A handful of miracles

Dave "The Whip" ( Glenn Ford ) is a successful New York gangster, so superstitious that before any important business he buys an apple from the old Apple "Annie" street vendor ( Bette Davis ). Nevertheless, he is not alien to sentimentality and helps the daughter of the nightclub owner ( Hope Lang ), murdered by the mafia, allowing her to become the star of this club “Princess” Martin and pay all debts, and then making her his girlfriend. However, the “Princess” hopes that Dave will marry her and leave to live with her in her native Maryland .

Before one very important transaction, Dave cannot find Apple Annie and, going to her house, discovers her at home in a panic. It turns out that the leading merchant, who is almost miserable, has a daughter, who was brought up in a Spanish monastery from childhood. All these years, “Apple Annie” has written letters to her, posing as Mrs. I. Worthington Menville, a wealthy socialite who lives in the Marberry Hotel. The hotel employee Oscar secretly handed her hotel stamp paper for these letters, sent them and took the letters to his daughter. Now Oscar has been fired for misconduct, but Apple Annie miraculously succeeds at the last moment to get her a letter that they were about to send back as unclaimed. It turns out that her daughter Louise ( Ann-Margret ) is married to the Spanish aristocrat Carlos Romero and, together with his father, Count Alfonso, is going to visit New York and meet with his mother.

Dave buys another apple and, driven by a sense of compassion, decides to help Apple Annie. The merchant is dressed up, put in order, turned into a socialite and, with the consent of the butler Hudgins ( Edward Everett Horton ), is accommodated in the Marberry Hotel in the room of Dave's friend, who left the city. As the husband and stepfather for Louise “Apple Annie” they find the old player in the pool “Judge” Henry Blake ( Thomas Mitchell ). Meanwhile, at the urgent request of the “Princess”, getting more and more involved in this matter, Dave postpones his important meeting, despite the indignation of his assistant Joy Boy ( Peter Falk ), who has long been dissatisfied with the sentimentality of the boss, but helps him and trying to save Dave’s affairs , dissuades him from stupid things. As a result, Joy Boy and driver Dave Junior invariably faithfully follow the boss.

“Apple Annie”, along with a fake husband and Dave, who pretends to be brother “Annie”, safely meets her daughter with her fiance and her father-in-law. The visit goes well, only Dave’s people were forced to kidnap three journalists who were interested in the arrival of Count Romero. On the last day, Count Romero expresses a desire to arrange a farewell party in honor of the bride and groom. Dave is forced to hastily make fake friends for Mrs. E. Worthington Manville from among his gang members and Princess Nightclub workers Martin, hastily teaching them good manners. However, when the “guests” must go to the reception, it turns out that they cannot leave the house, which is cordoned off by the police investigating the case of the missing journalists. Outraged Dave goes to the police commissar. He, not knowing what to do, calls the mayor of the city and sends Dave to him.

Meanwhile, waiting in vain for the guests, “Apple Annie” is ready to tell her daughter the whole truth. When she is going to do this, the mayor of New York and the state governor appear at the reception, who, having arrived at their reception with all the guests, decided to play along with Dave. That same evening, Louise and her fiance board a ship leaving for Europe, and without realizing the true nature of things, the authorities close the abduction case, and Dave decides to leave with the Princess in Maryland.

Frank Kapra , who shot his first successful film “ Lady for a Day ” in 1933, wanted to put on a color remake of it for many years, but the film company Columbia Pictures , which owned the rights to the plot, considered the plot obsolete ^[1] . In 1960, Frank Capra managed to buy the plot and attach it to United Artists , provided that the new film will take place in the 1930s, and not in modern times, as suggested by the script of Capra ^[2] . The new script was written by Hal Kanter and Harry Tugend.

For the role of Dave, Capra invited Frank Sinatra , but he was dissatisfied with the script and refused, as did Kirk Douglas , Dean Martin and Jackie Gleason after him. In this situation, Glenn Ford offered to help with the financing of the film in case he gets the main role. And although Kapra did not consider Ford a suitable candidate, he was forced to agree, and according to the terms of the deal, each of them should have received 37.5% of the profit from the film ^[1] .

Ford also brought in the film Hope Lang, whom he met at that time. As a result, for the role of Dave Ford received the Golden Globe . The role of "Apple Annie" was alternately offered by Shirley Booth (which was originally intended), Helen Hayes , Katherine Hepburn and Gene Arthur , but they all refused. As a result, Bett Davis agreed to play, very much in need of money and for several years without roles in Hollywood. In the following years, Davis was invited to several Robert Aldrich films, which turned out to be very successful and regained her popularity.

Although the film received several nominations for Oscars and Golden Globes (of which one was successful), Peter Falk for the role of Joy Boy was first nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor . Nevertheless, the film failed at the box office, failing to recoup itself.

Critics also took the tape unfriendly, recognizing it worse than the original version. As a result, Frank Kapra, who himself acted as the producer of the film, left the movie, but continued to consider the remake better than his old version. As for Frank Capra, this film was the last for actor Thomas Mitchell , who died that same year. At the same time, Ann-Margrethe played her first film role in it.

• 1962 - three Oscar nominations : for Best Supporting Actor (Peter Falk), Best Costume Design ( Edith Head and Walter Plunkett ), Best Movie Song (Pocketful of Miracles, music by Jimmy van Heusen , words by Sammy Kahn ).
• 1962 - two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor - comedy or musical (Glenn Ford) and for the most promising debut (Ann-Margaret), as well as two nominations: for the best film - comedy or musical and for best female role - comedy or musical (Bette Davis).
• 1962 - Nomination for the Directors Guild of America Award for Best Director of a Feature Film (Frank Capra).

• Higham, Charles. The Life of Bette Davis. - New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1981. - ISBN 0-02-551500-4 .
• McBride, Joseph. Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success. - New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992 .-- ISBN 0-671-73494-6 .
• Stine, Whitney. Mother Goddam: The Story of the Career of Bette Davis. - New York: Hawthorn Books, 1974. - ISBN 0-8015-5184-6 .