Miracle in the Rain

I was just a young girl when I saw this movie for the first time. It was so moving and so sad that I never forgot it. The acting may seem alittle corny in this day and age but the story is wonderful, and the cast was excellent. I lost count how many times I've watched it over the years, I finally own a copy of it although its on VHS it's nice to know I can watch it again whenever I want. Would be nice if it was released on DVD. This is also one of my favorite Van Johnson movies. If I could compare it to a modern day movie that would be "Message in a Bottle" with Kevin Costner. Although it didn't have a miraculous ending it was a story of finding love and losing it so suddenly. If you like tear-jerkers both of these movies would fit the bill.

Miracle In The Rain is a good, but very strange film. You first start watching it and you think you're seeing a nice romantic film with a wartime setting. But it takes a very unexpected turn into the supernatural and in the end a miracle of sorts is actually performed. And right on the steps of New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Jane Wyman is a plain jane sort of girl whose life consists of going to work and then getting home to tend to her ailing mother Josephine Hutchinson. Years ago the man of the household, William Gargan, walked out on the family and left Hutchinson the cynical and sickly soul that she is. So when Jane meets soldier Van Johnson during wartime he proves almost too good to be true.

Their love is intense in the short time they have before Johnson ships out. After that the film turns, first tragic and then mystical.

Other members of the cast who aid and abet Johnson and Wyman are people like Fred Clark as Jane's boss at work, a rebound man from way back, Peggie Castle who is Clark's mistress on the job, Alan King and Barbara Nichols a soldier and his new bride who Johnson and Wyman meet in Central Park and making their big screen debuts are Eileen Heckart as Wyman's best friend from work and Arte Johnson who plays an office boy where the girls work. No fool he.

Warner Brothers shot this film in New York which is why Heckart and Johnson who were based in New York got to work in this. It would have been nice if we had some color, but the black and white cinematography was nice. No doubt that Francis Cardinal Spellman himself must have had script approval of the whole project in order to allow scenes inside St. Patrick's to be done.

Though dated somewhat Miracle In The Rain is still a fine piece of entertainment and its message about true love never dying is one for all generations.

It's been a long time since I've watched a movie and shed tears but this movie clinched it! What a beautiful film - it certainly plays with your emotions in such a poignant way. Jane Wyman's brilliant, grief-stricken performance makes your heart simply melt with sorrow and watching Johnson's impeccable performance made me forget that I have never been a Van Johnson fan; credit to him for a splendid, utterly emotive portrayal of the character he played in this film. These two leads and the supporting cast played their roles to perfection and I was so consumed that I failed to remember that they were actually acting.

The storyline of this film had me absorbed from the beginning through to its exquisite ending; it left me covered in goose bumps and literally I felt numb as the chills ran through me! Most significantly though, this film profoundly made me feel how important and precious my loved ones are to me as it helped nudge my dormant realisation that the uncertainty of life always surrounds us....we must not take anyone for granted and we must not take life and "faith" for granted.

As you have noticed I did not relate the plot of this movie as other reviewers have more or less done so. All I can say is that you should do yourself a favour and view this film - this is one film you need to watch at least once in your lifetime (and feel those chills and goose bumps!)....SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL.

Miracle in the Rain has just been screened here in the UK and I am so pleased that I recorded it as I intend to keep it along with my growing collection of classic movies from the forties and fifties and watch it again and again.

The performances of Jane Wyman and Van Johnson were very moving and the ending was magical and moved me to tears!

Reminiscent of the wonderful "The Clock" (see reviews), this wartime romance was made eleven years after the was over, somewhat oddly to me. But, based upon the ending, there was absolutely no way it could have been made during the war. The reasons should be obvious.

Van Johnson is his usual charming self and Wyman rather diffident at first. But they fall deeply in love, and spend much time on their plans for the future when he returns from overseas - and how poignant that turned out to be.

It is no spoiler to say that Wyman's character is completely distraught towards the end of the movie, and the "miracle", on the steps of St Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, does give her some hope. But it remains the saddest movie I had seen since "Waterloo Bridge" (see reviews). But such was life after a World War and hundreds of thousands of dead Americans.

Don't forget this was written (and very well) by the famous journalist, writer, and screenwriter, Ben Hecht, who first gave us "The Front Page".

If you don't mind using your hankie, watch "Miracle in the Rain". It's a wonderful movie.