“Keep Ted Turner and his damned Crayolas away from my movie,” snarled Orson Welles when he heard rumours the telly boss wanted to produce a colourised print of Citizen Kane. Presumably the big man had caught a glimpse of the in-colour version of Miracle On 34th Street, one of the first movies tarted up that way. Blurry and garish, the touch-up adds nothing. In fact it takes away charm rather than adds it – the whole point of the story about Santa (Edmund Gwenn) turning up in ‘40s New York (and being brought to trial because everyone thinks he’s nuts) is that you’re getting a mythical character in a rock-solid real world setting. The bleary colourisation process just makes everything look like a woozy Disney-esque nightmare...
Thank Christmas, then, that you get both versions on this DVD. After It’s A Wonderful Life, there really is no better flick to curl up with over the festive season. In black-and-white, of course.
