Critical Reception
The Washington Post thought the celebrity endorsements (by Frank Capra, Orson Welles, Al Jolson, Constance Bennett and others) used in the movie's advertising to be "high-flown" and "Hollywoodesque"; instead, the movie was a "mild, pleasant little film which probably will find many admirers."
Time magazine said,
- Most plausible explanations for the picture's success are: 1) the presence of Victor Moore, past master of creaky charm and pathos; 2) a show as generally oldfashioned, in a harmless way, as a 1910 mail-order play for amateurs; 3) the fact that now, as in 1910, a producer cannot go wrong with a mass audience if he serves up a whiff of comedy and a whirlwind of hokum.
Bosley Crowther in The New York Times praised its "geniality and humor" and the "charming performance" by Victor Moore. The New Republic called it "childish stuff" and Victor Moore "too cute for words".
In 1948, the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Story. It lost to another Christmas-themed story, Miracle on 34th Street, written by Valentine Davies.
Read more about this topic: It Happened On Fifth Avenue
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