A different way of telling a story

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Capra did four films together in the early Thirties for Columbia and as this was Capra's early work it's of varying quality. The Miracle Woman has Barbara Stanwyck as an Aimee Semple McPherson type evangelist bilking the public for all it's worth under the tutelage of Sam Hardy.Barbara's got good reason to be cynical, her father who was a devout minister died poor and uncared for by his Pharisee like congregation. With Hardy's encouragement she starts to see religion as a way to make some real dough. Doesn't that sound familiar for today.She's going along in her cynical way until she meets David Manners, former veteran of the Great War who left his eyesight behind in it. Manners is the main weakness in The Miracle Woman, he's obviously a man of some culture and learning and I could not accept that this would be the kind of woman he would fall for.The similarities between The Miracle Woman and Elmer Gantry are too obvious to ignore. Richard Brooks's classic is so much better done covering the same ground. As for Stanwyck she gives a great performance in a film that never quite gets its message across.

In Hollywood's classic age Columbia Studios was infamously dubbed "poverty row", because of its low budget prodcutions and lack of star power. However it did prove itself a fertile ground for talent and a lot of up-and-comers who would later be big names got their first break there. Such a one was Barbara Stanwyck, here on the ascendant as The Miracle Woman.Unlike most of the bigger studios, Columbia's biggest asset during the 1930s was not a star but a director. Just like Stanwyck, Frank Capra was just starting to make a name for himself. For The Miracle Woman Capra demonstrates his increasingly passive camera positioning, often putting us audience members in the place of observer amid the crowd, which is rather appropriate for this picture all about display and performance. Capra still has something of the naïve show-off about him however, and there are quite a few attention-grabbing whip-pans and "impossible" shots like the one staring up through the fireplace, which don't really add a lot. And Capra's camera perhaps hangs back a bit too much, making the romantic scenes a little cold. Perhaps this picture of one-on-one relationships is not really suited to him. Capra really came into his own when dealing with groups, families and communities.Ms Stanwyck however barely has any need of a decent director, being absolutely able to command our attention when she is on the screen. Her standout scene is actually her first, when she vehemently addresses a congregation after the death of her father. She manages the difficult task of being passionately enraged, for a good few minutes, without becoming hysterical, a particular rarity in this age of hammier acting. And throughout the picture she proves herself to be deep and subtle with her emotion, with a performance that is convincing and totally absorbing. Unfortunately the same cannot quite be said of her co-stars. David Manners was fairly popular at the time, and he was pretty good in the somewhat phoney world of Dracula (1931), but here he is rather wooden. He's certainly a good ventriloquist, but his ventriloquism act seems to have been shoehorned into the plot simply because it was something he could do. He doesn't really convince as a blind man either, more than once making eye contact with Stanwyck or obviously seeing his way around the set.And apart from Stanwyck's performance there is very little to recommend about The Miracle Woman. The plot is a second-rate rip-off of Sinclair Lewis's novel Elmer Gantry (which, incidentally, was so controversial it was not filmed until 1960) and while the very competent Jo Swerling has adapted the John Meehan/Robert Riskin* play lucidly for the screen, it remains a rather lacklustre affair. There is some potential for pathos, but sadly the script is not lively enough to bring it out. Yet amid it Stanwyck stands out like a fiery beacon, and the picture is just about worth seeing for her alone. Hollywood honchos would be taking note as well, and the young actress would soon be bound for big roles at the major studios.*Later a crucial yet unsung Capra collaborator, Riskin would write some of the finest screenplays of the 1930s. We can only assume that his ability was not fully fledged at the time he was writing The Miracle Woman, which is supported by the fact that he and Meehan chose to steal most of their plot from a popular novel of the day rather than coming up with something original. Nevertheless Riskin would soon go on to great things, and he deserves this footnote by way of a disclaimer. Oh, and John Meehan later did some pretty good screenplays too.

Does anyone know if the script of "Miracle Woman" is available in any form? There are some fine speeches in there that I'd like to use in teaching acting classes. It's not easy to find monologues for interesting, strong female characters these days. I'd really appreciate any leads. I'd hate to hate to resort to taping the film and transcribing it by hand (if it's even available to rent!). Just in case-- does anyone know if this film is available for rental, in any format? I haven't seen the entire movie. Please reply directly to [email protected] Thanks for any info you can provide. Note: this request would have taken just 3 lines, but the format requires a minimum 10 lines of text. I wouldn't normally go on and on!

This was indeed a strange curio from the early 1930s. This film was inspired by Aimee Semple McPherson's traveling evangelistic crusades of the 1920s. At first, Aimee (just like Barbara in the film) seemed sincere and over time, the attraction of fame and riches turned this "crusade" into a sleazy business. While not as cynical and amazing to watch as the later and very similar movie, ELMER GANTRY, this film is very daring to take on the topic of fraudulent faith healers. Given that this is one of Barbara Stanwyck's earliest films, she does an amazing job. The script is engaging as well and Frank Capra shows us that he's an excellent director with great things ahead in his career.Fascinating throughout and well worth watching.