IT HAPPENED ON FIFTH AVENUE

US, 1947, 116 minutes, Black and white.
Don De Fore, Ann Harding, Charles Ruggles, Victor Moore, Gale Storm, Grant Mitchell, Alan Hale Jr.
Directed by Roy Del Ruth.

It Happened on Fifth Avenue was nominated for an Oscar for best original screenplay. However, it lost out to the ever-popular Miracle on 34th Street.

It is interesting to note that It Happened on Fifth Avenue, It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street all came out in 1947, an atmosphere of the US post-war, a concern about the soldiers returning from the war (as in The Best Years of Our Lives, the Oscar winner for 1946).

While this film is a light comedy, with the touch of fantasy, it actually focuses on many social issues of the time and perennial issues.

Don De Fore, a pleasant leading man, plays a GI who is being forced out of a building which is being demolished for a skyscraper. The owner of the building is played by Charles Ruggles, the second-richest man in the world. He is ruthless, has sent his eighteen-year-old daughter off to finishing school and is divorced from his wife (Ann Harding).

In the meantime, a vagrant, played by Victor Moore, lives in the O’ Connor mansion in New York on Fifth Avenue while the O’ Connors are at their house in Virginia – and vice-versa. He lives a very comfortable life, making sure that everything is in order as he leaves, as if he was never there. He encounters the Don De Fore character in Central Park, invites him to stay with him and before long there are several GIs and their families who have not been able to find apartments because they have children and have not been able to find jobs.

Michael O’ Connor plans to develop air cargo and buy up an abandoned military base. The GIs also plan to buy the base and turn it into accommodation. There is a financial entanglement, a protest at the army base. However, the daughter (Gale Storm) persuades her father to come and live with the group (she had already been found trespassing and was invited to stay, unbeknownst to the others who she was) and O’ Connor and his wife live with the homeless people, sharing their lives. (This was a theme of the wartime film The Devil and Miss Jones with Charles Coburn.)

Not everybody finds out the truth at the end – which is a touch different. However, there is a happy ending for everybody concerned.

It is interesting to see Alan Hale Jr as seemingly impossibly young in 1947. On the downside, there is a very forced episode of comedy and music in a restaurant towards the end of the film. Otherwise, it is very much a comedy of the 40s – with the flavour of post-war America.

1. The 1940s, the experience of the war, post-war America, New York? The GIs, the opportunities and lack of opportunities?

2. The US after the war, the government, wealth and exploitation, opportunities?

3. New York City, Fifth Avenue, the O’ Connor mansion and the interiors? The use of rear projection for the city scenes – for the small budget?

4. The score, the songs and their inclusion? Trudy’s job, the group singing in the house?

5. The title, expectations, the information about the mansion from the bus tour, the atmosphere of Frank Capra and 34th Street?

6. Mac, vagrant, avoiding the police, entering the house by the fence, the hole, with the dog? His set-up and life of luxury? His character, age? His philosophy of life concerning work, sharing wealth? The effect on others? His changing? The touch of laziness and exploitation, his enjoying being bossy, his shrewdness? His not knowing the truth about the O’ Connors at the end?

7. Michael O’ Connor and his reputation, wealth, coming from nothing, the jobs, the buildings, the meetings and his handling people, the air cargo plan? With Farrow and relying on him, hire and fire, money deals and sales? His relationship with Trudy, his searching for her and finding her? The separation from Mary?

8. Jim and the tearing down of his building, on the bed, handcuffing himself to the bed, being lifted out, in Central Park, the encounter with Mac and the dog, wet, going to the house, his presumption that Mac had permission to stay? His staying? His enjoying the style?

9. Trudy, running away from finishing school, the headmistress ringing O’ Connor? Getting her coat, Mac and Jim and their assumptions about her, guarding her, her decision to stay, not telling them the truth? Going for the job, singing the music? Jim waiting for her?

10. Jim meeting his friends, in the van, trying for the apartment, the hard line of the manager, not permitting children? The characters of his friends? Whitey and his wife, the other man and his wife, the children?

11. The set-up in the house, the children, the babies, the clotheslines? Mac and his ruling the roost? Their contributing money?

12. Trudy and her father, their clash, her explaining her situation to him, wanting to be free, eighteen? Her father agreeing to Trudy, going to get the old clothes, going to the house? Pretending to be a vagrant?

13. Michael and his pretence, his experience, his shock, in his own home, Mac and his treatment, getting him to make the bed, wash up, clear the dishes? His phone calls – and the others thinking they were hallucinations about wealth? His plans, contacting Farrow?

14. Air cargo, the sale of the base, O’ Connor wanting to buy it and develop it? Jim and his friends, Jim and the architectural plan, getting the money from friends and buddies, the visit to Washington to try to find out what was happening, the rising cost?

15. Michael and his thinking that the baby was Trudy’s? His concessions? Discovering the truth? His plan to get Jim to go to Bolivia, single? Giving him advice? With the failure of the plan, Jim’s decision to go to Bolivia, the clash with Trudy?

16. Trudy and her mother, her mother coming to New York, the plan, the clothes, her doing the cooking and getting on well with people?

17. Mary and Michael, reflections on the past, Michael’s career? His saying he would change, but not changing, their talk, Mac thinking they should marry? Mary’s disappointment?

18. Michael and the demonstration at the base, throwing fruit at Farrow? His inviting Jim to the office, his pretence about the contact, Jim putting him in the cupboard, the reality, his making the offer? A secret?

19. Mac not knowing the truth, his plans to go to Virginia, to return in the following year? The happy ending for all concerned?