Have you met John Doe?

The 1941 Frank Capra film, Meet John Doe, follows the typical Capra genre of promoting the working man, American values, and doing the right thing. The film was ranked #49 in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers because of its grassroots, everyman attitude. The film climaxes at Christmas and Christmas Day is extremely important to the plot.

When she gets fired, report Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) writes a fake suicide letter to publish in the editorial section from an unemployed man named “John Doe” who is sore at the world and is threatening to jump off the courthouse on Christmas Eve as a protest against he way society behaves. John Doe becomes an overnight hit with the community, forcing editor Henry Connell (James Gleason) to rehire Ann and find an impersonator, an out of work baseball player named John Willoughby (Gary Cooper) to play the part of John Doe. Willougby is accompanied a hobo named The Colonel (Walter Brennan), who is disgusted by how the world keeps people down. Everyone in town cheers on John Doe and his campaign, putting political figures like Mayor Lovett (Gene Lockhart) up in arms. Editor D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold) decides to use the John Doe story to his own advantage. Being taken advantage of like the real John Doe, Willoughby soon feels the same was as the original letter and finds himself climbing to the top of the courthouse on Christmas Eve.

The film is set in an America that is between the Great Depression and World War II. It uses music and expressions to communicate during some scenes, in particular the one where the newspaper staff are selecting their John Doe. The idea of the ideas behind one man singlehandedly starting a grassroots political campaign is an wonderful one and the way it is played shows both the spectacle and the feeling behind the ideas in the movie.

Since the making of this film, its has been turned into a musical, which has encountered success. For more on the history and other information about the film, you can check out this site dedicated to Frank Capra and the film itself, as well as the entry about the film here on filmsite.org. For reviews on the film, you can read this entry on the blog Flick Filosopher. The site midnightpalace.com has done this review of the film. A third review can be read here, thanks to roadrunnerreview.com.

Yes, Susan, there is a Santa Claus

No movie tracks the span of the Christmas season like 1947's Miracle on 34th Street. This holiday classic spans from the Macy's Day Parade all the way to Christmas itself with a tale of Kris Kringle, the holiday spirit, and what it means to be a true believer. It is one of those films that is played ad nauseum during the holiday season, but rightfully so because it is worthy of being a classic film, even without putting it into a holiday context.

The film features a star-studded cast with Maureen O'Hara playing Doris Walker, young Natalie Wood playing Walker's precocious daughter Susan, John Payne as lawyer Fred Gailey, Gene Lockhart as Judge Harper, and Edmund Gwenn playing the man himself, Kris Kringle. Even Thelma Ritter makes an uncredited appearance in this film in her screen debut. Gwenn even won Best Supporting Actor for his role as Kris Kringle, something which almost never happens for holiday films in this day and age. It is the many-talented actors of this film which make its storyline come to life for us year after year.

The little film about a store Santa who might actually be the real Father Christmas was actually one of those movies that was almost never made. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck thought the movie was too cheesy and made a compromise: instead of turning down the film, he just cut it's budget in half. Zanuck then decided to release the movie in May because, although it had a Christmas themed plot, he thought more people went to films in the summer. Both Macy's and Gimble's, who are featured in the film, were nervous about how it might affect their reputations, but were pleased with the results and allowed their names to be used. Due to the wide success of the film, several remakes have been made, but none measure up to the classic original.

Sixty years and going strong, new generations are introduced to Miracle on 34th Street every holiday season. Traditionally, the film is always aired on NBC after the Macy's Parade and then runs on various networks and in DVD players across the country until December 25th. For more info and reviews on the film, check out this original trailer from the film: