The best Edmund Gwenn’s comedy movies

Kris Kringle, seemingly the embodiment of Santa Claus, is asked to portray the jolly old fellow at Macy's following his performance in the Thanksgiving Day parade. His portrayal is so complete that many begin to question if he truly is Santa Claus, while others question his sanity.

Trouble erupts in a small, quiet New England town when a man's body is found in the woods. The problem is that almost everyone in town thinks that they had something to do with his death.

A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.

A young woman living in Manhattan pretends to be the mother of an infant in order to get a seat on the subway.

The wealthiest man in the world, John P. Merrick, is a private person who likes to stay anonymous. One of his many assets is Neeley's Department Store. There is labor unrest at the store, and the employees' anger is directed at him, who they hang in effigy outside the store despite not knowing what he looks like. Merrick, not happy at what he sees going on, decides to mete out the rabble-rousers. So he goes undercover as a sales clerkin the shoe department.

When her father decides to flee to England, young Sylvia Scarlett must become Sylvester Scarlett and protect her father every step of the way, with the questionable help of plenty others.

The overlong but absorbing MGM "B" melodrama Mad Holiday stars Edmund Lowe as vacationing movie idol Philip Trent. Tired of starring in murder mysteries, Trent discovers he can't escape typecasting even on an ocean voyage: one of the passengers is murdered in our hero's cabin. The killing is tied in with a stolen diamond and a seemingly unending supply of suspects. To avoid being arrested himself, Trent teams up with pretty detective novelist "Peter" Dean (Elissa Landi) to solve the mystery. As Trent's wisecracking press agent Mert Morgan, Ted Healey has a wonderful moment when he stumbles over a corpse and asks nonchalantly, "What's the matter with him, he crocked?"

The Skipper is a charming old man loved by all his neighbors. What they don't know is that he is also Mr. 880, an amateurish counterfeiter who has amazingly managed to elude the Secret Service for 20 years.

Architect Ronald Reagan and wife Ruth Hussey invite his widowed mother (Spring Byington) to move in with them, only to discover the sweet elderly lady is romantically involved with what seems to be every old coot in town. This breezy 1950 comedy, directed by Alexander Hall, also features Charles Coburn, Edmund Gwenn, Piper Laurie, Scotty Beckett and Connie Gilchrist.

A Liverpool tug boat captain finds he's won a fortune on the penny pools and it changes his life. However, after giving up his job and throwing a large expensive party, he discovers that he may not really have won after all.

To rid himself of his sponging relatives a man tells them he is really a forger which causes them to leave. His wife believes he is joking, but he has in fact allowed the truth to slip out and now he is danger of being arrested.

Ice-cold college dean Susan Middlecott feels there's no room in her life for romance. Enter Prof. Alec Stevenson, British lecturer on astronomy, touring North America and in possession of a keepsake of Susan's he wants to return. Desperate for publicity, lecture bureau press agent Teddy Evans magnifies this into a great romance. The efforts of both dignified principals to quash the story have the opposite effect; matters get more and more involved.

An American playboy is sent to a British boarding school to learn discipline.

An angel takes on human form in order to persuade a theatrical couple to finally consummate their child that has been waiting to be born.

Ella Bishop is an inhibited girl whose frustrations grow as she approaches womanhood. As a women, her ambitions to teach cause her to lose her only opportunity for true love. Ella's life becomes one of missed chances and wrong choices. As she reaches old age, she reflects back and realizes she allowed the years to go by without achieving what she believes to be her true fulfillment. However, her years have not been without glory, and her moment of triumph arrives when her numerous now-famous students from over the years, return to honor their beloved Miss Bishop.

A best-selling author of women's issues and a medical academic find it is to their mutual advantage to falsely claim that they are married.

Shades of "Romeo and Juliet" with rival British Brewery owners who hate each other and their children who fall in love.

On a walking tour of English cathedrals, Donald Meadows meets Hester Granthem in church. Hearing he is from that hot-bed of crime, Chicago, Hester asks Donald to help her in a robbery she has planned. Thinking it a joke, he plays along; but Hester is serious, and hearing that she plans to rob Mr. Waller, the man who has cheated her father out of thousands of pounds, Donald agrees. A robbery at a pub is arranged, but the Bishop of Broadminster, an avid mystery fan, and his sister stumble into it. Playing detective the Bishop complicates matters and each side, the Bishop, the unscrupulous Waller, the gang Hester hires, and Hester and Donald, each get the upper hand along the way.