The Man Who Could Work Miracles

This is a nice little film that I'd never heard about but should have, as it's a nice little film. In many ways it's a lot like the "Twilight Zone" episode with Burgess Meredith where aliens give him extraordinary strength as an experiment. Here, however, angelic beings are talking in the heavens and one of them decides to pick a random person on Earth and give them practically limitless power--to see what effect this would have on the person and planet.

Ordinary Roland Young (sporting a toupee) is the guy chosen for this gift. However, unlike what you'd expect, he is slow to exploit this power and only does mostly simple tricks with it at the beginning. However, when it comes to making bigger changes in his life and to the planet, he's hesitant and seeks out advice from respected members of the community on what to do with his powers. One, a vicar, wants Young to do good with the power--but what, exactly, should this be and what are the repercussion? Another, played wonderfully by Ralph Richardson, is a pompous caricature of an English "gentleman" and wants Young to use his powers to kick butt! Others have various ideas and ultimately Young gets in well over his head.

Overall, the film is quite funny (particular in Richardson's scenes) as well as thought-provoking--an interesting combination. It makes you wonder what you might do if given god-like powers. An interesting portrait of human nature and our obvious foibles.

H.G. Wells' lighthearted fantasy about an unassuming draperies assistant granted the ability to make his every dream come true might be the best film never made by Frank Capra. Normally a very sober thinker, Wells found the perfect balance between philosophy and whimsy for this original screenplay, in which a trio of cosmic gods conduct an experiment to see how the selfish inhabitants of this trifling world might cope with the possibility of total wish fulfillment. Astounded by his unexpected gift (which he believes to be a simple matter of will power), the meek and mild Mr. George McWirter Fotheringay soon finds himself besieged by friends and strangers offering opinions, advice, and partnership offers in lucrative business ventures. Should he use his miracle making for strictly personal gain, or for the benefit of all mankind? There are, of course, unexpected pitfalls to even the best intentions, but the consequences, while hardly optimistic, are never less than entertaining.

This is undoubtedly the best film adaptation by H.G. Wells of his own work, a wry fable free of the leaden polemics that so marred "Things To Come".

Roland Young -- who played the title character to mischievous ghosts Cary Grant and Constance Bennett in the 1937 comedy "Topper" -- is outstanding as George Fotheringay, a mousy store clerk who must come to grips with the sudden gift of almost unlimited power. He can literally do anything -- except change the human heart, as he finds when he commands his beautiful coworker Ada to fall madly in love with him, and she merely laughs in his face. (Incidentally, "George" is Wells' middle name, and Roland Young bears more than a little resemblance to a younger H.G.)

Mischa Spoliansky's score is by turns droll and light-hearted, complementing the story perfectly, as George struggles to make sense of his new-found abilities.

He learns the danger of an unguarded word, when he tells an officious constable who wants to run him in for disturbing the peace to "go to blazes", leading to a hilarious bit in which the constable, finding himself instantaneously transported to the nether regions of brimstone and hellfire, tries to keep calm and take notes about the incident while his notepad smolders. Fortunately, George isn't the vindictive type. As soon as he realizes what he's done, he rescues Constable Plod from the Inferno. (Although, just to be on the safe side and give him some time to cool off, George also teleports him to San Francisco.)

Since he makes no secret of his miracle-working, George is bombarded with advice from his coworkers and various worthies on how he should use his powers. His boss wants to sign him to an exclusive contract, establishing a chain of "miracle" stores featuring instantaneous delivery, with free healing clinics offered on Tuesdays and Fridays to allay George's discomfort with exploiting his talent solely for monetary gain.

Mr. Maydig -- a Baptist minister and amateur philosopher played to prim perfection by gaunt character actor Ernest Thesiger -- advises George to bring the Millennium, to end war and disease and poverty. George cooperates with Maydig to the extent of fulfilling a Biblical prophecy, converting the prized antique cutlery collection belonging to a local representative of the gentry (Sir Ralph Richardson) into what his butler describes with a visible shudder as "agricultural implements".

Even worse, at Maydig's insistence George adds injury to insult by turning all of Colonel Winstanley's fine whiskey into non-alcoholic "temperance water". The butler (George Zucco) gets another of the best lines in the movie. Accused of having done something to the Colonel's tipple, he's the picture of wounded innocence as he responds: "Sir! I'd as soon poison a baby as tamper with good whiskey!"

Next morning, after meeting George and seeing further proof of his unlimited power, the Colonel naturally concludes this mild-seeming clerk is a dire threat to the established order. Taking matters into his own hands, Winstanley almost succeeds in assassinating George, triggering the climactic sequence in which George declares himself invulnerable and immortal and decides he will remake the world to his own plan, starting now.

What happens next is too weird and wonderful for me to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the film, except to observe that it's not the typical "absolute power corrupts absolutely" denouement that modern viewers have come to expect. "The Man Who Could Work Miracles" is a wise, funny and humane comment on the human psyche, a film which can be enjoyed many times and still seem fresh with each viewing.

The Man Who Could Work Miracles has its start in the heavens where some Greek God like creatures are roaming among the stars, one of them played by an as yet unknown George Sanders. Apparently H.G. Wells's idea of a Deity was closer to the Greeks and Romans than Christianity. In any event these three creatures discuss the happenings on planet earth where a group of puny creatures dominate, but who might start getting into their realm in the heavens in a few generations.

Let's see what they can do if one of them is granted our powers, creation with a mere thought. And with a random selection of a celestial finger it lands on meek little Roland Young as he's entering his local pub.

It takes time for Young to grasp the significance of his gift and this is Wells's most telling comment on the film, the sheer pettiness of the average man. From parlor tricks to trying to improve his love life, Young just can't seem to get it into his head what he can do.

Of course they're others who do think about these things more deeply than young. But I believe what H.G. Wells was trying to say is that even those who see a bigger picture than Young and attempt to use him only see it from a narrow perspective. The former colonel Ralph Richardson thinks of conquest, Edward Chapman thinks in terms of business and commerce, Ernest Thesiger is a dreamy Utopian with a theological background. Even Young sees the flaws in each of their versions of Utopia.

H.G. Wells in his other film that came out around the same time provided the answer by his lights. It was the scientists who should establish the benevolent despotism of the age, they alone have the wisdom to rule all of us. Wells said as much in Things To Come, though I never saw any evidence in the film and in real life that scientists are any better qualified than anyone else. Still that was his view.

The subject of humans being given the Godlike power of creation has been done many times. In a more serious version it was the subject of a classic Star Trek episode with Gary Lockwood being given just that power and in a half hour Twilight Zone episode, a hapless Burgess Meredith was a subject of a similar experiment. Meredith made Young's character look hip and appealing.

Though some might argue that Cosmo Topper was his career screen role, I would hold out that Everyman George William Fotheringay, selected by the Gods to be The Man Who Could Work Miracles is Roland Young's best part. He's such a hapless slob that each and every one of us can identify with. You might think you would know what to do given his power, but when you examine yourself a bit further......................

This picture had a story by H.G. Wells, good cast members and outstanding special effects for the 1930's. What happened? something got lost between the book and the screen. I didn't read the book but it's hard to believe H.G. Wells could write a book so uneven in it's treatment of a man suddenly endowed with a gift for miracles. At first he is timid and reluctant to do anything noteworthy, then by the end he goes completely overboard in the opposite direction - and that is an understatement.

But then there are the special effects, which are eye-popping for this time period. Did you think the effects were remarkable in "King Kong"? This picture makes those look simple by comparison, and that's the real reason for my rating. The cast was fine and it's hard to quarrel with Roland Young in any movie he's in, but overall the story was a disappointment. You can 'suspend your disbelief' to a point - to approximately a half-hour from the end.