pensman I'm usually a softhearted for these Christmas movies from the 40's and maybe if Frank Capra had had an opportunity to recast and have some significant rewriting done then maybe this film would have turned out better. A neglected film is Holiday Affair with Robert Mitchum, Janet Leigh, and Wendell Corey. Directed by Don Hartman it has a lighter and more comedic touch.The only member of the cast I like is Charles Ruggles. Everyone else is miscast and without sympathy which is not good for a film that's supposed to pull on your heartstrings. By now you know the plot, a hobo moves into a Fifth Avenue mansion while the owner winters in Tennessee. Victor Moore is the hobo and had a spotted film career. Moore's character, Aloysius T McKeever, ends up having a recently evicted soldier, Jim Bullock (Don DeFore) move in with him and then a slew of others show up. When the mansion's owner Michael J. O'Conner (Ruggles) shows up, his daughter Trudy (Gale Storm) is romantically interested in Bullock. When Trudy realizes her father is about to have everyone in the house arrested, she calls in her divorced mother Mary (Ann Harding) to help present a bulwark against her father.Of course, there is the requisite happy ending with O'Conner and his wife getting back together, Bullock and Trudy cementing their romance, a bunch of ex-servicemen pulling their money to buy housing, the usual. I am sure in the current climate (2017), the story might have appeal with the little people vs. the industrial giant; but the little people only win because Michael J. O'Conner lets them in a rather unbelievable end. It's not that I don't like the message, it's just the wrong movie for me.Oddly enough this movie was popular with audiences while Capra's directorial choice It's a Wonderful Life bombed. But with time the Capra film is now a Christmas classic; and It Happened on Fifth Avenue is just about completely forgotten.

billsnotes This is a very enjoyable holiday film that gets no press. I learned about it because it was included in a set of holiday films. If you are familiar with and enjoyed the 18th century play, "She Stoops to Conquer," the same social commentary about relations between the upper and lower classes appears here with a Dreppression era - post World War II twist. It requires you to suspend your sense of logic, but if you can do that, you will have a lot of fun. It's a holiday film that you will enjoy viewing year after year. The professional critics big knock on this film is that it is too long. That is valid criticism for the ending. A scene or two could have been cut or shortened without damaging the plot. That weakness is more that offset by a great many laughs and chuckles and honest warmth which make the first 90 minutes fly by. Watch for Gail Storm as the run-away college student who was a very popular TV personality in the early 1950s and Alan Hale, Jr., as one of World War II veterans, who was the captain on "Gilligan's Island."

utgard14 Heartwarming, sentimental, pleasant Christmas movie about a homeless man (Victor Moore) who moves into a New York mansion while the owners are away for the winter. He makes himself at home and even starts inviting others to stay with him. There's a whole lot more to the plot but that's as much as you need to know before you start. While it's technically a comedy, it's not memorable for the laughs. Although it is very funny in spots. Its strength lies in its heart. It's a sweet, smart, thought-provoking movie that focuses on the goodness in people. If this movie doesn't make you smile, you must have a lump of coal for a heart. Give it a shot and I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

bkoganbing Sad to say but sweet and whimsical films like It Happened On Fifth Avenue just aren't being made today. Of course you have to have players like Victor Moore and Charles Winninger who can carry off whimsy. And whimsy isn't in with today's audiences.In fact the notion of a millionaire who leaves his Fifth Avenue townhouse for the winter from Election Day to St. Patrick's Day and has it occupied by a gentleman hobo during most of that time is a bit much to swallow. But Victor Moore as the occupier brings it off. No one could ever believe harm would befall anyone in Moore's path.But Moore's life gets a bit complicated when Don DeFore a recently discharged serviceman decides to move in on what he thinks is a boarded up mansion. Then Gale Storm who actually is the daughter of Charles Winninger and is rebellious and estranged shows up and pretends to go along with the gag. She kind of likes what she sees in DeFore. Before you know it a small community springs up in the drafty old house.Eventually that community includes Storm's parents Charles Winninger and Ann Harding who are similarly estranged. But its the Yuletide season coming on and people are just a bit nicer to each other at that time of the year.Of course it all comes to an end and hardly the end you would think in real life. Still It Happened On Fifth Avenue is possessing a certain magic to it. You can't help but like these people.Part of the reason is that for those years between World War II and Korea, returning servicemen of the Greatest Generation are treated like the family jewels. It's not questioned by the theater audience of the time that you extend yourself to them. It Happened On Fifth Avenue could never be remade today for that reason as well.It Happened On Fifth Avenue is a bit sugary, but a warmly sentimental film a favorite of the Yuletide season.