Pocketful of Miracles
| Pocketful of Miracles | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Frank Capra |
| Screenplay by |
|
| Based on | |
| Produced by | Frank Capra |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Robert J. Bronner |
| Edited by | Frank P. Keller |
| Music by | Walter Scharf |
Production company | Franton Productions |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 137 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2.9 million |
| Box office | $5 million ($51 million in 2023 dollars) $2.5 million (US/Canada)[1] |
Pocketful of Miracles is a 1961 American comedy film starring Glenn Ford and Bette Davis, produced and directed by Frank Capra, filmed in Panavision. The screenplay by Hal Kanter and Harry Tugend was based on Robert Riskin's screenplay for the 1933 film Lady for a Day, which was adapted from the 1929 Damon Runyon short story "Madame La Gimp". That original 1933 film was also directed by Capra—one of two films that he originally directed and later remade, the other being Broadway Bill (1934) and its remake Riding High (1950).
The film was the final project for both Capra and Thomas Mitchell. It marked Ann-Margret's film debut.
Peter Falk was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Plot
"Dave the Dude", a very successful New York City gangster, has one superstition: he believes that the apples he buys from alcoholic street peddler Apple Annie bring him luck. Annie assures the Dude that his latest purchase is especially lucky. He then meets Elizabeth "Queenie" Martin, the daughter of a friend and speakeasy owner recently murdered for owing a lot of money to the wrong people. Queenie offers to pay him $5 a week from her cashier's salary toward the $20,000 owed him. Instead, trusting Annie's claim, he decides to make Queenie a nightclub star. To the astonishment of his right-hand man, "Joy Boy", he succeeds, and Queenie is able to pay off all her father's creditors after two years, just as Prohibition ends.
Dave has an important meeting with a very powerful underworld boss from Chicago, Steve Darcey, aka "Mr. Big". Darcey is debating whether to allow Dave to control the New York territory in exchange for $50,000 "as a token of good faith." Dave counters by demanding $100,000 "as a token of your good faith."
Meanwhile, Annie has an illegitimate daughter named Louise, whom she sent to Europe as a baby. In her letters to Louise, she masquerades as wealthy socialite Mrs. E. Worthington Manville, sending Louise money she gets from the Dude and various "godparents" (her fellow beggars and panhandlers). Louise, now grown up, is bringing her Spanish fiancé Carlos and his father, Count Alfonso Romero, to meet her. Annie has been pretending she resides in a luxurious hotel (writing her letters on stolen hotel stationery) and has Louise's letters mailed there intercepted for her by an employee. However, the employee is fired when this is found out.
Dave's girlfriend Queenie insists he help Annie continue her charade. Dave reluctantly goes along, worried that his luck would run out otherwise. Queenie has the bedraggled Annie made up to look like a sophisticated socialite, while Dave borrows an out-of-town friend's luxurious penthouse suite, complete with Hudgins the butler, and arranges for cultured pool hustler "Judge" Henry G. Blake to pose as Annie's husband.
When Dave keeps postponing finalizing the deal with Mr. Big to help Annie, Joy Boy becomes increasingly exasperated and frightened. Dave manages to engineer a lavish reception, with New York's mayor and governor as guests, the night before Louise and her impressed future husband and father-in-law sail back to Europe, none the wiser about her mother's real identity. Mr. Big agrees to the Dude's terms, but the Dude decides to marry Queenie and settle down.
Cast
- Glenn Ford as Dave the Dude
- Bette Davis as Apple Annie
- Hope Lange as Queenie Martin
- Arthur O'Connell as Count Alfonso Romero
- Peter Falk as Joy Boy
- Thomas Mitchell as Henry G. Blake
- Edward Everett Horton as Hudgins
- Mickey Shaughnessy as Junior
- David Brian as Governor
- Sheldon Leonard as Steve Darcey
- Ann-Margret as Louise
- Jerome Cowan as Mayor
- Peter Mann as Carlos Romero
- Ellen Corby as Soho Sal
- Jack Elam as Cheesecake
- Mike Mazurki as Big Mike
- Barton MacLane as Police Commissioner
- John Litel as Police Chief
- Doodles Weaver as Pool Player
- Frank Ferguson as Newspaper Editor
- George E. Stone as Shimkey the Blind Man
- Jay Novello as the Spanish Consul
- Benny Rubin as Flyaway, Dude's lawyer
Production
Frank Capra had directed
In 1960, Capra bought the screen rights from Columbia for $225,000,[3] and the director made a deal with United Artists, where it was decided to film the story as a period piece set in the 1930s. Capra originally cast Frank Sinatra as Dave the Dude, but the actor walked out due to disagreements about the script. Kirk Douglas, Dean Martin and Jackie Gleason rejected the role. Then Glenn Ford approached Capra with an offer to help finance the film through his production company if he were cast as the lead. The director felt Ford was wrong for the part, but out of desperation, he agreed to the arrangement, which called for each of them to receive 37½ percent of the film's profits. Ford was paid $350,000 upfront, but Capra received only $200,000. Because the film never earned back its cost, he lost an additional $50,000 in deferred salary.[2]
Because of Ford's involvement with the financing of the film, Capra refused to intervene in any of the disagreements between the two stars, but he suffered blinding and frequently incapacitating headaches as a result of the stress.
Ann-Margret was paid $1,500 per week.[5]
Filming was completed in late June 1961, and Capra painfully struggled to get through the post-production period.[2][3][4] Upon its completion, he professed to prefer the remake to the original, although most critics, and in later years film historians and movie buffs, disagreed with his assessment.[2]
Reception
Motion Picture Herald covered the preview and gave the film good marks, with the review headline "Pocketful of Dollars" predicting an excellent box office performance. Boxoffice confirmed that the film "ranked in the top hit class by exhibitors in the 20 key cities across the nation."[6] The critic for The Hollywood Reporter also looked upon the film favorably, calling it "a Christmas sockful of joy, funny, sentimental, romantic [and] frankly capricious."[2]
Other reviewers were more guarded. In The New York Times, A.H. Weiler noted: "Mr. Capra and his energetic troupe manage to get a fair share of laughs from Mr. Runyon's oddball guys and dolls, but their lampoon is dated and sometimes uneven and listless...Repetition and a world faced by grimmer problems seem to have been excessively tough competition for this plot."[2] Variety thought the plot "alternates uneasily between wit and sentiment" and added "The picture seems too long, considering that there's never any doubt as to the outcome, and it's also too lethargic, but there are sporadic compensations of line and situation that reward the patience. Fortunately Capra has assembled some of Hollywood's outstanding character players for the chore...The best lines in the picture go to Peter Falk...[who] just about walks off with the film when he's on."[7] Veteran publisher Pete Harrison classed the film as only "fair," citing the Bette Davis approach to the May Robson portrayal: "The old Robson touch of wistful poignancy to the role is missing. Miss Davis' sharp, clipped, almost cold delivery gives you the feeling that any minute she'll be calling out to 'Petah.' She fails to beget your sympathy. For all the individual brilliance shown by [the supporting players], this doesn't quite reach its big picture objective. To be sure, it doesn't fail by much."[8] Least impressed was Elaine Rothschild of Films in Review: "This unbelievable and unfunny comedy proves only that director Frank Capra has learned nothing and forgotten nothing in the 28 years that intervened between the two pictures. Pocketful of Miracles is not merely out of whole cloth, but out of date, and watching it is a painful experience."[2] Filmink argued Ann Margret "is sweet in a small but important part, one of the best things about the movie; she certainly made more of an impact than the bloke who plays her fiancee, another 'discovery' Peter Mann."[9]
Exhibitors protested Bette Davis's star billing as they worried it would hurt the box office, and the receipts did fall short of expectations.[10]
Awards and nominations
| Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards[11] | Best Supporting Actor | Peter Falk | Nominated |
| Best Costume Design – Color | Edith Head and Walter Plunkett | Nominated | |
| Best Song | "Pocketful of Miracles" Music by Jimmy Van Heusen; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn |
Nominated | |
| American Cinema Editors Awards | Best Edited Feature Film | Frank P. Keller | Nominated |
| Directors Guild of America Awards[12] | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures | Frank Capra | Nominated |
| Golden Globe Awards[13] | Best Motion Picture – Comedy | Nominated | |
| Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Glenn Ford | Won | |
Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
|
Bette Davis | Nominated | |
| Most Promising Newcomer – Female | Ann-Margret | Won | |
| Laurel Awards | Top Song | "Pocketful of Miracles" Music by Jimmy Van Heusen; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn |
Nominated |
Home media
MGM Home Entertainment released the film on VHS in 1997 followed by the Region 1 DVD on September 18, 2001. It is in non-anamorphic widescreen format with audio tracks in English and Spanish and subtitles in Spanish and French. It received a US Region A Blu-ray release on November 18, 2014 from Kino Lorber.
Remakes
Pocketful of Miracles is the basis for the 1989 Hong Kong film Miracles starring Jackie Chan and Anita Mui, which later was remade as the 2008 Hindi-language Indian film Singh Is Kinng, starring Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif.
See also
References
- ^ "Big Rental Pictures of 1962". Variety. 9 Jan 1963. p. 13. Please note these are rentals and not gross figures
- ^ ISBN 978-0-6717-3494-7.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8015-5184-0.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-4401-0662-3.
- ^ Kelsey, David H. (April 7, 1964). "Meet Ann-Margret: Hard Work, Ambition Propel a Young Actress To the Top in Hollywood". The Wall Street Journal. 1.
- ^ Boxoffice, Mar. 10, 1962, p. 12.
- ^ "Film Reviews: 'Pocketful of Miracles'". Variety. December 31, 1960. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
- ^ Pete Harrison, Harrison's Reports, Oct. 28, 1961, p. 170.
- ^ Vagg, Stephen (September 6, 2021). "Surviving Cold Streaks: Ann-Margret". Filmink. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
- ^ Beaupre, Lee (May 15, 1968). "Rising Skepticism On Stars". Variety. p. 1.
- ^ "The 34th Academy Awards (1962) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved 2011-08-22.
- ^ "14th DGA Awards". Directors Guild of America Awards. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
- HFPA. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
External links
