embodiment of Chris Kringle, who was
sat right there in the court room. And I think
it's a perfect ending and it's just brilliantly done. And
I believe this movie works so well because you don't
get any hard evidence by the end of the movie
that he is in fact Santa Claus or not. You

(05:39):
have to have faith that he has Santa Claus, just
like in real life. You have to have faith that
Santa Claus exists. I believe, do you