It Happened on Fifth Avenue

The best, but least known of 1947's three holiday classics (along with Miracle on 34th Street and The Bishop's Wife, stars Victor Moore as homeless drifter Aloysius "Mac" McKeever who sets himself up each Christmas in the luxurious Manhattan townhouse of a wealthy businessman. The homeowner, Michael J. O'Connor (Charles Ruggles) winters at his Virginia estate and therefor has no idea of Mac's seasonal tradition of commandeering his boarded-up mansion. With a housing shortage on, Mac invites an unemployed veteran named Jim (Don DeFore) to join him. Jim has recently been evicted from a building owned by O'Connor, whose rebellious runaway daughter (Gale Storm) also ends up as one of Mac's "guests." Jim soon invites his war buddies (Alan Hale, Jr. and Edward Ryan), as well as their families, to squat in the vast residence when they too are unable to find homes of their own.  

The script was originally optioned by Liberty Films in 1945 for director Frank Capra, but he decided to make It's a Wonderful Life instead. Monogram Pictures snapped up the project in an attempt to shed its "Poverty Row" reputation. The film still lacks major names but Storm was the closest thing Monogram had to a star under contract, and the prior year, rising-leading man DeFore was voted the fourth-most promising "star of tomorrow" by cinema exhibitors. Moore was then an well established comedian of stage and screen, but Mac is now the role he's most remembered for.

While the theme of what truly constitutes a "rich" man has been, and would be, explored better in other pictures of the era, this old-fashioned (even for its time) comedy possesses all the charm and goodwill required for a Holiday perenial.