Movie Review: The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936)

Synopsis: A group of celestial beings give assistant George Fotheringay near limitless powers as part of a social experiment. At first, Fotheringay is amused with his new abilities, which include being able to make things levitate, heal injuries, teleport to far-off lands and create things from thin air. However, as his secret gets out, he soon finds himself surrounded by people trying to exploit him.

Who's in it? The movie stars Roland Young, Ralph Richardson, Joan Gardner, Ernest Thesiger and Sophie Stewart.

Review: I added The Man Who Could Work Miracles to my library about a week ago, mostly because I saw it was based on an H. G. Wells' story and sounded somewhat unique. I finally got around to watching it this morning and wasn't disappointed. 

While described as a comedy, I think I would consider the movie more of a psychological drama. The film does a great job exploring something I think a lot of us dream about and putting it up against human nature. If one of us was given the power to do just about anything, would we use it to change the world for the better or would we use it to better our own life?

I think the thing that intrigued me about this film was Fogeringay (Young) himself. I liked how the film chose to have his character be a bit modest when it came to his abilities, willing to use them to impress someone or help someone but afraid to do anything too extreme. As the movie progressed, however, and he got "advice" from people with a wide range of motivations, including greed and wanting world peace, you could see the gradual change that made his ultimate snap believable.

I also liked how the film did give his powers some limitations. For example, he couldn't make women fall in love with him. This kept the film from becoming too predictable because there was no guarantee his powers would allow him to undo some of the more horrible things he did.

The end of the movie was pretty wild, with Fogeringay making a seemingly harmless decision that caused millions to die. It was unexpected and added quite a bit of suspense at the end. I'll even admit it was reasonably believable given the limited special effects techniques at the time.

Final Opinion: This is a good movie that was entertaining to watch and not nearly as predictable as expected. I would recommend it as a result of that.

My Grade: A

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