Pocketful of Miracles (1961)

Director:

Frank Capra

Writers:

Hal Kanter (screenplay) and
Harry Tugend (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

25 December 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Boozy, brassy Apple Annie, a beggar with a basket of apples, is as much as part of downtown New York as old Broadway itself...

Plot Keywords:

Apple | Luck | Daughter | Dude | Mother

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Glenn Ford	...	Dave the Dude
Bette Davis	...	Apple Annie
Hope Lange	...	Queenie Martin
Arthur O'Connell	...	Count Alfonso Romero
Peter Falk	...	Joy Boy
Thomas Mitchell	...	Judge Henry G. Blake
Edward Everett Horton	...	Hudgins
Mickey Shaughnessy	...	Junior
David Brian	...	Governor
Sheldon Leonard	...	Steve Darcey
Peter Mann	...	Carlos Romero
Ann-Margret	...	Louise
Barton MacLane	...	Police Commissioner (as Barton Maclane)
John Litel	...	Police Inspector McCrary
Jerome Cowan	...	Mayor

Runtime:

136 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | American Sign Language | Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:K-12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #20029) | West Germany:6 | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Franton Productions

Trivia:

Final film of Frank Capra.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Hope "Queenie" Lange is wearing 1950s stiletto heels.

Quotes:

Junior: She's like a cockroach what turned into a butterfly!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The American Film Institute Salute to Bette Davis (1977) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Deck the Halls

"The World's A Bright And Shiny Apple That's Mine, All Mine."

Frank Capra got out of the directing feature film business right after Pocketful of Miracles, creating a symmetry of sorts in his career because this is a remake of Lady for a Day, his first film to garner any kind of award nominations. He felt that it was a mistake going into partnership with a star, in this case Glenn Ford because it meant yielding creative control of the product.

You never know what you get with collaborative efforts. It could be something like Gone With The Wind or Mister Roberts. Or it could be something as disastrous as Desire Me (go check my user comments on that one). Pocketful of Miracles falls somewhere in the middle of that. I still remember seeing it and enjoying it as a lad.

Originally Frank Capra wanted to do Pocketful of Miracles with Frank Sinatra with whom he had done good work in A Hole in the Head. Sinatra proved unavailable except to record the title song for a best selling record with a kid's choir.

Lady for a Day back in 1933 boasted the performance of May Robson as the disheveled Apple Annie who has the secret daughter in a convent school in Spain. All the panhandlers and street grifters chip in and support the girl who's about to marry into nobility. But she wants to visit her mother before the vows are taken. She thinks Robson is a society matron.

Stepping in and doing more than an adequate job in the remake is Bette Davis. Capra did put a curb on the Davis grand manner during her scenes as the apple seller in Depression era New York. And he gave her free reign as society matron, Mrs. Worthington Manley.

Robson got an Academy Award nomination for Lady for a Day. Pocketful of Miracles boasts an acting nomination itself in the Supporting Actor category. In this case for Peter Falk as Glenn Ford's second in command in his gang. Capra had nothing but praise for Falk as an actor in his memoirs. I agree, the man's range is astonishing, he's capable of a lot more than Lieutenant Columbo.

Capra gathered his usual outstanding group of identifiable supporting players including a few who've seen service with him before. This film marked the farewell performance of Thomas Mitchell who graced so many classic films for Frank Capra and others. He's wonderful as the smooth talking pool shark that Ford drafts into being Davis's husband.

One career ends, another begins; this was the debut film for Ann-Margret playing Davis's daughter. She even gets to sing to her intended, a rather stiff young actor named Peter Mann of whom little was heard after this. Both were given billing as being introduced in Pocketful of Miracles.

Both Lady for a Day and Pocketful of Miracles were based on a Damon Runyon short story and Runyon certainly lavished love on the Broadway characters he created. One of the problems I've always had with both versions of this story is that for all everyone's good intentions which surprise everyone, a fraud is being perpetrated here. Will there be a happily ever after ending when it's discovered?

I guess the moral of the story is that if you get enough VIPs involved in the fraud it's OK. That's not a great lesson to learn.

But when written by Damon Runyon and directed by Frank Capra it's not something we think about too much.