The Man Who Could Work Miracles
1936 Directed by Zoltan Korda
Synopsis
George McWhirter Fotheringay, while vigorously asserting the impossibility of miracles, suddenly discovers that he can perform them. After being thrown out of a bar for what is thought to be a trick, he tests his powers and eventually sends a policeman to Hades by accident. Worried, he sends the police officer to San Francisco, and seeks advice from the local clergyman, Mr Maydig. Maydig, after having Fotheringay's powers demonstrated to him, quickly planning for reform of the world by means of miracle, but eventually Fotheringay orders a miracle which, due to clumsy wording, backfires. He relinquishes his power and returns to the time before he had it.
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Three heavenly beings bestow the ability to create miracles upon a random human. The random human is George Fotheringay, who doesn't believe in miracles until they start happening as he wishes. Everyone soon wants him to use this ability for their own ends.
This is a good adaptation of HG Wells' short story; it's a bit like a 1930s version of Bruce Almighty (but rather better). The only thing that perplexed me about the story was the casting of Roland Young as George, he was nearing 50 when the film was made, but seemed to be playing a character who was much younger, I wonder how old the character was in the short story?
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Watched January 10, 2013
Three gods or godlike-creatures have a debate about whether mankind can handle advanced powers, and decide to single out one man - George McWhirter Fortheringay - to give them to to see what happens. Based on an H. G. Wells story, this is supposed to be a morality play. There's requisite dialog between major players to examine and expose some of the philosophical issues behind the use of power, and some of it is moderately interesting (or at least watchable), but I didn't find much of it convincing. Nor did I find the test itself very meaningful. And beyond that, George's choices just seemed dumb.
Not that it was all bad, but it just wasn't good either. Middle of the road for me.
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Three heavenly beings bestow the ability to create miracles upon a random human. The random human is George Fotheringay, who doesn't believe in miracles until they start happening as he wishes. Everyone soon wants him to use this ability for their own ends.
This is a good adaptation of HG Wells' short story; it's a bit like a 1930s version of Bruce Almighty (but rather better). The only thing that perplexed me about the story was the casting of Roland Young as George, he was nearing 50 when the film was made, but seemed to be playing a character who was much younger, I wonder how old the character was in the short story?