Me and the wife saw it last night, the original version in black and white. Love that movie.
Santa Claus is perfect.
The psychologist reminds me of a “Clinical Psycologist” I knew once when I was institutionalized. I called her “Pseudoshrink”, someone probably still does.
The lawyer freely admit his motives: use the child to get to the mom, I like Santa but he also makes work fun. etc. Subpeona the DA’s son as a witness for the defense. He had great strategy.
The dickless judge who wanted to do the right thing.
The campaign manager for the dickless judge. He was the best!!!
A great favorite of mine, too, and THE Christmas movie when I was growing up*.
The courtroom scene is the funniest ever to appear in a Christmas movie (yes, I’m counting “A Christmas Story”). The line “The District Attorney is a Republican” never fails to get me laughing.
*I never saw “It’s a Wonderful Life” until years later. In addition, I may be the only person alive who not only has read the original short story “Wonderful Life” is based upon, but also read it before I saw the movie.
This is what I love about this movie: it has such a cynical edge. Everyone acts for selfish motives: Mr. Macy, the lawyers, the judge, even the guys at the post office who deliver all the Santa letters. And yet all these self-interested acts work cumulatively, in a sort of Rube-Goldbergian way, to prove that Santa Claus exists.
