The Miracle Man (1919)

A gang of crooks evade the police by moving their operations to a small town. There the gang's leader encounters a faith healer and uses him to scam gullible public of funds for a supposed ... See full summary »

Director:

George Loane Tucker

Writers:

George M. Cohan (play), Robert Hobart Davis (novel),

Stars:

Lon Chaney, Betty Compson, Joseph J. Dowling

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Lon Chaney	...	The Frog
Betty Compson	...	Rose
Joseph J. Dowling	...	The Patriarch
J.M. Dumont	...	The Dope
Elinor Fair	...	Claire King
Thomas Meighan	...	Tom Burke
F.A. Turner	...	Mr. Higgins
Lucille Hutton	...	Ruth Higgins
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lawson Butt	...	Richard King

Storyline

A gang of crooks evade the police by moving their operations to a small town. There the gang's leader encounters a faith healer and uses him to scam gullible public of funds for a supposed chapel. But when a real healing takes place, a change comes over the gang.

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Plot Keywords:

partially lost film | cripple | faith healing | miracle | crippled child | 

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Taglines:

Don't Wait -- See It NOW

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Release Date:

26 August 1919 (USA)

Also Known As:

El milagro

Filming Locations:

Court of Miracles, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$120,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mayflower Photoplay Company, Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In 1921, Photoplay magazine conducted a poll from readers as to what the best movie made yet had been. This movie ranked at number 1, outdoing Charles Chaplin's The Kid and D.W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl.

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Connections

Featured in Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000)

User Reviews

Unfortunately lost.

THE MIRACLE MAN (1919) is a lost film, all except for a small fragment that was shown in a Paramount "best of" reel. This film has long been considered the major vehicle for the principle stars, Thomas Meighan and Lon Chaney and the segment that survives shows why. The story is about a band of con-men who decide to pull a fast one on a town that believes that their blind priest is a faith healer. All of the crooks end up being cured through miracles of their evil ways and end up doing the opposite of what compelled them to be evil. Chaney's performance in the surviving "healing" scene is quite compelling. I can not recommend this film to anyone since I have not seen it all, but if you do get a chance to see the surviving scene, it's worth a look.