{"id":45458,"date":"2019-11-13T12:25:21","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T19:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=45458"},"modified":"2021-01-23T21:53:38","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T04:53:38","slug":"pocketful-of-miracles-1961","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=45458","title":{"rendered":"Pocketful of Miracles (1961)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;We&#8217;re nothing! We&#8217;re a bunch of grabbers, all of us, looking for the best of it!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Pocketful-of-Miracles-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Pocketful-of-Miracles-Poster-197x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-45460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Pocketful-of-Miracles-Poster-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Pocketful-of-Miracles-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Pocketful-of-Miracles-Poster.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen a destitute apple vendor (Bette Davis) learns her grown daughter (Ann-Margret) will be arriving from Spain with her noble fiance (Peter Mann) and his father (Arthur O&#8217;Connell), she enlists the help of a superstitious gangster (Glenn Ford) and his warm-hearted fiance (Hope Lange) in putting on an elaborate charade, including finding a man (Thomas Mitchell) to pose as Davis&#8217;s husband.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Alcoholism and Drug Addiction<\/li>\n<li>Ann-Margret Films<\/li>\n<li>Bette Davis Films<\/li>\n<li>David Brian Films<\/li>\n<li>Frank Capra Films<\/li>\n<li>Gangsters<\/li>\n<li>Glenn Ford Films<\/li>\n<li>Hope Lange Films<\/li>\n<li>Mistaken or Hidden Identities<\/li>\n<li>Peter Falk Films<\/li>\n<li>Thomas Mitchell Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nFrank Capra remade his own Depression-era classic &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=45449\"><em>Lady for a Day<\/em> (1933)<\/a> &#8212; into this Technicolor star vehicle that really&#8230; didn&#8217;t need to be made. Everything about his earlier version is superior, from the appropriately atmospheric b&#038;w cinematography, to Robson&#8217;s genuinely touching lead performance, to its faster-paced running time (96 minutes in comparison with <em>Pocketful&#8230;<\/em>&#8216;s dragging 136 minutes). Ford, Davis, and Lange try their best here, but Ford and Lange&#8217;s ongoing quibbling distracts from the central storyline, and Lange&#8217;s character undergoes far too rapid of a transformation for us to believe in. The material ultimately comes across as maudlin, with Apple Annie&#8217;s love of classical music a distraction rather than a pleasing backdrop. This film is primarily notable for offering Peter Falk a stand-out supporting role as Ford&#8217;s sidekick &#8220;Joy Boy&#8221;, and for introducing a giddy Ann-Margret to the big screen.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Peter Falk as Joy Boy<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Pocketful-of-Miracles-Falk.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Pocketful-of-Miracles-Falk-1024x435.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"272\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-45461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Pocketful-of-Miracles-Falk-1024x435.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Pocketful-of-Miracles-Falk-128x54.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Pocketful-of-Miracles-Falk-300x128.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Pocketful-of-Miracles-Falk-768x326.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Pocketful-of-Miracles-Falk.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNope; you can skip this one, unless you&#8217;re a Bette Davis completist. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0055312\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.combustiblecelluloid.com\/classic\/pocketful_miracles.shtml\">Combustible Celluloid Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s4663pock.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/17708\/pocketful-of-miracles#articles-reviews?articleId=35396\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re nothing! We&#8217;re a bunch of grabbers, all of us, looking for the best of it!&#8221; Synopsis: When a destitute apple vendor (Bette Davis) learns her grown daughter (Ann-Margret) will be arriving from Spain with her noble fiance (Peter Mann) and his father (Arthur O&#8217;Connell), she enlists the help of a superstitious gangster (Glenn Ford) and his warm-hearted fiance (Hope Lange) in putting on an elaborate charade, including finding a man (Thomas Mitchell) to pose as Davis&#8217;s husband. Genres, Themes,&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=45458\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45458"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65473,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45458\/revisions\/65473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}