Condensing one of my favorite film's--the 1947 version, into a 45-minute show had to be a mistake. Scenes that made the original great were omitted or condensed. One of everyone's favorite scenes in the original was when they hauled in all those bags of mail in the court room. This quickie version had just two men shown bringing in mailbags! The opening where Kris had applied and been hired for the job of Santa instead of filling in on an emergency basis definitely started this train going off the tracks and it became a total train wreck with the added scene described by other reviewers here.
The original had a scene in Sawyer's office where Kris, frustrated, gave him a light tap with his cane. Most viewers could easily side with him at that point. This 1955 version has it played where Kris gives a full overhead swing clobbering Sawyer on his head from behind, in front of a room full of children and their parents.
I cannot picture any type of Santa Claus viciously clubbing someone in front of a bunch of children. To me, this changed the whole tone of the show.
Even without that scene, the rest of this show seemed speeded up. My DVR can play things where you hear everything but it runs faster than it took to record. I kept checking to make sure I wasn't doing this by accident.
The scenes they took out were instrumental in making the original a great movie. I imagine most anyone seeing this version first would have no interest in watching any of the other fine versions that got the full treatment. As presented, the show is disturbing and lacks most of the charm of the original.
The original had a scene in Sawyer's office where Kris, frustrated, gave him a light tap with his cane. Most viewers could easily side with him at that point. This 1955 version has it played where Kris gives a full overhead swing clobbering Sawyer on his head from behind, in front of a room full of children and their parents.
I cannot picture any type of Santa Claus viciously clubbing someone in front of a bunch of children. To me, this changed the whole tone of the show.
Even without that scene, the rest of this show seemed speeded up. My DVR can play things where you hear everything but it runs faster than it took to record. I kept checking to make sure I wasn't doing this by accident.
The scenes they took out were instrumental in making the original a great movie. I imagine most anyone seeing this version first would have no interest in watching any of the other fine versions that got the full treatment. As presented, the show is disturbing and lacks most of the charm of the original.