After my viewing of the odd film that is Christmas Eve (1947), the review for which you will see on December 24^th, Amazon Prime suggested It Happened on 5^th Avenue (1947).  I did not question the title.  When you have watched as many Christmas films as I have so far this season, your streaming services begin to think that is your preference.  For the record, it is not, and I am very much looking forward to getting to January 11^th, 2026, when we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany.  It is a date on the liturgical calendar that underscores the revelation of Jesus as King and Messiah.  What I will be underscoring is the fact that I can watch something else at home other than Yuletide pictures.  Nonetheless, I hope that whatever it is I see between now and then will be more like today’s movie.

Initially, the event to which the title, It Happened on 5^th Avenue, refers is Aloysius T. McKeever (Victor Moore) hoping to slip undetected into the O’Connor mansion on the eponymous New York street.  It is post-November 1^st, meaning the stately home is boarded up for the winter.  For the itinerant Aloysius, this is his opportunity to inhabit a well-appointed shelter for the next few months.  It is something that he has been doing for a couple years, and he has a failsafe in place in case anyone comes looking: cutting out the lights whenever the front door is opened.  With all this settled, he dons a set of the real owner’s clothes and goes for his usual, leisurely stroll around the city.  While doing so, he encounters ex-United States Army officer Jim Bullock (Don DeFore) sleeping on a park bench.  We have spent a little time with Jim by this point.  We see him kicked out of his apartment, despite having paid the rent and being a veteran of World War II, by a company held by business tycoon Michael J. O’Connor (Charlie Ruggles).  Yes, that O’Connor.  With the name “O’Connor” becoming a pejorative for Jim, he is now homeless until he meets Aloysius.  Seeing something in common with Jim, Aloysius invites the former soldier back to stay at the O’Connor estate.  Initially, Aloysius explains that he is a guest, but then Jim notices a trophy in one of the rooms with “O’Connor” on the nameplate, forcing Aloysius to be clear that he not O’Connor.  As for the real Michael, he is in his Virginia mansion making more land deals when he is interrupted by a call from the headmaster of his daughter, Trudy O’Connor’s (Gale Storm), finishing school.  He is told that she has not come to her last few classes and is now missing.  She turns up at the New York residence, though Aloysius and Jim take her for an intruder.  Up until now, Jim believes Aloysius to be a legitimate guest, thereby challenging Trudy to call the police on the two men.  Aloysius prevents this, takes Jim aside, and admits to being a vagrant.  She overhears their conversation and is amused by the idea of the strangers living in the empty abode.  Her bemusement changes to endearment, in this case to Jim, as the three of them hide from the police in the walk-in freezer, with the two younger people cozying up to one another.  As such, Aloysius and Jim allow Trudy to stay with them, who passes herself off as just another young woman seeking a job in New York City.  Upon receiving the hoped for position in a music store, she is met by Jim, who walks her back to the house.  Along the way, Jim encounters a couple of his comrades from the war who are denied apartments because they have families.  Jim and Trudy bring them back to the O’Connor mansion, and now Aloysius must approve of four more adults and two young kids.  A little while later, the detective work Michael had paid for to find his daughter brings him to the music store.  As they are talking, Trudy confides that she is in love with Jim and insists that Michael meet the veteran.  However, he has to adopt the persona of “Mike,” a down-on-his-luck New Yorker like so many others.  Despite not wanting to play along, Michael agrees to do so.  As happened with Jim, he, Aloysius, and Trudy are strolling along when she spots Michael and they take him to the home.  While staying there, not only does Michael learn more about the nature of Trudy relationship with Jim, but that the young man is attempting to develop a former army base into affordable housing.  Michael had his own plans for the property, and whenever he gets the chance, he informs his assistant, Farrow (Grant Mitchell), to up the offer.  In order to break up a potential marriage between Jim and Trudy, Michael instructs Farrow to make Jim a lucrative job proposal that involves traveling to Bolivia as a single person.  Jim is about to turn down the proposition, but this becomes less certain when he is told that his property bid has been passed over in favor of Michael’s company.  Next, as they are all gathered on Christmas Day and Aloysius is playing Santa Claus, the police find them all taking their ease in the O’Connor drawing room.  They are all given until the first of the year to vacate the premises.  This changes Jim’s thinking, believing he needs the money and telling Trudy he is going to accept the position.  She is saddened by what this means for their future, and she gushes about this to her parents.  It is her mother, Mary O’Connor (Ann Harding), who recognizes the name of the enterprise hiring Jim, and thus implicating Michael’s role in spoiling things.  To make it right, Michael arranges for Jim and his two partners to meet at the businessman’s office, finally revealing the truth about everything and signing over the deed to the coveted property.  With that settled, everyone departs on January 1^st, with Aloysius feeling like he is the rich person despite never learning Michael’s actual identity.

Despite somewhat fading from importance to the plot and not being wise to what is really going on, it is Aloysius that is the more interesting character in It Happened on 5^th Avenue.  You might also note that this is not really a Christmas movie, but not for the usual reasons.  It has one scene where a tree is being decorated, another that takes place on December 25^th, and the promotional material contains seasonal themes.  Otherwise, it is the story of what the humble can teach the mighty.  Despite not being about the birth of Jesus, this is something that is at the core of Christmas.  Many of the aspects of the holiday are about humbleness.  Biblically, the Israelites expected a Davidic king to be their Messiah.  They got this, even being born in the city of David (Behtlehem), but coming into the world in a stable and being laid in the thing out of which animals ate.  That is what a manger is, by the way, basically a feeding trough.  Yet, it works as a crib in a pinch.  Recently, I have heard it posited that the wood of the manger symbolizes the wood of the Cross, which is about as lowly of a throne upon which this King will be hoisted at the end of His earthly life.  Finally, I would point to a few Christmas carols that refer to Jesus as being meek and mild.  While it is difficult to imbue such traits on Aloysius, he does teach the others much about enjoying what really matters in life.  For him, luxury does not equal happiness, although he does freeload off the upper echelons of society.  What he understands is that happiness is about accepting what God brings you, and the person He made you to be.  As such, as Aloysius is walking away in the final shot, Michael says to Mary that there goes the richest man he knows.  We, too, can be equally wealthy by clinging to God.

I would also say that I was enriched by watching It Happened on 5^th Avenue.  It is genuinely funny and heartwarming at times.  Those are feelings that are generally absent from most holiday material, so this one gets my recommendation.