The Miracle Man was a strange assignment for McLeod, who made it between two Marx Brothers pictures. It’s fun to watch Sidney get the Stanwyck treatment, smoking in the bath, showing tit between tub and negligee — only to be converted by a faith healer. Some might find the “inspirational” parts nauseating, but they’re played sincerely, and the film is a fascinating companion piece to Capra’s The Miracle Woman, or Wyler’s great take on small-town scams, The Shakedown. This, along with Turn to the Right, Frank Tuttle’s Only the Brave (a weird, zany Civil War film, starring Gary Cooper), seemed to figure among most attendees’ favorites. Some, however, preferred Paid to Love, a 1927 Fox film in which Howard Hawks tried a few fancy moves under the influence of Murnau — if fancy is the word for villainous William Powell peeling a banana while leering at a girl; or putting his hand in a spittoon, 32 years before Dean Martin in Rio Bravo.
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