Poseidon Quickies: It's a "Miracle!"

No, not Miracle on 34th Street (1947) though we love that one. While convalescing at home this holiday season, there was a rare airing of the 1939 film Miracle on Main Street. Feeling a bit down and wondering if it might warm the heart a bit, I gave it a shot. Miracle is a short, inexpensive, pat, contrived little number, but I found it charming nonetheless. At about an hour and twenty minutes, it certainly didn't drag on and on. I was curious to see Margo in a leading role and am a bit of a sucker for redemption tales. As it is December 26th, you may be past it all by now, but if not the movie is available on YT in a pristine print right here. 

The principle star of Miracle on Main Street is Margo, a Mexican dancer-turned-actress whose uncle was famed band leader Xavier Cugat. Here, she plays a shady performer in a carnival, managed by her even shadier husband. 

One might politely call her a belly dancer or an exotic dancer, but in truth she's basically an attractive stripper...! I saw in her expressions some of the looks that one Marilyn Monroe would later adopt in her breathy sex siren persona. 

Margo's husband is played by Lyle Talbot, who I invariably confuse with Lyle Bettger until it dawns on me that one is markedly more handsome than the other. Talbot tries to con a seeming drunk out of some money, but it turns out to be an undercover cop! He and his wife flee the scene to avoid being taken in.

Margo injures her knee, but manages to hobble into a nearby church. 

While praying to the Virgin Mary, she can't avoid the feeling that she hears a baby crying. And it's not the plaster Jesus in the nearby manger...! 

Examining the foliage more carefully, she spies a newborn infant lying in the undergrowth! 

There's a note enclosed from his birth parents (who can't seem to stop producing offspring!) This type of thing still happens today. Just recently in my area, an infant was left in a local firehouse's "baby box." She uses the bundle of joy to leave the church without being suspected of any crime. 

After Talbot hightails it out of their apartment and she manages to elude the police once more, she goes back to the church with the intention of returning the infant to where she found him, but ultimately she opts to keep him for herself. 

It takes a village... A kindly, if boozy, doctor lives upstairs, she has two floozy fellow dancer friends from the carnival and Jane Darwell is her cranky, yet kindly, landlady. The hefty Darwell (one year prior to her Oscar-winning triumph in The Grapes of Wrath, 1940) decides she is going to give the little tyke a bath. 

Hilariously, the scene-stealing little gem of a baby gives Ms. Darwell's sizeable chest the once over, wondering if he's going to be called upon to feed from that wellspring! Ha ha!

Newfound motherhood causes Margo to rethink everything. She wants no part of her tacky, shifty former life. 

Singing a lullaby to her "son," she vows to find a way to provide for the two of them. At first, she attempts to dance at a legitimate supper club, but ultimately works as a seamstress so that she can be at home with the infant. There is plenty more to the story, but as it's so brief, I don't want to reveal much further. 

Walter Abel costars as a wealthy man who marries a bored society girl who swiftly finds domestic bliss with him a near total bore. 

The un-billed boy who plays Margo's child is rather adorable and provides good face a number of times.  

Perhaps Margo's greatest claim to fame was two years prior to this when she played Maria, the lovely inhabitant of Shangri-La who captures the heart of John Howard in Lost Horizon (1937.) Things take a disastrous turn for the couple when he removes her from her home. She was later immortalized in the play Bye Bye Birdie when Mrs. Peterson refers to her son's fiancee as looking "like Margo when they took her out of Shangri-La!"

At this time, Margo was wed to actor Francis Lederer, though the union only lasted from 1937-1940.

She was more famously the wife of longtime actor and two-time Oscar nominee Eddie Albert. 

Together, they produced a son in 1951 called Edward Albert Jr. 

The handsome young man became a successful actor in his own right with movies like Butterflies Are Free (1972), 40 Carats (1973), When Time Ran Out... (1980) and others.

To me, the resemblance to his mother is clear. Margo died at age 68 of brain cancer in 1985. Eddie Albert lived until 2005 and was 99 when pneumonia claimed him following a battle with Alzheimer's disease. Sadly, Edward Albert succumbed to lung cancer the following year at only 55. 

What a way to end, right?! But the woman in Edward's lap at least has a right to be there. That is Kate Woodville (former spouse of Patrick Macnee), who he wed in 1979. Their poetess daughter Thais Carmen Woodville Albert (who now goes by Tai Carmen) was partly named after Margo's aunt by marriage, Carmen Castillo, a singer wed to Margo's uncle Xavier Cugat. So, as one of the songs from Lost Horizon (1973) goes, "The world is a circle..."

Guest Who: All's "Welles!"

During these brisk winter months (I woke up to a 10-degree morning today!), I've been nestling in with some comfort television. One of the shows I've discovered is really pretty obscure, being that it's a 1973 British anthology and I am in the hinterlands of Ohio. If it ever ran on stations here, I certainly never knew it. But watching the series now, I've enjoyed discovering a number of "my" people appearing in episodes. (These are generally members of the 1970s disaster movie club!) Often times, my people are also you're people, too, so perhaps you'll like seeing them as well! The show is called Orson Welles Great Mysteries. A variety of classic short stories and contemporary tales were intermixed along the way. Some notable names who took part (but are not depicted below) include Jose Ferrer, Susannah York, Peter Cushing, Jack Cassidy, David Birney, Eli Wallach, Janice Rule and others. All 26 episodes are available on YouTube in pretty decent quality. 

Each episode gets off to a captivating start thanks to the dazzlingly groovy, funky string & synth theme music! Courtesy of the genius John Barry, it strikes a haunting, mildly menacing chord while allowing for a variety of situations. It can be heard here (with video quality that is not as good as the presented eps are blessed with on YT.)

Taking a page from Alfred Hitchcock Presents, each installment is introduced (and capped off at the end) by the host, Orson Welles. Radio-era zenith Welles undeniably has the voice for this...

...though one's enjoyment of his delivery may vary depending on your tolerance for his glances at the nearby cue cards.

Episode 2 - The Leather Funnel - held great things in store for me. You can see part of the title object in the foreground of this shot. The two principle stars of this one happen to be part of my formative years, as has been noted here multiple times.

Simon Ward and the great Christopher Lee had just done the wondrous The Three Musketeers (1973) together and, thanks to the cover for the tie-in paperback of the classic story, they are among the first actors I ever knew by name. Lee, of course, is legendary in The Underword for having costarred in Airport '77 (1977.)

The Duke of Buckingham and Rochefort share no scenes in Musketeers, so it was neat to see them in what is almost a two-person program.

The leather funnel of the tale turns out to be an instrument of torture from years prior!

Adding to the fun is a dream sequence/flashback in which we find this vixen.

It's young Jane Seymour! She'd just finished playing a key role in the James Bond film Live and Let Die (1973.) Mr. Lee would enact the title villain the following year in The Man with the Golden Gun.

Episode 3 - A Terribly Strange Bed - tells of this top-hatted man, a gambler in an seedy establishment, winning a bundle of money, yet too inebriated to make it home safely to his own estate. Though it's made up for later on, at first we can barely get a good glimpse of him!

It's young Edward Albert! Considering that Albert had just costarred in Butterflies Are Free (1972) and Forty Carats (1973), it's clear that this well-heeled series wasn't balking at spending money for then-popular talent. Albert eventually costarred in one of our guilty pleasures, the disaster disaster flick When Time Ran Out... (1980.)

The boozed-up Albert is ultimately shown to a room upstairs of the tavern where he woozily climbs into bed. (The tied-up scarf in the foreground contains all his gambling winnings for the evening.)

As he's about to drift off, he keeps becoming fixated on a rather menacing portrait that hangs near his bed.

His adventure is only beginning, however, as he rises to examine the picture more clearly and to retrieve his bag of loot. We just wish he'd have peeled off more of his period costume.

Episode 5 - The Dinner Party - is a contemporary tale concerning an accountant (Anton Rodgers) who is under consideration for promotion to company controller for his stuffy, conservative firm. He and his wife have been invited to a an eight-person formal dinner, during which his wife will be scrutinized for her suitability as the spouse of someone in such a high position.

Said wife is enacted by our beloved Dame Joan Collins.

Tarted-up and as common as the day is long, this role gives us an idea of what it might have been like had la Collins been pressed into service as Linda Rogo in The Poseidon Adventure (1972!) In the shot to the right,you can almost see in her expression, "What the hell happened?"

Far from making a positive impression on the other husbands and their well-to-do wives, she practically works at disappointing them as much as possible!

The plot of this is almost an inversion of Woman's World (1954) in which June Allyson, Lauren Bacall and Arlene Dahl each tried to impress their husbands' boss in order to help win him a promotion. Here, three woman look over Collins to see if she'll be appropriate enough.

It's fun to watch her be as brazenly crass as she can manage while the onlookers' mouths gape.

Needless to say, the dinner party is nothing short of a debacle.

"So that's the cat this ship is named after...?"

One of my favorite parts came when Collins' contact lens went missing in her eye and she not only used her sterling silver dinner knife as a mirror, but also told a hysterically base story about a friend of hers who'd run into a similar problem.

Episode 13 - Death of an Old-Fashioned Girl began with the body of a young woman lying on the floor dead in front of a large portrait.

Through a series of flashbacks, we find struggling artist Stephan Chase being introduced to a prestigious agent (John Le Mesurier) through his supportive wife, played by Francesca Annis.

Though Chase's horrendous blond bouf remains persistently present throughout, Annis sports several different hairstyles as the decade-long story plays out.

Having become a successful artist, Chase soon catches the eye of an admirer, Carol Lynley.

Lynley was rather fresh off the boat, literally, from portraying cruise ship singer Nonnie in The Poseidon Adventure (1972) the year before.

As the tale proceeds, it becomes clear to Annis that her husband, who she practically guided to acclaim through her support and determination, has fallen for the young blonde.

Before all is said and done, a killing has occurred, with four suspects on hand as potential murderers.

Perhaps part of it was the rather unsympathetic character, but I found Ms. Lynley to be a bit strident and overstated this time out.

For my money, Annis acted rings around her and it is she who emerges as the more memorable performer in the piece.

The wrap-up of this one was a total surprise, I have to say. The ending really makes it. I knew practically nothing about Ms. Annis except that she'd been the cougar-ish lover of Ralph Fiennes during his peak hey-day, but now I look forward to seeing her in some other projects.

Episode 18 - The Power of Fear features another one of our favorite people, Miss Shirley Knight. (At this time, she'd adopted the marital "Shirley Knight-Hopkins," which she eventually abandoned, even though she was married to her husband until he died.)

As Knight is speaking long-distance to her husband, a plumber arrives to work on a leak in the cellar.

The plumber is played by Don Murray. To say that he is insinuating and vaguely menacing is an understatement. He misses no opportunity to close in on the increasingly uncomfortable Knight as he sort of does his job.

I found this pairing to be something of a treat since the two actors would later be paired again, the next time as spouses.

Yes, in 1981 they played the disagreeing parents of Brooke Shields in Franco Zeffirelli's Endless Love! Murray left the security of Knots Landing in order to pursue movies again, though notable roles in the cinema were few and far between by that point.

His character in this story is a real piece of work and pretty creepy.

Knight, who was residing in England at the time, would soon take part in Juggernaut (1974) before coming back to the States for work on US television and the occasional movie (such as the immortal Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, 1979, which is where we first discovered and learned to adore her!)

Episode 21 - Ice Storm, was the first one of these I caught. I was in the mood for a tight little mystery and it caught my eye. It showcases Claire Bloom as the assistant to a wealthy businessman who has arranged for three associates to view some priceless manuscripts in his home that evening.

Unfortunately, her employer is soon dead of a gunshot to the head! He'd just told her that one of the three men en route to his house, where she's prepared a light buffet, is an imposter. But he never said which one!

Thus, Bloom is left to welcome three gentlemen into the house, all the while attempting to figure out which one of them is primed to steal the manuscripts. (And, as she eventually realizes, the same man has also knocked off her employer!)

All three of the guests are hawk-like in wanting to see the collection, which is locked away in a safe when they arrive.

Also on hand, possibly complicating matters, is the driver of their car.

The amateur sleuth Bloom is carefully photographed throughout with some very lovely closeups. This episode was captivating enough that it led me to seek out some of the others.

The last one I'm featuring today is episode 22 - Come Into My Parlour. It starts off with a concert pianist, draped in chiffon, plying her trade in a concert hall. 

Soon enough we see that she is Miss Dana Wynter, Cindy Bakersfeld of our beloved Airport (1970.)

Later, we find her in her luxurious hotel, having arranged for a visit from a long ago friend of hers.

The friend is revealed to be Anne Jackson. It's not long before we see that though the two had once been close pals, there was an event between them that drove a wedge between their association.

As their conversation proceeds, Jackson becomes more and more defensive and concerned while Wynter becomes increasingly agitated.

It's a great opportunity for two skillful actresses to go head-to-head for about 20 minutes, with multiple shades in their personalities coming into play.

I'm less familiar with Jackson, who did a fine job in the piece, than I am with Wynter, who I love. Like most of the ladies seen throughout this series, she's well-lit and photographed in a flattering way. Perhaps you'll check this, or others I haven't noted, out and find yourself entertained for about 25 minutes at a time.