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7.2/10
2.4K
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After an unappreciated minister dies, his daughter loses her faith in God, prompting her to open a phony temple with a con man. Can the love of a blind aviator restore her faith and happines... Read allAfter an unappreciated minister dies, his daughter loses her faith in God, prompting her to open a phony temple with a con man. Can the love of a blind aviator restore her faith and happiness?After an unappreciated minister dies, his daughter loses her faith in God, prompting her to open a phony temple with a con man. Can the love of a blind aviator restore her faith and happiness?
Jessie Arnold
- Supportive Parishoner
- (uncredited)
Robert Bolder
- Man in Audience
- (uncredited)
Mary Bracken
- Girl
- (uncredited)
Aileen Carlyle
- Violet
- (uncredited)
Mary Doran
- Party Guest
- (uncredited)
Frank Holliday
- Lew (chauffeur)
- (uncredited)
Lorraine Hubbell
- Child
- (uncredited)
John Kelly
- Stagehand
- (uncredited)
June Lang
- Church Choir Singer
- (uncredited)
Edward LeSaint
- Parishioner
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn a pure "pre-Code" moment, Sister Fallon's chauffeur, Lou, gives Hornsby "the finger" (out of Hornsby's sight) immediately after Hornsby warns him about what he must do to keep his job. The Hays Office surely would have rejected this scene had the movie been made after 1934.
- GoofsWhen Mrs. Higgings rushes into the dressing room to tell Florence about the 'miracle', the shadow of the boom mic can be spotted falling across her arm.
- Crazy credits"Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing..... Mat. VIII, 15.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire (1991)
- SoundtracksBattle Hymn of the Republic
(circa 1856) (uncredited)
Music by William Steffe
Lyrics by Julia Ward Howe (1862)
In the score during the opening credits
Reprised at several revival meetings
Played by a band and sung at the end
Featured review
Many of Capra's films point out the nobility of small town America, but here he seems to be doing just the opposite - bringing to light how one small town has just fired their preacher for the unpardonable sin of aging and hired a younger man to replace him without a backwards glance to the consequences to the displaced older man. The old preacher dies dictating his last sermon. We don't see this but we hear it from his daughter Florence played by Barbara Stanwyck. The farewell sermon she gives the parishioners has them walking out - or should I say running - as she calls them murderers, thieves, adulterers, closet drunks - being the preacher's daughter she knows where the bodies are buried and she tells them. A con man is in the congregation for some reason and he says if she wants to get even - and rich - she should run a faith healing con on this same type of small town hypocrite. The world is full of them according to her mentor.
The plan works - Florence is as fiery as a fake preacher as she was as a real one and soon the two are rolling in dough with the help of lots of paid fakers. What makes it easy is that the crowd seems to be there for a circus more than a sermon and they do certainly get their money's worth and ask no questions. However, Florence soon has double trouble on her hands. It turns out that her mentor has a darker side than she figured on who keeps her on a very short leash, and then there is the appearance into her life of a man who was blinded in WWI - David Manners as John, a failed songwriter, who claims one of her radio sermons kept him from jumping from his high rise apartment window to his death.
What is good about this film? Stanwyck of course. Just a couple of years after sound came into films the lady is fire and ice with the spoken word. Plus even in these early films Capra is visiting the themes of depression, class warfare, suicide, the forgotten man, the power of the individual, and the madness and fickleness of the mob - all which show up in his later efforts.
What holds the film back is the rather unexplained relationship between Manners' and Stanwyck's characters. There just doesn't seem to be any reason for them to be together other than that each would be completely alone in the world as far as human comfort goes without the other due to their isolated existences. In spite of that, their relationship and scenes together are believable.
Overall, this film does a good job of exploring the fact that for those who lose their faith, it's usually not God that's hard to love but rather the people He created due to their overall indifference towards anything outside of their own little world.
The plan works - Florence is as fiery as a fake preacher as she was as a real one and soon the two are rolling in dough with the help of lots of paid fakers. What makes it easy is that the crowd seems to be there for a circus more than a sermon and they do certainly get their money's worth and ask no questions. However, Florence soon has double trouble on her hands. It turns out that her mentor has a darker side than she figured on who keeps her on a very short leash, and then there is the appearance into her life of a man who was blinded in WWI - David Manners as John, a failed songwriter, who claims one of her radio sermons kept him from jumping from his high rise apartment window to his death.
What is good about this film? Stanwyck of course. Just a couple of years after sound came into films the lady is fire and ice with the spoken word. Plus even in these early films Capra is visiting the themes of depression, class warfare, suicide, the forgotten man, the power of the individual, and the madness and fickleness of the mob - all which show up in his later efforts.
What holds the film back is the rather unexplained relationship between Manners' and Stanwyck's characters. There just doesn't seem to be any reason for them to be together other than that each would be completely alone in the world as far as human comfort goes without the other due to their isolated existences. In spite of that, their relationship and scenes together are believable.
Overall, this film does a good job of exploring the fact that for those who lose their faith, it's usually not God that's hard to love but rather the people He created due to their overall indifference towards anything outside of their own little world.
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Details
- Runtime1 hour 30 minutes
- Color
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