In honor of the holidays, we’ve decided to watch A Miracle on 34th Street as our next review. It’s one of the most classic holiday films there is, and it isn’t hard to see why it’s withstood the test of time. Preserved in black and white, there’s no better way to get in the Christmas spirit.
A Miracle on 34th Street follows Kris Kringle on his journey to proving that he is indeed the one and only Santa Claus. With the help of Doris Walker, her daughter Susie, and their neighbor Fred Gailey, Kris wins his case.
A Miracle on 34th Street follows Kris Kringle on his journey to proving that he is indeed the one and only Santa Claus. With the help of Doris Walker, her daughter Susie, and their neighbor Fred Gailey, Kris wins his case.
As much as we’d love to go on about how Jolly of a Santa Edmund Gwenn makes, that wouldn’t exactly serve the purpose of our blog. Besides, both Ms. Walker and her daughter Susie play a very important role in Kris Kringle’s journey. In fact Kris even calls them his experiment, for if he can make them believe he’s Santa Claus, then just maybe all hope in Christmas is not lost.
Ms. Walker works for Macy’s Department Stores and is the organizer of the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade. She is a single mother and is very pessimistic about Christmas. She has raised her daughter Susie on the principle that she should be truthful and realistic. For this reason she has raised Susie to know that Santa Claus does not exist. Kris hopes to show the Walkers that “Christmas isn’t just a day, it’s a frame of mind.”
We think that Ms. Walker sets a good example for her daughter. She’s divorced and a single mother, and she holds a position of power at her company. At work she is not treated differently because of her gender, despite surrounded by male colleagues. She owns a fancy apartment, and supports her lifestyle from her own income. She doesn’t depend on a man to make a life for herself and her daughter, in fact the help given to her by Mr. Gailey is clearly because of his romantic interest.
Fred Gailey is another character that adds a lot to this film and, in our opinion, to the positive image of women. He is a successful and passionate lawyer, and not for one second does he question Ms. Walker’s job and choices. If anything, he seems to admire her. There was a popular thought circulating in the 1940s that a career woman would never be able to find a husband, and Fred helps to break this stereotype. Not only is Ms. Walker a career woman, but she is very successful and a single mother on top of it all, and that didn’t seem to hinder her and Fred’s romance in the least. He didn’t find any of this to be unattractive, he was attracted to her as a person and so nothing else really mattered. Although their romance is present, it is not the main focus of the movie and the movie never discusses Ms. Walker’s divorce. This is incredible considering that this movie was made in the 1940’s, when women were seen as needing to have a man.
Whenever we see Mr. Gailey with Susie the two act as if he is her father. In our opinion, Mr. Gailey even helps to make the traditional “woman’s role” look even more passé. Even though he’s a lawyer, in the beginning of the film we actually questioned if he even had a day job. He was spending his afternoons with Susie and even took her to see Santa Claus. He was acting as if he were his father, and doing the things a traditional housewife would do. Meanwhile, we saw Ms. Walker mostly at work during the day and then taking care of her daughter when she got home.
Susie is also quite the inquisitive and bright young girl. Taking after her mom at first, she was rather skeptical of Kris Kringle, but upon meeting him she did note that he was far more convincing than those in the past because his beard was actually real. However, when she saw him speak Dutch to an orphan she was when she believed that he could be the real Santa Claus. She was also much of the comedic relief throughout the film.
Miracle On 34th Street passes the Bechdel test. For starters, within the first ten minutes, we see Ms. Walker talk to her nanny/housekeeper about Susie’s whereabouts. Besides that, whenever Susie and Ms. Walker talk it is usually about being realistic and not buying into the myth of Santa Claus.
We think this film has an overall positive representation of women, especially considering it was made in the late 40s when the role of a woman and her rights were still much less in comparison to that of a man. This movie was made two years after World War II, where many women went to work taking over the men’s jobs while they were off at war. Women didn’t want to just return to how things were before the war. Now that they had a taste of more freedom and independence, they didn’t want to give that up.
As men came back to the war, women were being encouraged to return to their lives as housewives. There were some women who were more than happy to do so, but there was also a substantial amount who didn’t want to do this. Many women were also forced into lower position jobs post-war as the men returned. Taking all of this into account, it is very impressive that Ms. Walker was in such a high position at Macy’s in the film.
Being made in the 40s, finding film reviews was no easy feat, but we did manage to find a New York Times Review of the film from 1947. The review was glowing about how clever the script and story were, the fact that Ms. Walker’s representation would have been seen as controversial in any way was completely omitted from the review. To us, this means that the movie as a whole worked so well for this reviewer, that it didn’t even occur to him that for his time she was not acting as a mother should.
In a more modern review from 2013 on Salon, it was pointed out how avant-garde this portrayal of women was, and even how you didn’t get as strong of a woman even nowadays. This reviewer, Valerie Vande Panne, even went as far as to call A Miracle on 34th Street a “feminist classic.” In our opinion this is the perfect description of the film. The film is now 68 years old, and almost 70 years later it’s still withstanding the test of time. Not only are the characters being shown in a positive light all around breaking stereotypes, but the film as a whole is purely enjoyable.
As men came back to the war, women were being encouraged to return to their lives as housewives. There were some women who were more than happy to do so, but there was also a substantial amount who didn’t want to do this. Many women were also forced into lower position jobs post-war as the men returned. Taking all of this into account, it is very impressive that Ms. Walker was in such a high position at Macy’s in the film.
Being made in the 40s, finding film reviews was no easy feat, but we did manage to find a New York Times Review of the film from 1947. The review was glowing about how clever the script and story were, the fact that Ms. Walker’s representation would have been seen as controversial in any way was completely omitted from the review. To us, this means that the movie as a whole worked so well for this reviewer, that it didn’t even occur to him that for his time she was not acting as a mother should.
In a more modern review from 2013 on Salon, it was pointed out how avant-garde this portrayal of women was, and even how you didn’t get as strong of a woman even nowadays. This reviewer, Valerie Vande Panne, even went as far as to call A Miracle on 34th Street a “feminist classic.” In our opinion this is the perfect description of the film. The film is now 68 years old, and almost 70 years later it’s still withstanding the test of time. Not only are the characters being shown in a positive light all around breaking stereotypes, but the film as a whole is purely enjoyable.
Sources
Crowther, Bosley. "Miracle on 34th Street (1947)." New York Times. New York Times, 5 June 1947. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.
Panne, Varerie Vande. "Why “Miracle on 34th Street” Is a Feminist Classic." Saloncom RSS. Salan Media Group, Inc, 25 Dec. 2013. Web. 05 Jan. 2016.
"Quotes." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 05 Jan. 2016.
Reinhardt, Claudia, and Bill Ganzel. "Farm Life during the 1940s." Farm Life during the 1940s. Wessels Living History Farm, n.d. Web. 05 Jan. 2016.
"Women At Work • The 1940's • 1940-1949 • Fashion History Movies Music." The 1940's • 1940-1949 • Fashion History Movies Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Jan. 2016.
"The Women's Movement - Our History." Feminism.eserver.org. Eserver, 11 Feb. 2005. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.
Crowther, Bosley. "Miracle on 34th Street (1947)." New York Times. New York Times, 5 June 1947. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.
Panne, Varerie Vande. "Why “Miracle on 34th Street” Is a Feminist Classic." Saloncom RSS. Salan Media Group, Inc, 25 Dec. 2013. Web. 05 Jan. 2016.
"Quotes." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 05 Jan. 2016.
Reinhardt, Claudia, and Bill Ganzel. "Farm Life during the 1940s." Farm Life during the 1940s. Wessels Living History Farm, n.d. Web. 05 Jan. 2016.
"Women At Work • The 1940's • 1940-1949 • Fashion History Movies Music." The 1940's • 1940-1949 • Fashion History Movies Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Jan. 2016.
"The Women's Movement - Our History." Feminism.eserver.org. Eserver, 11 Feb. 2005. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.