Don't confuse this film with "Freaks" which was released the same year as this. That avant garde cult film combined shock value visuals and elements of horror. While this has alleged disabled characters (one young boy is actually unable to walk without the help of crutches), it is more of a crime drama that combines spiritual elements into it as some of the main characters strive to atone for their attempts to fleece the public. The opening scene has the pretty Sylvia Sidney being confronted in a Chinese shop for pick-pocketing another customer (Chester Morris), and before you know it, other customers are tossing tens and twenties at her because of her sob story. It turns out that Sidney and Morris are part of a gang that goes around fleecing the eternally naive and gullible, and after one of them gets into a fight and becomes wanted by the police, they flee to another area where they become in a scheme to defraud an old man (Hobart Bosworth), known as "the miracle man", who has been known to cure people of their physical ailments just by a touch.
Sidney pretends to be his long lost great niece, and before long, her gang has moved in, with the supposedly badly deformed John Wray (who has the ability to saunter around with twisted legs, torsos and arms, giving him the nickname, "The Frog") and Ned Sparks as another shyster who shows the possibility of reforming under Bosworth's saint like guidance. It is Sidney, however, who reforms the most, already in love with Morris, but suffering great guilt because of how her comforting presence to the dying Bosworth affects him. Films about atonement are always moving to watch, especially when career criminals deal with objections from their cohorts who don't want to lose an important part of their meal ticket. The acting honors go to Sidney, Bosworth and Sparks, while Wray's ability to go from completely twisted like a pretzel to totally standing up straight is mesmerizing to watch. His part is minimal, possibly made secondary, even though the original 1919 version featuring Lon Chaney Sr. in that part focused on his character.
Look quickly for Boris Karloff at the very beginning as the owner of the Chinese shop, once again with his eyes taped up as they were in the same year's "The Mask of Fu Manchu". I expected to see more of him in this film which I had seen years ago and recalled his presence but not much else. This was based upon a play by George M. Cohan that might have dated somewhat but with "miracle preachers" showing up all over (most famously Aimee Semple McPherson, fictionalized in the similarly titled "The Miracle Woman"), it may have seemed a bit more timely for this remake to be done. The film drags here and there, but is beautiful to look at, and satisfying, because it shows amoral characters for the most part straightening up their souls after they had become psychologically deformed, not caring about anything but the next fleece.
Sidney pretends to be his long lost great niece, and before long, her gang has moved in, with the supposedly badly deformed John Wray (who has the ability to saunter around with twisted legs, torsos and arms, giving him the nickname, "The Frog") and Ned Sparks as another shyster who shows the possibility of reforming under Bosworth's saint like guidance. It is Sidney, however, who reforms the most, already in love with Morris, but suffering great guilt because of how her comforting presence to the dying Bosworth affects him. Films about atonement are always moving to watch, especially when career criminals deal with objections from their cohorts who don't want to lose an important part of their meal ticket. The acting honors go to Sidney, Bosworth and Sparks, while Wray's ability to go from completely twisted like a pretzel to totally standing up straight is mesmerizing to watch. His part is minimal, possibly made secondary, even though the original 1919 version featuring Lon Chaney Sr. in that part focused on his character.
Look quickly for Boris Karloff at the very beginning as the owner of the Chinese shop, once again with his eyes taped up as they were in the same year's "The Mask of Fu Manchu". I expected to see more of him in this film which I had seen years ago and recalled his presence but not much else. This was based upon a play by George M. Cohan that might have dated somewhat but with "miracle preachers" showing up all over (most famously Aimee Semple McPherson, fictionalized in the similarly titled "The Miracle Woman"), it may have seemed a bit more timely for this remake to be done. The film drags here and there, but is beautiful to look at, and satisfying, because it shows amoral characters for the most part straightening up their souls after they had become psychologically deformed, not caring about anything but the next fleece.