Frank Capra's The Miracle Woman is an excellent film about faith and an early sound triumph for actress Barbara Stanwyck. After her minister father is fired by his congregation on his deathbed after years of dutiful service, Florence Fallon (Stanwyck) renounces her faith and joins forces with con-man Bob Hornsby (Sam Hardy) to establish a phony nationwide evangelical movement with her as their spokeswoman. But after she falls in love with a blind-man named John Carson (David Manners) who believes her to be the real deal, she realizes that she can't continue her scam any longer. As I mentioned, The Miracle Woman contains one of Stanwyck's best early film performances. Her opening monologue where she chastizes her late father's congregation for their hypocrisy is particularly effective. Her emotions range from calm and collected to wild hysterics without missing a beat. After viewing it, one could easily be forgiven for believing that it was either a later performance by Stanwyck or the work of a seasoned professional. It is also nice to see a role where Manners, well known for his work doing friendly, sympathetic characters, is allowed to stretch his acting muscles a bit. Here he exudes more than just light charm; he is downright charismatic (although the ventriloquist bits quickly overstay their welcome). Frequent Capra collaborator Joseph Walker displays his usual brilliance as cinematographer, demonstrating his skill at effortlessly transitioning between chaotic crowd scenes and intimate moments between two or three characters. His cinematography in the scenes taking place inside Fallon's "church" are particularly striking in their scope and dolly/zoom-lens acrobatics.
7/10
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