Pocketful of Miracles

Frank Capra's final feature film is a remake of his earlier movie Lady for a Day, one of my favorite movies from the '30s. The story is about an elderly street peddler named Apple Annie who is turned into a society matron by a gangster named Dave the Dude. The original movie starred May Robson and Warren William, both largely forgotten today except among classic film fans. This one has more well-known stars, Bette Davis and Glenn Ford, but isn't as good. It just isn't as much fun and doesn't have the same heartwarming quality the original did. Davis and Ford are okay but represent a change in the times I'd say. Davis' Annie is ghoulish and Ford's Dave is hard to like. The charm of the previous film, made in a much different era for filmmaking, is gone. Also the original movie was made during the period it was set in, which gave it a feeling of authenticity this one doesn't have. On the plus side, Peter Falk and Hope Lange are good in supporting parts, Ann-Margret is fine in her screen debut, and reliable vet Thomas Mitchell enjoyable as ever in his final film. Lots of old familiar faces like Sheldon Leonard, Edward Everett Horton, Barton MacLane, and Jerome Cowan is another plus. It's overlong and not among Capra's best but certainly something fans will want to see. I recommend seeking out the 1933 classic first, though.

The source for this movie is a Damon Runyon short story, "Madame La Gimp." It was first made into a movie in 1933, entitled "Lady for a Day." Frank Capra directed that film, which received four Academy Award nominations for the then second-tier Hollywood studio, Columbia. Here, Capra produced and directed the remake with an independent company set up for that purpose. "Pocketful of Miracles" received three Oscar nominations. This movie has a lot of history behind it – Capra's desire to remake it, different scripts and studio interests, different casting, conflicts between stars, etc. Some of the reviews I've read seem to have been influenced more by that history than by the product itself. I've read much of the background. I've watched and enjoyed very much the original "Lady for a Day." I was in the Army when this film came out, and we didn't get to see movies until long after they came out. So, it was some years later before I first saw "Pocketful of Miracles" on TV. I now have it on DVD in my film collection. I think I can see why Capra wanted to remake the movie – and in its original setting and time, the 1930s. "Lady for a Day," was a very good film. But Capra was only director – he didn't have control over the script or some of the casting. In "Pocketful of Miracles," Capra was in charge from the beginning. Glenn Ford was his partner in producing the film and had the male lead. But it was Capra's baby from the start. It's too bad that there were personality conflicts between some of the actors, and that Capra had to endure the infighting. But, it's as much an accolade to Hollywood and the acting profession that we viewers don't see any of that in the finished product. Instead, what we see is a delightful, whimsical, fairy-tale of a story. Capra has changed the tone and mood of the original film so much that we see here a completely different story of an almost identical plot. Mary Robson was wonderful as the first Apple Annie. She seemed to be a pathetic character, a product of misfortune and the times. Bette Davis, on the other hand, while a product of the times seems to relish her position in society. She puts a little more life into the character – very appropriate for this second film version. Warren William is good as Dave the Dude, but we don't know what the big deal is that distracts him once in a while. And, he and his gang are wont to use the artillery from time to time. Very believable for the times, I think. Glenn Ford's Dave the Dude is much more a man of pride who's gang doesn't wield guns so much as muscle. He has connections, and Ford gives a bravado to the character that fits beautifully into the comedic role. Anyway, the entire cast is superb in this film. And it's a cast of many notable actors. This is an entertaining film all around, and one the whole family should enjoy.

This was Capra's last film. Making it, as I remember, wrecked his health, giving him excruciating migraines for the rest of his life. Being producer and director might have been the reason! The director makes an effort to return to older material, remaking an earlier picture. I can't imagine why. Runyon by the 60s seemed horribly dated and unauthentic. This picture doesn't help much. It seems as studio-bound as 1954's "Guys and Dolls", also based on Runyon material, and it totally misses the flavor of "period" New York. It's almost as if the director wanted to make a 30s picture again, 30 years later. It uses classic 30s character actors, from Capra's films and others, at the end of their careers, which is a nice touch, as it's good to see them. But again, why? Glenn Ford seems totally miscast, but again, as I've said on IMDb before, actors should NEVER choose their own material (he was a producer of this picture) and this is no exception. He insisted on casting his girlfriend, too, and Hope Lange was just too sophisticated for the role of a "moll", though she tries very hard! The other character actors are wonderful, with each having a "turn" to show their best. This is perhaps Bette Davis' best work of her later career: no tricks, no mugging, no posing, no overacting, just straightforward, honest playing, digging into the character and making it work. What a talent. Watching her is the main reason for seeing this picture. But that just might be reason enough!

This movie is long, talky and winded, but there are some wonderful performances. And, the last scene with Bette Davis (can't say more for fear of divulging too much) is a marvel. Deeply moving and Davis is luminous. All of the talk, talk, talk is worth the look on Davis' face at the end of the film. Enjoy it, warts and all.

The only redeeming value in this film is Glenn Ford, Peter Falk, and the rest of their gangster goodfellas. They were the best part of this film. I really didn't like this film. I didn't find this film heartwarming at all. Why was everyone so willing to help Apple Annie? This question was never answered for me. The gruffness of Apple Annie comes across well. Her physical appearance (before the makeover) is just awful? Did they have to make her look quite so bad? I didn't see any genuine sweetness in her at all, except towards her daughter, Louise. Just because she said "God bless you" and sometimes exempted her friends from paying what amounts to shakedown money? In the final scene, Apple Annie says to her street friends, "I'm going to have to ask you for an extra $1 a month." After they went above and beyond to help Annie out of her predicament?! I fail to see any redeeming quality in Ms. Davis' portrayal of Apple Annie or in this film. It leaves me cold.

Glenn Ford and the late Hope Lange in a comedy with Bette Davis taking a supporting role. Interesting enough, this crowd pleaser works quite well. Dave The Dude (Ford) is a gangster on the verge of making a big deal. Dave is superstitious. He always must get an apple from that vagrant-looking Davis. Davis, as Apple Annie, was phenomenal in this film. She acts just like an old broken down bag-lady. She does it with a finesse. (Is it really possible to have a refined bag-lady, you bet it is.) Anyway, it appears that Davis has a daughter living abroad all these years. Ann-Margret is she and the latter thinks that her mother is high society. Trouble now is that Ann is getting engaged to a count and they're coming to New York to look mom over. Dave and his girlfriend, Lange, fix up Davis to make her look like a dowager. They even provide a husband for her-Thomas Mitchell! As if this isn't funny enough, we have Peter Falk, in a truly worthy Oscar nominated supporting performance, as Dave's sidekick who can't fathom what is going on. Edward Everett Horton is the butler who can't take bad endings. Fortunately, for him, the film has anything but that kind of ending. It's up-beat down to the last laugh. When "the kids" sail away, Apple Annie resorts to her old ways by even announcing that her prices have gone up to her faithful friends. A romp and memorable film.

For a director who made some of the most memorable, high-quality films between 1933 and 1941 and has become legendary for his priceless, classic IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES is a little too unfocused and cute at times to merit being a great film. While his earlier version, LADY FOR A DAY, was more compact, this one runs 40 minutes too long, extends scenes that could have trimmed the fat off the plotting and still have had the film look great, and seems too fairy-tale even for 1961 when it was released. Somehow what worked so well in the 30s fails to work here, and while the acting couldn't be better from many of the actors involved, the storyboarding itself is sub-par. Bette Davis shines as Apple Annie, though, and makes this escapist film worth watching even when its subject matter has not aged well and seems like a caricature of its earlier version.

Apple Annie (Bete Davis) is an alcoholic beggar who sells apples and controls the beggary in Broadway area. Dave the Dude Conway (Glenn Ford) is a prominent gangster, who believes that Annie's apples are magic and brings `good luck' to him. Elizabeth 'Queenie' Martin (Hope Lange) is his lover, and she wants to get married with him and move to Maryland, to have children. One day, Annie receives a letter from her daughter Louise (Ann Margret, making her debut on the screens), who lives in Spain. She informs that she is going to get married with the son of a Count, and her future father-in-law is coming to New York with them to visit her. Annie becomes desperate and Dude decides to help her, pretending she is from the high-society of New York. This is another wonderful Frank Capra's magic movie. Indeed, it is a fairy tale. The cast, direction and screenplay are delightful and although being talkative and long, it is such a good film that the viewer does not feel the time passing. Bete Davis has another outstanding performance, as usual, very well supported by the magnificent cast. Highly recommended as a family entertainment. My vote is nine. Title (Brazil): `Dama Por Um Dia' (`Lady For a Day')

Apple Annie (Bette Davis) makes her living as a gin-sauced, basket-carrying, apple-selling NYC street woman. This motion picture is in color which makes Davis's famous facial expressions, especially her eyes, all the more effective. The people Apple Annie hangs out with are other street vendors who are social misfits of various sorts; but, they have one thing in common: poverty. Apple Annie is well connected with a mobster known as The Dude. Fortunately, he's superstitious. The tough mobster (Glen Ford) believes Apple Annie's apples bring him daily good luck because she says, "God Bless You," to everyone who buys from her. All along Apple Annie's been writing her daughter on stationary from an upper-crusty city apartment complex, in order to pretend that she's a well-to-do lady. When her daughter, Louise (Ann Margaret, in her film debut) writes that she's coming to the city with her potential fiancé', whose father is a Spanish count, Apple Annie's pretense is not only about to be exposed but it could ruin her only child's chance for marrying well enough so that she'll never live in poverty as her mother has. The rest of the story is fabulous: humorous, ingenious, well-casted, scripted and acted. It's anything but a typical mob story. For me, the priceless scenes are between the veteran actor Bette Davis and upstart Ann Margaret. Imagine being able to claim that in your first film you starred as Bette Davis's daughter? Margaret gives a fine first film performance face-to-face with the Queen of the Screen. Peter Faulk does his mobster version of "Columbo," in top form. Davis, in Technicolor, delivers one of the most realistic, heart-felt, truly dramatic metamorphosis characters I've seen.

source: Pocketful of Miracles