The Miracle

I had watched in my tender age in 1983 and due my religion's roots on Catholic Church I'd gave a great dimension on it, regarding it with a hefty meaning for my believers, for many years l've been looking for this hard to find movie, now I'd got an average copy on DVD-R taped from cable TV, revisiting this long awaited "The Miracle", sadly I have realized that my early feelings was wrong, this picture walks in a fake premise of Puritanism, the Novice Teresa (Carroll Baker) clearly had an ambiguous personality, all this took place at in the Valley of Miraflores in Spain during the Napoleonic wars at its time trespassing the Spanish territory, already aware of such menacing movement the British Army fleetingly sent a massive troops to face the greed French Emperor, in this tricky environment the attractive Novice Teresa meets the gallant Captain Michael Stuart (Roger Moore) whom she falling in love at first glance, after one battle the brave Captain was sternly injured, thus she makes a promise to Madonna of the Miraflores, if he survives she'll gives her vows to be a Nun, he recovers and goes back to the battle, however she leaves the Convent trying to meet his beloved soldier, thereupon the holly Madonna disappears from the shrine and embodies the Teresa's absent, she follows the Gypsies, soon appears Michael's belongs with a Gypsy's member who told to her that all objects was found with a dead body of a British soldier, upon this awful reality she breaks her previous vows gave to Madonna, becoming a mundane girl having several love affairs, always they end up on a tragic death, the times goes by, four years precisely at Brussels she finally meets the still alive now General Michael, somehow she heard an odd story when Michael visited her at convent, what he saw her there, then undermined about that she returns to Valley of the Miraflores where has ongoing a hard dry season for exact last four years, none a single drop of water fallen there, plenty unsatisfactory outcome and too much fanciful, no make sense whatever yours persuasions, anyone has to pay for others fails, it sounds fully contradictory at God's sight, thus there no miracle!!!

Resume:

First watch: 1984 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD-R / Rating: 6.5.

During the war of 1812, a young nun leaves the convent to search for a series of romantic adventures, and during her journey the statue of the virgin Mary descends from the pedestal and takes the young nun's place until her return.

Adapted from a fairly deadening and lunatic play, and tricked out with the old-fashioned Max Reinhardt pageantry; this immensely long and heavy-going amalgam of would-be religious parable and decorative period romance soon becomes numbingly risible and never lets up. A very curious choice for an emergent leading lady obviously, and unsuccessfully, fighting against her freshly established image, while the star supporting players - apparently intended as a balance - suffer from being tediously typecast. None of the actors have much opportunity to display their skills and the direction is below average. Quite a stupefying enterprise, but a sometimes engagingly silly one.

This could've been a great great movie. The problem was Carol Baker. While I think she's absolutely beautiful and I liked her in baby doll giant she just wasn't the right person for the role of the nun. I could see Natalie Wood, Pier Angeli, Susan Kohner (Imitation of life), Leslie Caron or Susan Strasberg. My mother saw it on Broadway and said what an absolutely beautiful show years and years and years ago also there was a silent film version that is all handpainted in color . it's supposed to bePantomime and absolutely breathtaking. .

Since this is my favorite "guilty pleasure" of all time, due its histrionics and sheer cheesiness, I feel a bit uncomfortable being critical. Poor Carroll Baker suffers and suffers, but she's not as pretty as Roger Moore. Then there's Walter Slezak having a good time with his silly part. The plot is one of the most unintentionally funny screen plays ever -- a camp classic. If you are Catholic with a sense of humor, you'll really enjoy it. By all means, watch it once.

My sister recently asked me if I knew where to find this picture, and coincidentally I had it in my film library, purchased about a year back from Movies Unlimited, a mail-order VHS/DVD house. I decided to revisit it, and to my delight it was everything I remembered it to be when it first came out in my pre-pubescence. This is a saga which begs to be re-made today, but NOT for the big screen, rather for the The Met. It has everything one could possibly ask for in Grand Opera. The beautiful young postulant nun, the dashing British officer, the regiment passing through with little children dancing around them waving flags. The backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. Gypsies, bullfighters, Flamenco dancing and religious spectacle. What more could you ask for? With a plot as thin as a scrim, the libretto would be a cake walk, which I would LOVE to write. Would any composer care to collaborate? One thing eludes me, in the film, and IMDb has failed to enlighten me: Who is the singing voice of Theresa in the Spanish nightclub scenes? Could it be Victoria de Los Angeles? A fabulous voice. I highly recommend this movie to young and old, mostly female audiences (after all, it is cornier than even "An Affair to Remember"). Enjoy the sheer prettiness of it.