Customer Reviews

It Happened on 5th Avenue

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I Have Looked For This Movie For Years!!! Finally Seeing It Again, I Must Say It's As Good As I Remember!!!! A Fantastic Cast And A Warm Plot Makes For A Wonderful Old-Time Film Set During The Holdays!!!! Gale Storm & Don DeFore Are Simply Fantastic!!!

Marketed by Warners as a holiday film this barely qualifies with a brief Christmas scene at the end. What the makers are trying to capture is a Capra-esque feel and they nearly succeed. They don't quite meet those lofty heights but they have concocted a disarmingly amusing confection. And Gale Storm is as cute as a button. About the only real criticism I have is the flick suffers a tad from overlength particularly for a comedy. Otherwise, it's not a bad way to while away the winter months.

After looking for this movie for years I finally found it on VHS. Today I was going through my movies & realized that it is missing. I see that it is now on DVD so I am buying it immediatly. For those who were critical of it, all I can say is to go back to watching the RAMBO movies.R.G. Hooper

If you love movies such as "Miracle on 34th Street," and "It's A Wonderful Life," then you will LOVE this movie.

There are so many classic and endearing scenes in this movie, I am hard-pressed to narrow down my favorites. Therefore, I will give a short synopsis of the movie:

The movie is set in New York City right after world war 2. The characters include a rich guy, who prides himself on being "the second richest guy in the world" and rich guy thinks that since he has so much money, he has everything. Rich guy has a pampered EX-wife who lives in Florida. There is also a spoiled daughter who has been shipped off to boarding school. Rich guy thinks he is happy with all his wealth, but in reality, the only thing he has to show for his life is his stomach ulcer. It is not until an unlikely set of circumstances combine with an unusual cast of additional characters (a middle-aged hobo, a young guy fresh out of the military who is looking for a job and an apartment, along with some other supporting characters) that the "rich guy" finds out the true meaning of life.

This movie used to play each year on the local television stations, but then for some unexplained reason, it disappeared. I tried for years to find the film but could not locate it anywhere. I finally found a person in Hollywood who had an original of the film on reel to reel, and they made a copy of the movie on to video. That version cost me $50.00! Amazon's price is significantly better than that. The point is, however, I was willing to pay $50.00 for the movie because it is that good. It is one of the movies that I MUST watch every year at Christmas.

I love the scene when rich guy is shoveling snow for the hobo. I also love the scene when rich guy comes home and smells the Slum-gullion (Irish stew) cooking in the kitchen. And in spite of the fact that I have seen this movie at least 100 times, the final scene always reduces me to tears. I also was impressed with a business idea that was discussed in the film that sounds almost exactly like what FedEx is doing today. You have to realize that this movie was made in the 1940's, and a business concept that outlines what FedEx is doing in the year 2005 is pretty remarkable.

Two small disclaimers... okay so the guy and girl "fall in love" way too fast, but, if you can get past that, then you will enjoy the film. One other point is, the movie has not been restored like so many of the big studio classics. Therefore, if you purchase the film you may notice some graininess and at times you may notice that the image "jumps." In spite of those small problems, however, you still should buy this movie. It is that good.

This movie is a little silly at times, sometimes a little stiff, with stock characters and themes, but by the middle those characters have grown on us and we want to see the themes play out.

The plot involves the second richest man in the world being drawn into masquerading as a squatter in his own house, and what he learns from the experience. It's set post-WWII, with a nod to the concerns of the day for jobs and housing for returning soldiers. Don DeFore plays the younger romantic lead, a veteran unknowingly falling for the rich man's daughter. Gale Storm is that daughter, bright and cute. Charles Ruggles is the rich man, and Victor Moore the panhandler with a heart of gold (and the manner of a butler philosopher) who is rich in soul. Alan Hale, Jr., later of Gilligan's Island, has a secondary role as another veteran. The musical score is particularly nice, and there's a little singing. As others have mentioned, Christmas only shows up in passing; it's not really a Christmas movie.

The DVD is OK, with somewhat coarse but clear-enough sound and good image quality (black-and-white, in the film's original full screen format). The only special features are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired, and also in French.

It is a shame this film has been left to gather dust in a warehouse somewhere, while other films such as "Miracle on 34th Street" and "It's a Wonderful Like" get all the glory at Christmas time.

This movie is FABULOUS! I watch it EVERY year, and I was looking on Amazon today to purchase some more copies of this film as Christmas presents.

The synopsis tells the story pretty good, but I would add that the acting was excellent! There are some priceless scenes like "at the barracks throwing tomatoes at "Michael O'Connor", "the Irish stew", and "the ending". It is a story not about money, but about people and life. Any of my family and friends who have watched this movie have loved it!

I suggest you get your copy of this movie before Amazon runs out. Heck, I might just buy them all...

I actually had this film on VHS, I ordered it years ago from Moviesunlimited.com and can't tell you the number of times I watched it. The video was wearing thin and behold the DVD release! The thrill of seeing this on DVD made my day- A delightful lost treasure! Gale Storm, Don DeFore, Charlie Ruggles and the underrated...Ann Harding! The story is simple but wonderful! Films like this have been ignored for the bigger blockbusters, so who ever picked this to put it on DVD...A BIG THANKS!!!
The whole family will enjoy it!

This is a Very Enjoyable Movie!! If you are as old as I am the Stars in this movie will bring back old Memories of the past years in TV and Movies. The Movie expresses a great moral to the meaning of the Holiday Season, something like "It's a Wonderful Life" with James Stewart. I Greatly recommend this movie to anyone who likes the
"Older" and a time when they use to make "Real Movies"!!

I came across this film by flipping channels around the Christmas holidays. Gale Storm is the daughter of the third richest man in America(Charles Ruggles); she is in love with Don DeFore's character, and somehow this homeless guy who has the keys to all the rich folks homes gets in there while the owner's are away. In this case, the owner really didn't go away, he gets picked up by Storm, DeFore and the homeless guy and they bring him home for the holidays. Of course, the man is mad as heck over these folks in his house, but for the happiness of his daughter, he keeps the peace. Things heat up even more when his ex wife (Ann Harding) comes to visit and they reconcile, but the other folks don't know about the real identities of Storm, Ruggles and Harding. DeFore also is trying to get army posts to convert into much needed housing but Ruggles is stopping the show in the background, but in time, along with the Christmas season, things change his heart and love prevails. a cute little film that can be watched on TCM for the holidays. Some may say it's not a holiday movie, I feel it is, but just IMHO.

This is a sort of modern American version of "A Christmas Carol," or at least that was probably the intent of the people responsible for it. It's late in 1946, and the US is just getting back onto a peacetime footing: the stores are full of merchandise, but there's a housing shortage that beats anything. Newspaperman and veteran Jim Bullock (Don DeFore) becomes a victim of it when the building in which he was living is slated to be torn down to make room for a new corporate skyscraper. Homeless, he meets a charming old tramp, Aloysius T. McKeever (Victor Moore), whose custom it is to move into luxurious homes when the owners are away for the season, and who is currently living in the huge Fifth Avenue mansion of self-made industrialist Michael J. O'Connor (Charles Ruggles). When he invites Jim to join him, Jim eagerly accepts, seeing it as suitable revenge on O'Connor, whose skyscraper was the doom of his apartment. Before they know it, though, they're being joined by a whole congregation of other displaced folk, including O'Connor's daughter Trudy (Gale Storm), who has run away from her boarding college and is seeking work under an alias; two service pals of Jim's (Alan Hale Jr., Edward Ryan Jr.) with their wives (Dorothea Kent, Cathy Carter), a small son, and an infant; and, ultimately, O'Connor himself (incognito) and his divorced wife Mary (Ann Harding). As they create a family in his mansion, O'Connor begins to realize what he's lost by giving more and more of his attention to making money, and while no supernatural agency takes a hand and the holiday itself is only peripherally part of the story, he definitely undergoes a reformation at least as major as Ebenezer Scrooge's. The picture of a bygone era will be almost as interesting to today's viewers (most of whom, of course, are Boomers and their descendants) as Dickens's England, and the cast, especially DeFore, Storm, and Ruggles, does its job very well.