The Miracle Man

1932's "The Miracle Man," a remake of the lost 1919 silent that made a star of Lon Chaney, should be better remembered than it is. John Wray admirably fills the role of Chaney's phony cripple 'The Frog,' and Boris Karloff, still a supporting player in the brief six month period after "Frankenstein," adds to its position as a pre-code Hollywood curio (Boris would never return to Paramount, which did very few horror films). Chester Morris, Ned Sparks, and Sylvia Sidney round out the quartet of confidence tricksters who get more than they bargained for when they take on 'The Patriarch' (Hobart Bosworth), alias 'The Miracle Man.' John Wray was enjoying one of his most prominent seasons, with memorable turns in both "Doctor X" and "The Death Kiss." As for Karloff, he only features in the opening reel, playing Chinatown tavern owner Nikko, slight Oriental accent not unlike his Chinese general in 1937's "West of Shanghai," whose lecherous designs on Sylvia Sidney are not reciprocated. Rather than accept his usual cut from Morris, he chooses to spy on the undressing girl through a convenient keyhole, earning him a well deserved fall from grace. Following "Business and Pleasure" and "Night World," Karloff's star status at Universal would be solidified by "The Old Dark House," with genre vehicles thereafter prepared especially for him.

The Miracle Man is a hokey, overdone Paramount remake of a 1919 hit Starring Lon Chaney that is somehow oddly compelling. It is about a gang of crooks who think they have stumbled onto the mother lode of con games in the persona of a faith healer who is oblivious to their scheme. The movie picks up steam as it goes along and becomes absorbing and hypnotic,and the gang members outdo themselves in the acting department.

I have not seen the original 1919 version of this film but John Wray, who plays the deformed 'Frog',gives what has to be the performance of his career. He was mostly a character actor and bit player but here generates what ought to have been at least a Supporting Actor award nomination (there were no supporting awards until 1936). And deadpan comic Ned Sparks? here he plays it straight and is very convincing - I can't recall him in a more prominent role. Usually he could be seen in snatches of one picture or another. Sylvia Sidney carries the load in the acting department with a performance that is both sympathetic and heartfelt. Hobart Bosworth plays the Patriarch and has little to do but to gaze heavenward and look enrapt.

I would imagine this film is not for all tastes but if you have a chance it is well worth your while even if you are not religious. I saw this film at a film festival in Rome, N.Y. in 35MM, in a print restored by the UCLA Film Dept. It reinforces my opinion that the only way to see most films is in this format, in which the figures are bigger than life. That is the way movies were meant to be seen.

This film is a great classic and a play by George M. Cohan(creator of "Yankee Doodle Dandy") Three big city gangsters led by John Madison (Chester Morris)(Played Boston Blackie in the 1940's) has his headquarters in a Chinese tavern owned by Nikko(Boris Karloff) and he receives a percentage. The other members of the gang are The Frog(John Wray),a fake cripple, and Helen Smith(Sylvia Sidney(Fantasy Island '98 TV Series), Madison's girl. Nikko tries to win the heart and affection of Helen, Madison's girl and almost gets killed. The gangsters perform fake Miracle's and causes many problems. The film was a remake of a 1919 silent film. It is very well produced. There is a scene where real handicapped people are really cured which turns this film into a great old time classic, with Karloff playing a different role than the Frankenstein Monster in 1931.

"The Miracle Man" is a great film....up until the very disappointing and hard to believe ending. It's a real shame, as it was quite compelling up until then.

When the story begins, you see that John 'Doc' Madison (Chester Morris) is the leader of a gang of grifters who steal folks blind. However, after he gets in a fight with Nikko (Boris Karloff), he nearly kills him...and takes it on the lam. He eventually finds himself in a strange small town. Strange because there is no doctor and folks go to a local faith healer, 'The Patriarch', for healing. John gets the idea to exploit this and use it to make a big killing...so he contacts the gang and has them meet him there. However, over time, several gang members come to believe in the power of The Patriarch...and John is having a hard time getting this big score. What's next? Well....it's pretty disappointing!

There are two things I didn't like about the film. The first was minor...Karloff's accent seemed weird. The second one, however, was HUGE....after such a wonderful setup, the ending is a real wimp out...and left me very disappointed. It's a shame, as up until then it was great!

Four con artists in San Francisco: John Wray, who can twist himself into a pretzel, and wrack the heart of alms givers; Ned Sparks, who can pick any pocket, lift any pocket watch; Sylvia Sidney, who can weep people into giving her the fare to get home; and Chester Morris, who runs the operations, including paying off Boris Karloff, until he catches Karloff peeking through Miss Sidney's keyhole, and throws him down three flights. So he has to get out of town fast.

He winds up in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, where they don't even have a doctor. Hobart Bosworth is a faith healer who can cure anything. So Morris figures out a new swindle. He puts Miss Sidney in Bosworth's home as his newly-found great-niece; he sets Sparks to tout the miracle healer far and wide; he sets Wray to crawl to Bosworth so his 'recovery' can be public. Then he'll collect money from the suckers to build a shrine, and the four of them can skip with the money. Except when Bosworth performs his 'miracle' on Wray, he also gets crippled Robert Coogan to throw away his crutches and run, and wheelchair-bound Virginia Bruce to stand up and walk.

This is as close as we can get to seeing the 1919 version, which made a star of Lon Chaney and arguably Betty Compson too. It's easy to see how, with John Wray's performance in Chaney's role as a man able to fix himself into a contorted shape. It didn't make Wray a star, but he did work steadily through his death as a character actor in a huge variety of roles.

The show also plays expertly with Ned Sparks, starting with his urban cynic, who ends up humbled and content in his humility. The other major roles are well cast, with Hobart Bosworth at his hoariest, Chester Morris at his pre-code nastiest, and giving Sylvia Sidney, Paramount's low-class weeper, a chance to show her dazzling smile at the end.

That's because it's a comedy, despite its religious basis; a comedy is, after all, a story where the situation at the end is better than at the beginning. We have a tendency to confuse comedy and farce, because so many farces are comedies. Even if you are not actuated by belief in god, you can recognize redemption, and a decision to live a better life as a good thing. It's easy, like St. Dismas, to repent on the cross: Heaven guaranteed and no chance of backsliding! How much more difficult and admirable it is to know that you will live years, decades, and strive to do better in the world, no matter what the motivation!