La Femme aux miracles

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.

A preacher is tired of not getting through to his parishioners, and they are tired of him. When he is asked to leave and tries to make his final sermon, he falls ill and is unable to. Daughter Barbara Stanwyck gets behind the pulpit and tells the church they never appreciated her father and tells them off. An out-of-towner, who's a chiseler of some kind and who was passing through, was in the church and heard her. He persuades her to preach. ('Cause she has the talent for it, he says. And, that'll show these people.)

She becomes a faith healer, spouting the words and claiming to heal people, of whom this guy pays to act sick and volunteer to "be cured." Enter David Manners, who really is blind and who stands up out of pure devotion to God and the Word. He doesn't get cured but only gets closer to Babs.

But that's not what's center stage, as director Frank Capra throws at us a very personal film about faith and our relationship with God. Stanwyck tires of the scam and the plot plays out like something out of today's films, very dramatically and with a Judgment Day touch to it.

I was very impressed with everything about this movie, with Stanwyck as usual, with Manners who is probably given his best movie role here, and with the whole presentation and treatment of the subject matter which doesn't talk down to the viewer and take lightly of the situations. The viewer is immersed in her world completely.

Kudos to Frank Capra, who probably made his most adult film here, with the exception of The Bitter Tea of General Yen, also with Stanwyck. Miss this and you miss Capra and Stanwyck at their best.

Barbara Stanwyck is "The Miracle Woman" in this 1931 film directed by Frank Capra and also starring David Manners.

Stanwyck plays Florence Fallon, the daughter of a religious leader who becomes angry and bitter toward her father's congregation when he is ousted and later dies. She is approached by a promoter who launches her on a preaching career with an audience loaded with shills, while he collects money for an alleged tabernacle and makes payoffs.

Meanwhile, a blind composer (David Manners) is saved from suicide by one of Sister Fallon's radio broadcasts and becomes devoted to her. The two fall in love, and Florence, who has never been happy being a fraud from the beginning, becomes less and less enchanted with the business she's in.

The character of Florence Fallon was inspired, as was Sharon Falconer in Elmer Gantry, by the real-life miracle woman, Aimee Semple McPherson, a popular evangelist. She founded the Foursquare Church, still in existence today, and had hundreds and hundreds of healings credited to her. Barbara Stanwyck, about 24 years old here, gives a passionate performance as a conflicted woman, and handsome David Manners does a nice job as her blind beau.

Very absorbing early Capra, quite different from what he would do in the future. In fact, if you're not a Capra fan, you might like this film of his best of all.

Miracle Woman, The (1931)

*** (out of 4)

Frank Capra's controversial film was a box office dud back in the day and was slightly telling the story of the controversial evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. In the film, Barbara Stanwyck plays a woman who's faith in God turns after her father, a preacher, is thrown out of his church by a bunch of hypocrites. Not knowing where to turn after her fathers death, the woman takes on a manager and the two begin to cheat churchgoers with fake heelings. Everything, including the money, is going strong until the young woman meets a blind man (David Manners) and the two fall in love. This is a rather strange film and it's easy to see why it would bomb back in the day but today is speaks quite strongly about faith and religion. The opening sequence with Stanwyck screaming at those who threw her father out are very strong and features Stanwyck at the best I've seen her. I'm not a fan of the actress but she really blew my mind here with her very strong and heartfelt performance. Manner is equally wonderful in his role as the blind man and he does a very good job at playing blind. Capra's direction is very strong throughout, especially the ending.

Stanwyck's performance in this early Capra film is underplayed, believable and quite charming. One can see how, from even this early stage, she was a performer of unique talents, perfectly suited for the new technology of sound. Her acting style is timeless, quite different from the histrionic style of the early talkies. Capra and Stanwyck took a story which could have been a ludicrously overplayed melodrama of the early 30's, and turned it into something quite captivating. Clever bits of exposition and some snappy dialogue round out this entertaining early entry in the Capra canon.