THE MIRACLE MAN. Paramount, 1932. Sylvia Sidney, Chester Morris, Robert Coogan, John Wray, Ned Sparks, Hobart Bosworth. Lloyd Hughes, Virginia Bruce, Boris Karloff, Irving Pichel.

Screenplay by Waldemar Young and Samuel Hoffenstein, based on the novel by Robert Hobart Davis and the play by George M. Cohan. Director: Norman Z. McLeod. Shown at Cinecon 45, Hollywood CA, September 2009.

    A remake of a silent film with Lon Chaney Sr. (and which is today a lost film except for two short fragments), the sound version has a dramatic power that transcends its sentimental story of four con artists (Sidney, Morris, Sparks, and John Wray recreating the Chaney role) who fall under the spell of a charismatic faith healer.

    The miracle man is played by Hobart Bosworth, whose restrained, moving performance is extraordinary in the sense of spiritual grace it communicates. The only other film performance that I can recall that rivals it is that of another fine silent actor, H. B. Warner, who starred in Cecil B. DeMille’s biblical drama, King of Kings.