It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)

Movie Info

I’m eccentric!

Jim Bullock (Don DeFore) is having a tough time.  The war vet has been evicted by Michael J. O’Connor (Charles Ruggles) who bought his apartment building, and he can’t make ends meet.  Jim meets a homeless man named Aloysius T. McKeever (Victor Moore) who has taken up winter squatters’ residence in the abandoned New York Mansion owned by O’Connor and is invited to join him.  When O’Connor’s daughter Trudy (Gale Storm) runs away from finishing school, she finds Jim and Aloysius staying in her home.  Posing as homeless herself, she falls in love with Jim.  Mary convinces her father to pose as a homeless man named Mike to get to know Jim, and O’Connor finds himself caught up in Jim and his friends’ plans to build a housing barracks for families.  When the relationship gets rocky, Mary calls in her estranged mother Mary (Ann Harding) to join the group…but will Michael wreck Jim’s chances with Mary?

I hear Bolivia is the Tin Capital of the World!

Directed by Roy Del Ruth, It Happened on 5th Avenue is a family screwball-comedy holiday movie.  It was released on April 19, 1947 and garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Story (losing to Miracle on 34th Street).  The movie remained unreleased for years, but the film is now readily available online and in physical media.

The movie has a bit of an odd history, and as a result, I did not grow up with it despite its very wholesome holiday feel.  The picture was originally optioned for Frank Capra, but Capra chose to take It’s a Wonderful Life instead.  The movie then remained in obscurity for years and finally became back in print on 2008 and has had a bit of a resurgence.

The jig is up…maybe?

The movie is one of those classic comedy style films of hijinks.  It is generally classified as a Christmas movie since one of the pivotal scenes takes place at Christmas time (the conclusion features New Year’s Eve).  The script is quite smart and an example of it is a rather interesting conversation about sex (veiled of course) involving a moment when O’Connor believes his daughter has had an illegitimate child with Jim (there is a later parallel conversation where Aloysius thinks Mike and Mary might be thinking of sex as well).

The movie has a rather strong cast that works well together.  The star of the movie is Victor Moore who is the homeless man who has made O’Connor’s home his home, and he does work well with Charles Ruggles whom he believes is a fellow homeless man.  Ruggles is good as the meddling father set in his ways, and he plays nicely off Ann Harding.  Don DeFore and Gale Storm are a rather generic ’40s couple but fit the role nicely.  It is also always strange to see Alan Hale Jr. (aka Skipper) in another role if you grew up watching Gilligan’s Island reruns.

Hard to have a nice relaxing meal with all the yelling and Russian folk music

Visually, the movie is pretty typical of films from this period.  most of the scenes are sets and there are some bad projection scenes.  I wish that the movie had really utilized New York City taken advantage of the location…much like its Oscar competitor Miracle on 34th Street which looked better.

The movie is one of the ridiculous plots screwball comedy plots that never could happen in real life…but it works and comes off as nice and sentimental as a result.  I also could see it being remade sometime despite the plot.  It had a lot of witty banter and is a nice romantic comedy.  You could definitely do worse for a different Christmas holiday movie, so check out this fun film.