YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS
US, 1991, 95 minutes, Colour.
Richard Thomas, Charles Bronson, Edward Asner, Katherine Isobel.
Directed by Charles Jarrot.
Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus is a very pleasing telemovie designed for adults and for children. Virginia O’ Hanlon wrote the famous letter to the paper asking if there was a Santa Claus and journalist Francis Church wrote the reply.
Katherine Isobel portrays the young girl and Richard Thomas her father. The surprise of the casting is Charles Bronson as Francis Church. It is a complete change from his many decades of action films. A point is made by many commentators that the character of Francis Church had lost his wife and was feeling very sensitive at the time of writing his famous letter and that Charles Bronson himself had lost his wife, Jill Ireland, only a year before making this film. Whatever the case, Bronson gives a surprisingly pleasing and sensitive performance.
The film was directed by Charles Jarrot. He had worked in American television for many years before getting his opportunity to move to big-screen films with the very successful Anne of the Thousand Days in 1969. He followed it up with Mary, Queen of Scots, the musical Lost Horizon, The Dove and Escape from the Dark. He made a number of films for Disney like The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark and Condorman and moved into melodramas and action films with The Other Side of Midnight and The Amateur. His career in the 80s and 90s was far more conventional.
1. A pleasing television movie? Its mood? Its optimism?
2. The re-creation of period, New York around 1900? The range of people in society in the city? Costumes and décor? The musical score?
3. The title, the letter from Virginia O’ Hanlon, the response by Francis Church? The inventiveness of the story around this letter and the family?
4. The portrait of the O’ Hanlon family, the Irish background, the 19th century? Hard work? The New York waterfront, the wharves and the fights, jobs, the search for a home? The children, poverty, the need for food? The harsh neighbourhoods and neighbours? Illness? The newspaper, jobs?
5. The father and his character? As portrayed by Richard Thomas? The jobs, helping the thief, the response? The job and the fight? The reward and the police? Virginia, his love for his daughter? Reading to her?
6. The mother, the children, trying to manage? The pullover? The writing, reading, school?
7. The portrait of Francis Church and the surprise casting of Charles Bronson? Journalist, a man of grief? His drinking? The other journalists, the women, his writing? Edward and his influence? The articles? His suicidal feelings? The assignment? Having to write about Christmas? His hearing James O’Hanlon? and reading?
8. The background of the paper, Ed Mitchell and his work, his assistant, the other journalists?
9. The film and the questions about Christmas, the spirit of Christmas, giving? The Christian origins? This presentation of Christmas in American culture with the American spirit? The presentation of Santa Claus? The Christmas card Santa Claus? Gifts? The legends of Santa Claus?
