The Miracle Woman

So this movie is about preachers swindling people out of money and stuff? That must have been a spicy subject in 1931.

This looks pretty odd! I mean, the lions in the background are back projection, but the bars on the cage don’t look like they’re in the same shot as the actors, either? Oh, no, it’s just the odd way it’s lit…

The premise here is interesting — it’s about a fake preacher/healer, but she’s not totally fake, and then there’s a blind guy, and there’s a meet cute… But it’s not exactly zipping along, either. I mean, it’s not bad or anything, but…

Stanwyck is great, of course.

They pronounce Palestine as /ˈpæləˌstiːn/, weirdly enough.

Hazel Flagg is right again. It’s fun to watch Stanwyck in this, and Capra does some really interesting things here. But the script, while having an interesting concept, just gets lost in the weeds all the time.

…

Anyway!

The Miracle Woman. Frank Capra. 1931. ⚂

Merrily We Live

This is the screwiest screwball comedy ever! I love it.

This really is a marvel. It’s like the writers meticulously went through every single scene and went “can we add more zaniness here? yes we can!”, no matter how small a scene. It’s gag, gag, gag, relentlessly.

It works cumulatively — after a while everything’s a brilliant joke. I haven’t laughed this much at a movie in yonks.

Using those huge goofy dogs in just about every scene works beautifully — they add a sense of chaos to everything.

And it’s truly an ensemble movie — absolutely every character get a bunch of gags. All the actors are great here.

Hey, that’s Willie Best. I saw him in… oh, yeah, The Ghost Breakers.

The movie is absolutely hilarious. And it doesn’t suffer (like so many otherwise perfect comedies) from a serious Dreaded Third Act — it’s funny all the way through. I wonder who wrote this…