A Little Bit 50s: A Pocket Full of Miracles

Another Sunday afternoon, another classic movie. Especially since we are all still recovering from my sons 18th birthday party last night!

This one was not quite 50s, filmed in 1961 and set in the 20s, but some of the dresses are still 50s fo r some reason. A Pocket Full of Miracles, is an American comedy starring Glen Ford, Bette Davis, Hope Lange, Peter Falk and introducing Ann Margaret yes she gets to sing a little). The screen play title was ‘Lady for a Day’, which I think sounds much better and less cutesy.

Dave “the Dude” (Glenn Ford) is a successful, superstitious New York City boot-legger come gangster who buys apples from street peddler Apple Annie (Bette Davis) to bring him good luck. He believes that everything good that has happened to him, including meeting his soon to be wife, Queenie Martin (Hope Lange), is due to these daily apples.

Trailer provided by Video Detective

Annie has a 20 year old daughter named Louise (Ann-Margret), who was sent to a school in Europe as a child. Annie has been pretending that the luxurious hotel where Dave lives is her home address for correspondence with Louise, and so Louise believes her mother to be wealthy socialite Mrs. E. Worthington Manville. As she is to be married, to royalty no less, Louise decides to visit her mother and bring her fiancé Carlos and his father, Count Alfonso Romero (Arthur O'Connell), to America to meet her.

Annie collapses with shock, and her friends of the street go to Dave to ask him to help. Dave has an absent friend with a penthouse, and Queenie takes on the task of transforming the derelict Annie into a lady. Dave arranges for pool hustler "Judge" Henry G. Blake to pose as Annie's husband, the dignified E. Worthington Manville.

While an important appointment Dave has with another powerful gangster keeps getting postponed, his right-hand man Joy Boy (Peter Falk) becomes increasingly exasperated. They have fun trying to keep the press at bay, and lock them up for a night. Meanwhile the count wants a party to meet the friends of the parents of the bride. Dave manages to stage a lavish reception of ‘friends’ – criminal associates, bouncers and dancing girls from the club. Judge warns the count that the guests may seem childish and tongue-tied in his presence, as they are not used to royalty, and then proceeds to beat him in pool – with the cost of the wedding as stakes.

Meanwhile the police have surrounded Dave’s club and the ‘friends’, who are practicing their lines and dancing, cannot leave. It looks like the ruse is about to end, and Annie will be found out when no one attends her party. Dave goes to the police commissioner, and ends up cutting a deal, giving him the missing reporters and a Chicago gangster. The party is a huge success, with New York's mayor and governor turning up as guests, much to the surprise of Annie and Queenie.

Louise, and her impressed future husband and father-in-law return to Europe, seen back to the boat by all the honoured guests, none the wiser about her Annie's real identity. Dave tells Queenie that he will move to that little town in Maryland that she dreams of and give up the gangster life. Annie goes back to her life of hustling on the streets,and all is well.

Peter Falk, who sadly died last month, was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor in this role, and I thought he did a fantastic job – although very similar to his character in Colombo in some ways. Interestingly Hope Lange and Arthur O'Connell had co-starred together previously with Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop in 1956. Bette Davis was 57 in this movie, and unusually for an American actress, she looked every inch her age (and then some) for the start of the movie. Of course then she has her make over and looks her classy self again. What ever her appearance, she really was the most wonderful actress.

Here is poster of Bette for the movie, and my favourite photo of her from 1932.