DipitySkillful
an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.
Janae Milner
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
froberts73
One critic said he is not a Frank Capra fan. He probably dislikes July 4, Christmas and Easter. This may not be a typical Capra offering but one thing it has in common with his other works is - quality.From top to bottom,"The Miracle Woman" is thoroughly engrossing. And, it is fascinating to realize that this oldie is up-to-date - phony evangelists with plants in the audience, working their 'fans' into a frenzy, getting as rich as Midas, etc., etc. Unfortunately, some things never change.One thing unchanged over the years is Stanwyck. Whether doing comedy or involved in drama she puts most other actresses of yesterday and today in the shade.Her every speech, movement, expression is always right on the mark,and she is at her best as a manipulated evangelist who manipulates others.She melts when she meets a blind aviator, a role nicely played by David Manners, but Sam Hardy is the scene stealer as the con man who sets her up for the kill. Chomping his cigar and scowling at the world he is, as was meant to be, pretty damned hateful.Also, kudos to character actress Beryl Mercer as Manners' landlady/friend.The opening scene, wherein Stanwyck gives the parishioners hell - literally - sets the pace with vigor, a pace that never lets up."The Miracle Woman" is a must-see for both content, performances, and direction.
JLRMovieReviews
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.
JoeytheBrit
A young – and gorgeous – Barbara Stanwyck steals the film as a fire-and-brimstone evangelist whose initial cynicism at the hypocrisy of the churchgoers who discarded her elderly preacher father for a newer model is eroded by the love of a blind man (David Manners). The story is one that couldn't have been told in the manner it is a couple of years later when the code was enforced, which is partly why the film is so fascinating: so few pre-code films are broadcast on TV these days – the vast majority of films shown on TV today are no more than 20 years old – that they are intriguing to watch to discover why the censors got so worked up about them.The film is a bit talky in parts, especially in the scenes shared by Manners and Stanwyck, but the subject matter is strong enough to overcome these moments. Capra's work is assured and the script is good. While the film may not appeal to a modern audience, it stands as a fine example of superior studio product from Hollywood's golden age.
ccthemovieman-1
This was another example of why the Hays Code was put in as anti-religious movies were on the increase, along with everything else you see and hear in films today. Here we see a minister and followers (both mainstream and charismatic) made to look stupid and corrupt. Over 70 years later, Hollywood still thinks that's the only kind worth showing on screen. (Do you see good ones, like Billy Graham, ever on film?)Supposedly, this story was based on a real-life female preacher named Aimee Semple McPherson. In the film, we first see a man who dies while writing his last sermon. He had been booted out of his church because he was too old and they wanted a younger man. The daughter (Semple, played by Barbara Stanwyck) goes up to the pulpit, starts to read the partial sermon, then tells what happened to her father and tells off the congregation, calling them all kinds of names. That part, frankly, was very dramatic and interesting to watch.But then the film starts to get carried away with its agenda of a fake evangelist. A huckster, who happened by when Florence "Faith" Falon (Stanwyck), talks the bitter woman into getting back at people by using her biblical knowledge to be an evangelist, earn a lot of money and bilk the public with fake healing and the like. She does just that.She gives sermons at her "Faith Temple" that are so New Age and unlike anything you would really hear - whether she was faking it or not - that it's an insult for anyone who knows what sermons sound like. They also make the people in the audience so corny and so unlike anyone that would attend a service that it, too, is ludicrous.Only non-church goers would believe the stuff in this movie.Note: before the film began, a disclaimer was put on screen with a quote from the book of Matthew warning people to beware of "false prophets." Well, I agree, false prophets have always been with all and always will be, but I also warn people to be aware of false propaganda they see in movies! Like those false teachers, don't believe everything you see on screen.
