My Top 9 Favorite Christmas Movies: It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)

In 1945, a freshly written screenplay titled "It Happened on Fifth Avenue" was passed over by Frank Capra and his production company, Liberty Films. But in favor of "It's a Wonderful Life," Capra sold the script to Roy Del Ruth  (Topper Returns, Ziegfeld Follies) and a new division to Monogram Pictures, Allied Artists. While "It's a Wonderful Life" and "...Fifth Avenue" have many similarities and differences, "...Fifth Avenue" is a wonderful and complex film about class, poverty, war veterans, and young love. 

Victor Moore (Swing Time, The Seven Year Itch) plays homeless tramp Aloysius T. McKeever, who has made a tidy business in squatting in abandoned rich people's homes in the winter when the families flock to warmer climates. Happy in his isolation, while wearing the leftover clothes and out of the wind and snow, McKeever finds himself taking in G.I. veteran Jim (Don DeFore). But in a matter of weeks, Jim's friends are also taken in as well as the home's real owner (Charles Ruggles) along with his troubled daughter (Gale Storm) and ex-wife (Ann Harding). All three pretend to be of a different status than they are, realizing that impoverished people live far better and richer lives than those with money. It only becomes further poetic when Trudy (Storm) falls in love with Jim, but Michael O'Connor (Ruggles) just won't have it despite what the whole house says about the idea of a "Michael O'Connor" which slowly wears him down to a human being.

The finished product not only earned writers Herbert Clyde Lewis and Frederick Stephani an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing, Original Story, but the Washington Post praised the "...Fifth Avenue" as a "mild, pleasant little film, which probably will find many admirers." But the celebrity endorsements, according to the Post was found to be "high flown" and "Hollywoodesque." But in the genesis of Allied Artists, being an attempt to rise above the free domain B-movies of the '30s and early '40s, their first child wasn't the economically fiscal film they had hoped. Costing more than 1,200,00, "...Fifth Avenue" did not completely break even in the box office, but had a steady incline from word of mouth and the many reviews that describe Victor Moore's character as "charming." The man who lets Monty Woolley stay for dinner for far too long (Grant Mitchell) also stars in a supporting role.

Links to Check Out

It Happened on Fifth Avenue - Articles - TCM.com

It Happened on Fifth Avenue - Notes - TCM.com