Doris Walker, events manager at Macy’s NY department store, replaces her inebriated store Father Christmas with the conveniently passing Mr Kris Kringle. He is a roaring success and seems to take his role very seriously. However, things turn sour when there is a confrontation in the workplace. The only way Kringle can avoid prison is by proving he is the real Santa Claus, which, incidentally, he claims he is.

What is it about Christmas and rainy Sunday afternoons that makes it more likely that we’ll watch an old classic when the lack of colour will have most of us run for the hills at other times? This is the perfect movie if you’re looking for that mix of yuletide nostalgia, family fun and just the right amount of sentimentality. Edmund Gwenn excels as Kringle and oozes the spirit of Christmas. So good was he, that he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

The rest of the cast warrants a look. A young Natalie Wood is Susan who is every bit as rational as her mother, Doris; neither believing in such silly things as Santa. Wood was to die aged just 43 in a boating accident in 1981. John Payne, Doris’ romantic interest, never achieved leading man status, his career being steady rather than exceptional. But it is the actress who played Doris whose name and face have become synonymous with the Golden Age of Hollywood. Maureen Fitzsimons was born in Ranelagh, Dublin, Ireland in 1920. At age 14 she joined the famous Abbey Theatre. Aged 17, she was discovered by actor Charles Laughton and given her first big film role in Jamaica Inn (1939) by director, Alfred Hitchcock. Having changed her name along the way, Maureen O’Hara went on to act across eight decades including films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), How Green Was My Valley (1941), the swashbuckler The Black Swan (1942), The Quiet Man (1952), The Parent Trap (1961) and Only the Lonely (1991); 55 in total. She became only the second woman to receive an honorary Oscar in 2014. Not bad for a girl from Dublin.

Certificate: U
1 hour 36 min
YouTube (Free) Prime (£3.49)
Director: George Seaton
Cast: Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O’Hara, John Payne