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It Happened on 5th Avenue (titled onscreen as It Happened on Fifth Avenue) is a 1947 American romantic comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Don DeFore, Ann Harding, Charles Ruggles, Victor Moore, and Gale Storm. Herbert Clyde Lewis and Frederick Stephani were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story, losing to Valentine Davies for another Christmas-themed film, Miracle on 34th Street.
| It Happened on 5th Avenue | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Roy Del Ruth |
| Screenplay by |
|
| Story by | |
| Produced by | Roy Del Ruth |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Henry Sharp |
| Edited by | Richard Heermance |
| Music by | Edward Ward |
Production company | Roy Del Ruth Productions |
| Distributed by | Allied Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 116 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.2[1]–$1.3 million[2] |
| Box office | $1.8 million (estimated)[3] |
Aloysius T. McKeever, a vagrant, makes his home in a seasonally boarded-up Fifth Avenue mansion, each time its owner—Michael J. O'Connor, the world's second richest man—winters at his Virginia estate. McKeever winds up taking in ex-G.I. Jim Bullock, who has been evicted from an apartment building O'Connor is tearing down for a new skyscraper, and later 18-year-old Trudy "Smith", a runaway who is actually O'Connor's daughter. Jim and Trudy fall for each other. Due to a housing crisis, Jim eventually invites war buddies Whitey, Hank and their families to share the vast mansion when they are unable to find homes of their own.
When Trudy encounters her father, she tells him she is in love with Jim. She has not revealed her real identity to Jim because she wants to win his love without her wealth. Trudy persuades her father to pretend to be a homeless man named "Mike" and have him move into the house. McKeever reluctantly takes him in, but treats him like a servant. When Mike becomes fed up and wants the squatters vacated, Trudy calls her mother Mary (who divorced O'Connor several years earlier) in Palm Beach for help. Mary comes to New York and pretends to be another homeless person to join the squatters. Sensing Mary and Mike have feelings for each other, McKeever nudges them together. Eventually, Mike reconciles with Mary and re-proposes marriage. She accepts.
Earlier, McKeever had given Jim, Whitey, and Hank an idea to convert unused post-war Army barracks into much-needed housing, and persuaded them to bid for an Army camp on the outskirts of New York City. Jim and his friends raise money from hundreds of other ex-G.I.'s in the same predicament. O'Connor also wants the property to build a transportation hub, and a bidding war ensues before O'Connor learns who his competitors are. Attempting to get rid of his daughter's suitor, who is still unaware of Trudy's real identity, O'Connor arranges to have the construction company that Jim approaches about his conversion plan reject it. Instead, they offer Jim a well-paying job in Bolivia, on the condition that he be single. Jim rejects the offer, proud that he has fought for the United States and has no intention of leaving it.
Celebrating Christmas Eve together, the residents are caught by the two patrolmen who check the mansion every night at 10 p.m. McKeever convinces them to let the families stay until after the New Year. Soon, Jim sadly reveals that the camp has been sold to O'Connor, and later tells Trudy that he is considering taking the job offer in Bolivia for a year or so, in order to earn enough money to marry her. Trudy breaks up with him. When Mary and Trudy discover that Mike manipulated the situation, Mary tells him that she and Trudy will leave for Florida in the morning.
Ashamed, "Mike" tells Jim that he has arranged a meeting with "O'Connor" at O'Connor's office in an hour. Jim is dubious but gladly accepts. At the meeting, Jim, Whitey, and Hank find Mike sitting at O'Connor's desk; they believe Mike is delusional, and stuff him into a closet before "O'Connor" arrives. Mike is rescued by his assistant, who reveals Mike's true identity to the three friends. Mike then transfers ownership of the camp to them, provided that they do not reveal his identity to McKeever.
That night, everyone shares a New Year's Eve dinner before restoring the house just as they found it. Mike and Mary reconcile again, Trudy and Jim reconcile as well, and the four bid farewell to McKeever and his pet dog as he leaves to squat at O'Connor's estate in Virginia, still unaware of the truth. Mike tells Mary to remind him to nail up the board in the back fence through which McKeever gets onto his property, saying that McKeever will come in through the front door next winter.
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- Don DeFore as Jim Bullock
- Ann Harding as Mary O'Connor
- Charlie 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 Jr. as Hank
- Cathy Carter as Alice
- Arthur Hohl as Patrolman Brady (uncredited)
- John Hamilton as Harper (uncredited)
- Charles Lane as landlord (uncredited)
- Abe Reynolds as Finkelhoff the tailor (uncredited)
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Monogram Pictures was trying to shed its reputation for low-budget films by setting up a new division, Allied Artists Productions (renamed Allied Artists Pictures Corporation in 1953, replacing Monogram entirely). It Happened on 5th Avenue was Allied Artists' first production. At a time when the average Hollywood picture cost about $800,000 (and the average Monogram picture cost about $90,000), the Christmas-themed comedy cost more than $1,200,000.[1] It was rewarded with an estimated $1.8 million box office return.[3]
The story was originally optioned by Liberty Films in 1945 for director Frank Capra (who decided to direct It's a Wonderful Life instead);[4] later that year, producer-director Roy Del Ruth acquired the story.[5]
The casting of Ann Harding and Victor Moore was announced in June 1946,[6] Don DeFore and Gale Storm in July, and filming proceeded from August 5 to mid-October 1946.[7][8] The production schedule and Christmastime climax of the story suggest the studio planned a Christmas release, but for an unknown reason, the movie's release was delayed until Easter 1947.
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Four songs were featured in the movie, but Gale Storm was not allowed to sing them. She rehearsed them before filming started, but was told by director Roy Del Ruth that she would be mouthing to someone else's vocals. Storm, who had been the studio's musical star for years, recalled in her 1981 memoir:
I couldn't believe it. I thought that maybe the director didn't know I'd been singing and dancing in films, and that if I spoke to him he'd let me do my own numbers. Well, I asked him, and he said no. I asked him to look at some of my musicals, and he said no. I asked him if I could sing for him, and he said no. His theory was that if you were a dancer, you didn't sing; if you were a singer, you didn't dance; and if you were an actor, you didn't sing or dance. It was humiliating.[9]
"That's What Christmas Means to Me" was not the Varnick-Acquaviva minor hit for Eddie Fisher but another song written by Harry Revel. Also, Betty Jane Rhodes recorded "You're Everywhere" in 1947.[10]
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The Washington Post thought the celebrity endorsements (by Frank Capra, Orson Welles, Al Jolson, Constance Bennett and others)[11] used in the movie's advertising to be "high-flown" and "Hollywoodesque"; instead, the movie was a "mild, pleasant little film which probably will find many admirers."[12]
Time wrote: "Most plausible explanations for the picture's success are: 1) the presence of Victor Moore, past master of creaky charm and pathos; 2) a show as generally old-fashioned, in a harmless way, as a 1910 mail-order play for amateurs; 3) the fact that now, as in 1910, a producer cannot go wrong with a mass audience if he serves up a whiff of comedy and a whirlwind of hokum."[13]
Bosley Crowther in The New York Times praised its "geniality and humor" and the "charming performance" by Moore.[14] The New Republic disagreed, calling it "childish stuff" and Moore "too cute for words".[15]
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The screenplay was adapted for a radio version on Lux Radio Theater in May 1947, with DeFore, Ruggles, Moore, and Storm reprising their roles; and a live television production for Lux Video Theatre in 1957, with Ernest Truex, Leon Ames, Diane Jergens, and William Campbell.[16]
It was remade in Hindi twice in India: Pugree (1948) and Dil Daulat Duniya (1972).[17]
It Happened on 5th Avenue was part of a package of 49 Monogram and Allied Artists features from the late 1940s and early 1950s that were licensed for television broadcast in 1954.[18]
Around 1990, the film essentially disappeared from TV and retail availability. Despite an Academy Award nomination, a cult following through a dedicated fan website, and many requests to Turner Classic Movies and American Movie Classics to show the movie, it did not appear on American television for nearly 20 years. It aired on Turner Classic Movies in 2009 and beginning in 2014, it is shown frequently during the Christmas and holiday season. Hallmark Movie Channel also carried the movie in 2014.
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On November 11, 2008, Warner Home Video released the film on DVD. In 2014, the film was made available for streaming and download in the digital format. On December 22, 2020, it was released on Blu-Ray by Warner Archive Collection.
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