Tonight's Movie: Miracle on Main Street (1939)

This holiday season I've finally caught up with a relatively little-known Christmas "B" film, MIRACLE ON MAIN STREET (1939).

I've been interested in this movie ever since learning about it from Jeremy Arnold, author of CHRISTMAS IN THE MOVIES. He included the film in his book, which also led to the movie being shown on Turner Classic Movies.

Following a well-done montage of Christmas celebrations around the world, this 78-minute film begins on Christmas Eve "in the Old Spanish Quarter of Los Angeles," perhaps meant to be around Olvera Street.

Jim Foreman (Walter Abel) has just become engaged to the brittle Nina (Jean Brooks, billed as Jeanne Kelly), though it's foreshadowed the marriage may not end well. And indeed, that later proves to be the case.

Elsewhere on Christmas Eve, Dick Porter (Lyle Talbot) and his wife, an exotic dancer named Maria (Margo), aren't finding much business and end up on the run when they attempt to rob an undercover cop.

Maria escapes into a church, where she finds an abandoned baby boy has been left amidst the church's Nativity scene. A letter left with the baby implores someone to give him a good home.

The baby proves to be Maria's ticket to leaving the church without being suspected as one of the robbers, as the police officer on guard ignores the young mother carrying her infant.

Little does Maria know that Dick is about to abandon her and that the baby will be the key to her turning her life around. She finds she can't give him up and determines to earn an honest living to support him.

Months pass and eventually Jim, grieving the quick end of his marriage, will become involved with Maria and the baby, coming to love them both.

Maria's landlady (Jane Darwell) and an alcoholic doctor (William Collier Sr.) also become part of the lives of Maria and her baby, improving their own lives in the process.

It's always a delight to discover a new-to-me Christmas film, and I found this movie, written by Frederick Jackson, based on a story by Samuel Ornitz and Boris Ingster, to be quite moving.

The script adeptly balances humor, pathos, and a sharp edge, as Talbot's Jim is an absolute heel whose eventual return threatens Maria's future with the baby. I found MIRACLE ON MAIN STREET quite enjoyable and will definitely be watching it during future Christmas seasons.

Margo does a very nice job in the lead, believably conveying Maria's transformation and quickly engendering audience sympathy.

Darwell and Collier are excellent in support. I liked that Collier's doctor doesn't descend into the maudlin but turns his life around, just as Maria has. He provides pithy commentary on the goings-on, and Darwell likewise has some terrific sarcastic lines.

Darwell, incidentally, was also in another recently discovered Christmas film released the same year, INSIDE STORY (1939). I saw INSIDE STORY at Cinecon it September, and in a fun coincidence it was introduced by Jeremy Arnold.

The supporting cast of MIRACLE ON MAIN STREET includes Wynne Gibson, Veda Ann Borg, Willie Best, Dorothy Devore, and Pat Flaherty.

This was the first U.S. film directed by Hungarian director Steve Sekely. It was filmed in black and white by Charles Van Enger. The film was produced by Grand National Pictures and distributed by Columbia Pictures.

Margo also starred with Arturo de Cordova in a Spanish-language version of this story, EL MILAGRO DE LA CALLE MAYOR, which was released by a different studio, 20th Century-Fox. (That studio also released the Spanish-language 1935 film INSURE YOUR WIFE! which I saw at Cinecon several years ago.) I'd love to have the chance to see it.

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