Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, David Manners, Sam Hardy, Beryl Mercer, Russell Hopton Directed By: Frank Capra Average Rating: Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape Format: Black & White, Original recording remastered, NTSC Label: Sony Pictures Number of Items: 1 Release Date: June 03, 1997 Running Time: 90 minutes Theatrical Release Date: August 07, 1931
Good girl, bad girl, good girl, bad girl, but always hot. That's Barbara Stanwyck, very young & desirable in this 1931 forgotten little movie that I understand costs quite bit for its day. She's the daughter of a preacher who has just been fired & immediately dies. She gives the hypocrites in the congregation a firery sermon in his place. She leaves town, vowing vengence with a shady manager in tow. Soon she is famous & wealthy as Florence "Faith" Fallon an evagelist & healer. She has become what she had cursed the congregation for. She's knows she's a phony. But then she has a success of sorts. A young avaitor, (David Manners) blinded by the war, is despondent & on the verge of suicide. He hears her broadcast & doesn't follow through. He seeks her out & they develop a friendship. In a series of meetings, mostly in his apartment, they fall in love. Now more that ever she wants to gets out of the rotten business she is in. Her manager is not about to let his meal ticket get away. Then, there is a fire at the theater where she is to perform. Her manager doesn't get punished for his crimes, but remember this is pre-code. She & her young aviator are united. Tagged on to the end is the dubious hope he may see again. Nothing sexual that the code whould have objected to if it had existed. Stanwyck is innocent & stunning but fairly modest. Frank Capra did use his freedom to rail against religion & its hypocrisy. A little known gem you should seek out.
"Religion is great if you can sell it, no good if you give it away." The Miracle Woman is the story of a preacher's daughter (Barbara Stanwyck) who wants the world to know the true meaning of God's love instead of living hypocritical lives. In the process, she becomes roped up with a seedy manager who turns her into a famous evangelist conning money out of believers. However, a blind man (David Manners) hears her sermon and decides against committing suicide. When he meets her, they fall in love.
This film is not a typical Frank Capra. Although it does deal with issues or right and wrong, good and bad, it does not have the same uplifting feeling toward the end. It is, though, a very good film. Stanwyck is young and beautiful in this early role. She has a great amount of chemistry with Manners who is believably blind throughout the film.
Although this is a pre-code film, it does not have all of the shock and scandal one might assume it'd contain. Still, it is a gem.
Early classy Stanwyck/Capra collaboration Barbara Stanwyck arrived in Hollywood in 1929 with then husband Frank Fay. She made 2 poor films and might have languished if Frank Capra had not cast her in "Ladies of Leisure" in 1930. Subsequently, they made 3 more films together in the next 2 years and each one is worth seeing.
"The Miracle Woman" starts with a striking scene in a House of Worship and Stanwyck bowls you over with her direct manner. The story involves corruption and evangelists and is a most unusual subject. David Manners plays Stanwyck's leading man and he is very good. The ending is a little weak as if the writer was unsure exactly how to resolve the plot. The production values are high by Columbia Studio standards but the film was not big box office with its unusual theme.
The film demonstrates, with "Ladies of Leisure" and "The Bitter Tea of General Yen", and even the soapy "Forbidden", that the Capra/Stanwyck combination was dynamite.
EARLY STANWYCK REVEALS WHY SHE WAS THE BEST! From the beginning to the end this is Stanwyck's film all the way! Very young (24 to be exact) she is incredible in every scene. Those not familiar with early Stanwyck should view this remarkable film to see her working her craft flawlessly. Why she wasn't nominated for an academy award for this performance is beyond me!! She was absolutely the best actress Hollywood has ever turned out...and she never even had an acting lesson! Truly brilliant performance as Florence Fallon, an evangelist based on the true Aimee Semple McPherson. Frank Capra was truly ahead of his time on this one. And David Manners is also incredible as the blind aviator who changes Stanwyck's life. He is truly an underrated talent. This film still packs a wallop over seventy years after the fact. Please release this gem on DVD soon!!
Frank Capra toying with the formula... Barbara Stanwyck as Sister "Faith" Fallon, charismatic leader of a Pentecostal sect. David Manners plays a blind man who falls in love with her after hearing a sermon which rouses hope in him; Frank Capra's unusually blunt attack on religious quackery previews familiar themes of individual moralism and the little guy going up against a crooked system. The baby-cheeked, 20-year-old Stanwyck is drop-dead gorgeous in scene after scene, and brings the house down -- literally -- in the beginning and closing scenes. Nice early exploration of Capra's populist ouvre, but mostly just a chance to admire Stanwyck's incandescence.
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