It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947) DVD5 - A Christmastime Story [DDR]

It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947) DVD5 - A Christmastime Story [DDR]

It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947) is a motion picture comedy, directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Victor Moore, Ann Harding, Don DeFore, and Gale Storm. The film received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Story.

CAST:-
Don DeFore as Jim
Ann Harding as Mary O'Connor
Charles Ruggles as Michael J. "Mike" O'Connor
Victor Moore as Aloyisius T. McKeever
Gale Storm as Trudy O'Connor
Grant Mitchell as Farrow
Edward Brophy as Patrolman Cecil Felton
Alan Hale, Jr. as Whitey Temple
Dorothea Kent as Margie Temple
Edward Ryan as Hank
Cathy Carter as Alice

Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Produced by Roy Del Ruth, Joe Kaufmann (associate)
Written by Story: Frederick Stephani, Herbert Clyde Lewis
Music by Edward Ward

MOVIE REVIEW:- It Happened on 5th Ave (1947)
Aloyisius T. McKeever (Victor Moore), a New York City hobo, makes his home in a boarded-up Fifth Avenue mansion, using the back door, while its owner, multi-millionaire ("the second richest man in the world") Michael J. O'Connor (Charles Ruggles), winters in the South. McKeever winds up taking in homeless ex-G.I. Jim Bullock (Don DeFore), who has been evicted from an apartment building O'Connor is tearing down for a new skyscraper, and runaway 18-year-old Trudy "Smith" (Gale Storm) who, unknown to him, is O'Connor's daughter. Soon Jim invites war buddies Whitey (Alan Hale, Jr.), Hank (Edward Ryan) and their families to share the vast mansion while they seek permanent homes of their own.

Trudy falls in love with Jim, and when her father demands to meet him, convinces O'Connor to also take up residence, pretending to be the panhandler "Mike", to win Jim's love without the temptation of marrying her for her wealth. McKeever "allows" Mike to move in, but treats him as a servant. When Mike warns Trudy that he intends to have them all arrested for criminal trespass, she persuades her mother Mary (Ann Harding) to fly up from Florida and pretend to be the 11th interloper, a cook. Mike has one of his construction companies bribe Jim with a great job offer in Bolivia, but Jim turns it down to pursue his dream.

The ex-GIs have an idea to buy a former Army camp and convert its barracks into inexpensive family housing. Unbeknownst to either side, Mike and Jim get into a bidding war for the camp the GI's are trying to buy, which Mike wants for an air cargo terminal. In the meantime, Mike and Mary reconcile when she believes he has changed. All are celebrating Christmas Eve together, forgetting to hide as usual from the patrolmen who check the house every night, but the patrolmen agree to let the families stay until after the New Year. Jim reveals that he and his partners have lost the camp to Michael J. O'Connor, and when Mike later defends his business dealings to Mary, she tells him he hasn't changed after all.

His dream shattered, a depressed Jim takes the job offer in Bolivia, breaking off with Trudy. Mary and Trudy angrily tell Mike they are leaving for Florida the next day because of the way he has manipulated Jim. McKeever is also depressed and tells Mike he is going to find another mansion to live in next winter. Mike spins a tale that he has arranged a meeting with O'Connor for Jim and his partners, who are dubious but accept. They are astounded to learn that Mike is O'Connor. He transfers the camp to them on the condition that they never reveal his true identity to McKeever. That night everyone is reunited and share a celebratory dinner before putting the house back "just the way we found it". They see the still-unaware McKeever off as he heads to the O'Connors' mansion in Virginia, and Mike tells Mary that next year McKeever will be coming in through the front door.

PRODUCTION NOTES:- It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)
It marked the debut of Allied Artists Pictures, the higher-budget division of Monogram Pictures, formerly a low-budget film studio. The story was originally optioned by Liberty Films in 1945 for director Frank Capra (who decided to direct It's a Wonderful Life instead); later that year producer-director Roy Del Ruth acquired the story. The casting of Ann Harding and Victor Moore was announced in June 1946,[3] Don DeFore and Gale Storm in July, and filming proceeded from August 5 to mid-October 1946. The production schedule and Christmastime climax of the story suggest a Christmas release was originally planned, but for whatever reason, the movie's release was delayed until Easter 1947.

The screenplay was adapted for a radio version on Lux Radio Theater in May 1947, with Don DeFore, Charles Ruggles, Victor Moore, and Gale Storm repeating their roles; and a live television production for Lux Video Theatre in 1957, with Ernest Truex, Leon Ames, Diane Jergens, and William Campbell.

Among the four songs in the movie, "That's What Christmas Means to Me" was not the Varnick-Acquaviva minor hit for Eddie Fisher but another song written by Harry Revel which is hard to find anywhere these days. There are at least three songs with that title, one by Stevie Wonder is a perky hit – but again, not the Eddie Fisher song of the 50s. Also, Betty Rhodes recorded "You're Everywhere" in 1947.



TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:-
Video Codec: MPEG-2
Video Bitrate: 4999 kbps
Video Resolution: 720x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 29.970
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages:English
RunTime 116 mins
Subtitles: Francais
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]
Duration: 116 mins