In the dramatic scene, the crazed Riggs used an unconventional strategy of handcuffing himself to the suicidal man (a salesman named McCleary (Michael Shaner)), when he shared a cigarette.The RKO Radio Productions release was well-received by critics, although only moderately successful at the box-office, but then during its many subsequent theatrical re-releases (in 1945, 1954, 1962, 1971, 1978, 1984, and 1992), it performed very well.[Note: The film""s plot about the identity of "Kris Kringle" paralleled and retold the last year of the life of Jesus when he was tried before Pontius Pilate.The two found their way onto the deck of the tanker as it sailed under the bridge by dangling and dropping from a winched cable.