"Miracles for Sale" still attracts interest because it was the last film directed by cult figure Tod Browning. (He contributed to one screenplay after this film, but didn't direct it.)
"Miracles for Sale" is SO CLOSE to being a good film. The action takes place at a convention of magicians, and we meet one of each type: there's a card-trick specialist, an escape artist, and so forth. A magician gets murdered in an "impossible" way: obviously, one of the other magicians committed the murder, using some kind of conjuror's trick. But whodunnit, and how?
This film violates the most basic rule of magic: never do the same trick twice for the same audience, unless you do it two different ways. In one scene, sitting at a breakfast table, Robert Young casually waves his hand and makes a sugar bowl vanish into thin air. We didn't expect it, so we don't see how he did it. He orders another sugar bowl from the waiter, played by the annoying bit-part actor Chester Clute. When it arrives, Young waves his hand again and makes the second sugar bowl vanish too, by the same method. This time we're expecting it, so we see how he does it ... and you'll be as disappointed as I was.
One scene is very eerie for a few seconds, when Young discovers a typewriter busily typing out a death threat ALL BY ITSELF, with no human operator. We see the typewriter's keys moving, with nobody touching them. Spooky! But then we notice that the keys are moving IN SEQUENCE from left to right, so the typewriter can't be typing out any message except QWERTYUIOP ASDFGHJKL. I wish that MGM's special-effects department had worked a little harder on this scene, and made the typewriter keys move randomly.
Frank Craven (the original Stage Manager in "Our Town") gives a decent performance here. He has some funny lines about how much he hates New York City, and what a lousy place New York City is. The payoff for this schtick is vaguely amusing. A funnier bit occurs near the end, when Craven gets caught in a Rube Goldberg contraption which forcibly dresses him in a ridiculous costume.
Florence Rice, the love interest in this film, is blond and pretty but not very talented. Her father was Grantland Rice, a very popular (and powerful) sportswriter in the 1930s, and her brief film career was largely due to his influence.
At one point in "Miracles for Sale", one of this film's cast members appears (in heavy make-up) disguised as another cast member, and we're supposed to be fooled. I spotted the disguise, which helped me solve the mystery. You'll probably spot it too.
I give "Miracles for Sale" 6 points out of 10, and one of those points is merely a tribute to Tod Browning.
"Miracles for Sale" is SO CLOSE to being a good film. The action takes place at a convention of magicians, and we meet one of each type: there's a card-trick specialist, an escape artist, and so forth. A magician gets murdered in an "impossible" way: obviously, one of the other magicians committed the murder, using some kind of conjuror's trick. But whodunnit, and how?
This film violates the most basic rule of magic: never do the same trick twice for the same audience, unless you do it two different ways. In one scene, sitting at a breakfast table, Robert Young casually waves his hand and makes a sugar bowl vanish into thin air. We didn't expect it, so we don't see how he did it. He orders another sugar bowl from the waiter, played by the annoying bit-part actor Chester Clute. When it arrives, Young waves his hand again and makes the second sugar bowl vanish too, by the same method. This time we're expecting it, so we see how he does it ... and you'll be as disappointed as I was.
One scene is very eerie for a few seconds, when Young discovers a typewriter busily typing out a death threat ALL BY ITSELF, with no human operator. We see the typewriter's keys moving, with nobody touching them. Spooky! But then we notice that the keys are moving IN SEQUENCE from left to right, so the typewriter can't be typing out any message except QWERTYUIOP ASDFGHJKL. I wish that MGM's special-effects department had worked a little harder on this scene, and made the typewriter keys move randomly.
Frank Craven (the original Stage Manager in "Our Town") gives a decent performance here. He has some funny lines about how much he hates New York City, and what a lousy place New York City is. The payoff for this schtick is vaguely amusing. A funnier bit occurs near the end, when Craven gets caught in a Rube Goldberg contraption which forcibly dresses him in a ridiculous costume.
Florence Rice, the love interest in this film, is blond and pretty but not very talented. Her father was Grantland Rice, a very popular (and powerful) sportswriter in the 1930s, and her brief film career was largely due to his influence.
At one point in "Miracles for Sale", one of this film's cast members appears (in heavy make-up) disguised as another cast member, and we're supposed to be fooled. I spotted the disguise, which helped me solve the mystery. You'll probably spot it too.
I give "Miracles for Sale" 6 points out of 10, and one of those points is merely a tribute to Tod Browning.