Miracle on Main Street

19391939
1h 18m

IMDb RATING

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Walter Abel, Margo, and Lyle Talbot in Miracle on Main Street (1939)

Drama

On Christmas Eve in the Spanish quarter of L.A. police try to arrest a couple running a shady floor show. Hiding in a church, the girl finds an abandoned baby and uses it as cover to escape ... Read allOn Christmas Eve in the Spanish quarter of L.A. police try to arrest a couple running a shady floor show. Hiding in a church, the girl finds an abandoned baby and uses it as cover to escape capture. Thus she finds herself with a baby she is becoming ever more fond of, a helpful d... Read allOn Christmas Eve in the Spanish quarter of L.A. police try to arrest a couple running a shady floor show. Hiding in a church, the girl finds an abandoned baby and uses it as cover to escape capture. Thus she finds herself with a baby she is becoming ever more fond of, a helpful doctor himself too fond of the bottle, and a husband who has disappeared. Dare she try and ... Read all

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

YOUR RATING

Director
- Steve Sekely
Writers
- Boris Ingster(original story)
- Frederick J. Jackson(screenplay)
- Samuel Ornitz(original story)
Stars

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Storyline

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On Christmas Eve in the Spanish quarter of L.A. police try to arrest a couple running a shady floor show. Hiding in a church, the girl finds an abandoned baby and uses it as cover to escape capture. Thus she finds herself with a baby she is becoming ever more fond of, a helpful doctor himself too fond of the bottle, and a husband who has disappeared. Dare she try and change her ways and keep the child? —Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

abandoned baby

stripper

Taglines
- Could She Trust Any Man Again?
Genre
- Drama
Parents guide
- Add content advisory

Did you know

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Trivia
The earliest documented telecast of this film took place in Los Angeles Monday 31 March 1947 on pioneer television station W2XAO (later KTSL) (Channel 2); it was next broadcast in both Washington DC on WMAL (Channel 7) and in Baltimore MD on WMAR (Channel 2) on Wednesday 24 December 1947, in New York City Tuesday 21 December 1948 on WJZ (Channel 7), in Chicago Friday 24 December 1948 on WGN (Channel 9), in Cincinnati Tuesday 27 September 1949 on WKRC (Channel 11), in Philadelphia Saturday 19 November 1949 on WCAU (Channel 10), in Atlanta Saturday 24 December 1949 on WAGA (Channel 5), in Salt Lake City Sunday 25 December 1949 on KDYL (Channel4), and in Boston Monday 26 December 1949 on WBZ (Channel 4).

Goofs
The view of Broadway at the beginning shows a movie marquee advertising Jeanette MacDonald in "The Love Parade," which came out ten years before the present film.

Connections
Alternate-language version of El milagro de la calle mayor (1939)

Soundtracks
City of Angels
Music by Walter Jurmann
Lyrics by Ralph Freed

User reviews3

Review

Top review

7/10

Low Budget Heart Warmer

A well done low budget film. The things I like about the low budget independents made in Hollywood's heyday is that they stray a bit off the beaten path with sets, actors and script.

Storywise this film tells the usual story of a bad girl (Margo) with a heart of gold ( she's a stripper) who finds a child and wants to bring it up as her own. But in the meantime she has to ditch the bad man ( Lyle Talbot - yet again a fine bad man) and hook up with the good man ( Walter Abel). Will she succeed ?? She gets help from a drunken doctor ( William Collier Sr in a good humorous performance), a cranky landlady (Jane Darwell) and assorted B girls.

Where the film takes interest is in the small detail - a stripper with a heart of gold, a "single" mother, a wife leaving a husband in a matter of fact way and Afro-American and caucasian audience members at a strip club sitting side by side watching and cheering at the display.

Where the film wins out is with director Steven Sekely's tight direction and obvious sincerity. The scenes with Margo and child standing before the blessed Virgin in church are effective.

A pleasant way to spend an hour and a bit.

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