Miracles à vendre

The first time I ever saw Florence Rice, that I know of, was in Four Girls in White. I fell in love with her immediately! Don't let one of the other reviews fool you, Florence was a talented hard working actress with a natural appeal, the girl next door type. She also had a comedy streak in her. She and Robert Young create some real "magic" in Miracles for Sale. (pun intended)Tod Browning brings his directorial good sense to the proceedings. Miracles for Sale is a delightful slice of a bygone era.

Sometimes being born privileged is a drawback. Was Florence the victim of petty Hollywood jealousies keeping her from being the huge star that she showed promise of being? Forty seven movies in ten years, OK they weren't all epics but she worked with some pretty heavy hitters. Perhaps in this day of DVD/VHS and our fascination with nostalgia, Florence Rice can be re-born into the STAR she should have been.

Tod Browning's final feature length film is a dandy. It seems someone is killing off New York City's prestidigitators, and one of them, Mike Morgan (Robert Young) wants to know why; plus he may be the next victim. As Red Buttons used to say, "Strange things are happening." Murder victims disappear; murder victims reappear as apparitions. Never fear. Police Inspector Marty Gavigan (Cliff Clark) is hot on the case with his at times able assistant Detective Quinn (William Demarest).

A mysterious blond, Judy Barclay (Florence Rice), dashes from a taxi cab seeking sanctuary in Mike Morgan's abode of tricks and treats. Who is after her? Why is she interested in Mike Morgan? What is her relationship to the other magicians of New York City? The plot thickens as one by one some of the questions are answered, but not all until the very end. Mike Morgan is a topnotch magician who doesn't believe in the hocus-pocus of fake mediums out to scam innocent citizens. Yet so much is cloudy and mysterious he and the Inspector contact spiritualist Madame Rapport (Gloria Holden). Even though rapport with her is lacking, they hope to flush out the killer and uncover the motive behind the crimes.

With Tod Browning's circus background, the magic tricks and other special effects sequences are given an authentic presentation. Given the technological limitations of the day, some of the feats of magic shown are amazing. Another positive note, all the ethereal occurrences are explained through reasoning by Mike Morgan.

Robert Young shines in the lead role. Later, he became typecast twice. First as the perfect father, Jim Anderson, in "Father Knows Best" and then as everybody's perfect family doctor, "Marcus Welby, M.D." Many of the present generation don't realize that he had a long, successful screen career previous to his TV roles. He made many good movies, in particular the noir thrillers "They Won't Believe Me," and "The Second Woman." Florence Rice too turns in a fine performance. She failed to survive the 1930's because critics claimed she was in films as a result of her father's (Grantland Rice) influence. That's a pity since she showed so much promise.

For some reason, mystery movies of the 1930's required a dumb detective, most of whom acted so stupid that they became annoying rather than funny. This time around the supposed nitwit turns out to be the great character actor William Demarest. As always, he really can deliver the laughs.

The prestidigitator Tauro is played by Harold Minjir who usually overacts in his many supporting film appearances. This time, maybe because Tod Browning keeps him in check, he turns in an effective performance.

And, oh, yes, look for Charles Lane the indefatigable as the Fleetwood Apartments desk clerk, still alive at 101 and still available for work.

This movie sounds like so much fun: Robert Young as a magician! Who would have thought it would turn out to be really spooky? If you're a lightweight, you can try watching this one on Halloween; it might be just scary enough so you don't have to go to sleep with the lights on.

Robert Young stars as a former magician who now sells "miracles" to other magicians for their acts. His clients include Henry Hull, Gloria Holden, Lee Bowman, and Astrid Allwyn. When a troubled young girl, Florence Rice, comes to him and asks if he'll help prove her sister isn't as psychic as she thinks, he's only too happy to oblige. But they both get sucked into a big mystery with drastic consequences...

This movie's really fun, and while it's not as grand-scale as the epics that came out of 1939, if you're a Robert Young fan and want to see a spooky, magical movie, this is a great one to pick.

I am no scholar of Tod Browning. Therefore, it's not clear to me why his career seems to have ended so early and with this movie. It's a mystery, with a bit of comedy and quite a bit of romance.

Robert Young is excellent in the lead role, and he is not an actor I ever liked much. The supporting cast is superb. The spooky looking Gloria Holden is especially effective, though listed way down in the credits.

This man directed Dracula, a very famous movie, and Freaks, a unique and endlessly fascinating movie. Why did his career end within the same decade as those two? This is, despite its name leads, a programmer. The late 1930s and the 1940s were filled with hybrids like this. Not much of a swan song, I'd say.

The Thirties were racing towards their close, accompanied by a curious speeded-up style of film dialogue, as though the writers were being paid by the word. These flat, metallic exchanges are suitable enough for wisecracks, but they kill any sincerity in lines that are meant to carry emotional depth. So for example, the film opens on Robert Young (later to be your favourite TV doctor Marcus Welby) putting the case for exposing fake mediums in order to protect genuine seekers after psychic truth. He sounds like more like an auctioneer at a meat-market.

This was the last film to be directed by Tod Browning, who exploits his own early experience in the circus by replicating all manner of smoke-and-mirror spectaculars that can hold the attention of audiences who may have been left somewhat behind by the intricacies of the plot. But a conference of magicians is always going to make a good start to a murder story.

It was Browning who had also directed the first Dracula talkie, and he brings in touches of it here, notably in the casting of Gloria Holden, previously of Dracula's Daughter, whose disdainful manner was believed to reflect her genuine boredom at appearing in movies she felt were beneath her. But her disdain manages to suggest mystery, and we are kept wondering whether this glamorous medium will be unmasked before the end. Glamour of a more conventional kind is provided by Florence Rice as the vulnerable blonde at the mercy of sinister dark forces. They say there were also some dark forces in the studio, claiming that it was only her well-connected father who got her the roles, apparently blighting her career.

One joke that certainly wouldn't be allowed today - a haunted skull moving its jaw up and down ("Obviously a woman!"). And a good disciplined performance by a fortyish William Demarest as the regulation sceptical cop.